They enter the gates surrounding McComb’s C.C. Moore Stadium, joking and teasing each other with youthful exuberance.
They share laughs and stories about recent dates, parties and times with friends and family.
Once the time comes to step onto the school’s track in preparation for another meet, however, the play time ends.
“The silliness you see,” McComb track and field head coach Mark Lang said, “when they get on the track, it’s all business.”
Maybe it’s the memories of successful seasons recently past. After all, McComb is the three-time defending South State track and field champion.
Maybe it’s that one of them — senior Torun Robinson - has already signed a track scholarship with Mississippi State University.
“We’ve gotten more focused this year,” Lang said. “We can see the light at the end of the tunnel with (Robinson) signing with an SEC school.”
Whatever the reason, the McComb boys’ 4x100- and 4x200-meter relay team — consisting of seniors Robinson and Deontay Jones and juniors Demarcus Jenkins and LaMarvin Ashley — is turning heads this year.
The team shone at last year’s South State meet, where they turned in a winning time of 1 minute, 27.3 seconds in the 4x200 relay race.
From there, they went on to win the Class 4A state championship with a time of 1:27.31, beating runner-up Vicksburg by nearly a half-second.
That success continued last summer in North Carolina when the team competed at the Nike Outdoor Nationals. The quartet set its best mark to date in the 4x100 race with a time of 41.17 seconds, good for second place.
To put that into perspective, that time equals the best effort turned in to date this season by DeSoto, Texas, the nation’s top-ranked boys’ team in the event.
At the Governor’s Games in New Orleans last summer, they turned in a winning time of :41.8.
“The first time we stepped on to the track, the crowd went, ‘ooh,’ ” Robinson said.
“We won by at least 20 meters,” Ashley said.
Along with being a successful team, the four are each stellar individual track and field athletes.
Jenkins is currently ranked number one in the state and third in the nation in both the long jump and 200-meter run.
Ashley is the state’s top-ranked competitor in the boys’ 100-meter run and second behind Jenkins in the state in the 200-meter run.
“Hopefully I can bring it home this year,” Ashley said.
Robinson is number one in the state in the boys’ 400-meter run.
Jones wants to re-stake his claim as one of the state’s best in the 400. After running since eighth grade, he was forced to take off last season after suffering physical problems.
“My kidneys were working at 40 percent,” he said. “I just depend on my team. I do what I can and they do it all.”
Jones added that he hopes to be in good enough physical shape to compete in the 400 at the district meet April 19 at Southwest Mississippi Community College.
“My confidence is low right now,” he said. “I don’t want to run out of breath. I’m scared of getting tired.”
This team, however, is about more than winning relays. Once the race ends, it’s back to enjoying each others’ company — even if it’s on the track.
“We’re a family. We like to run,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins, a running back/wide receiver for the McComb football team, said he prefers to running track than the gridiron.
“Track’s better,” he said, “because when you lose an individual event, you don’t have someone telling you what you did wrong. You’re more accountable to yourself.”
Lang knows he has something special in this relay team.
“They can run with anybody I’ve ever coached,” said Lang, entering his 29th season with the Tigers’ track and field team, 14th as head coach.
That extensive list, Lang said, includes former McComb standout Markie Faust. He won three consecutive state titles in both the 100- and 200-meter dash before joining the Hinds Community College track and field team in 2007.
This year presents a major challenge for the Tigers after the school’s reclassification to Class 5A for the 2009-10 academic year.
“We see that as a challenge to make each other better,” Ashley said. “Everything we do, we do it for the team.”
Lang agreed.
He said he believes his relay team’s success won’t end anytime soon. In fact, he added, they have a shot of making history at the state meet May 14 in Pearl.
“We’re going to represent extremely well at state this year,” Lang said. “I can see some of these guys walking out of there with four gold medals. That’s the maximum you can win.”
