By Jeff Eisenberg
Daily Bruin Contributor
jeisenberg@media.ucla.edu
Darnesha Griffith has never worn press-on fingernails. Every pair of pants in her closet still has both legs intact, and the thought of becoming a sprinter makes her cringe. So why do her coaches repeatedly comment on the similarities between the UCLA senior and her aunt, the late Florence Griffith-Joyner?
Probably because it is not Darnesha’s appearance that resembles Flo-Jo so much as her mindset as she prepares for a meet.
“I just like to sit back, take everything in, and show off a little,” said Griffith, who is competing in all three jumping events this season for the first time since high school. “I couldn’t see myself with the one-leggers or the fingernails.”
At just 5-foot-5, Griffith is one of the shorter high jumpers in the nation and has less margin for error than her taller competitors.
UCLA Sports Info Florence Griffith-Joyner runs with the flag.
“I enjoy being small, but it takes a lot for me to jump over 6-feet,” said Griffith. “It makes me feel good when I see somebody who is 6 feet tall miss the bar. It makes me want to show off a little bit out there.”
Women’s track and field head coach Jeannette Bolden is always happy when she sees that trademark swagger from Griffith, because it tends to be a good omen for the senior just as it was for her aunt during her career.
“I can always tell just by looking at her if she’s on or not,” the eighth-year head coach said. “She’ll talk a lot more, and have a nice little strut in her walk. She’ll shake her head and say, ‘I am jumping high today.’”
Early in her career at UCLA, Griffith did not always have her characteristic confidence, particularly in big meets.
“The first time she went to indoor nationals (in 1999), I remember her sitting in the stands complaining that her head was hurting,” said Bolden. “It was just nerves, but she didn’t make the finals. Her second year, she tied for fourth, but she left feeling she could have won it.”
Those boasts proved prophetic this year at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas, as Griffith won the high jump competition with a mark of 6-0 ¾, tying her personal best and leading UCLA to a second-place finish in the team competition.
“I went into the meet saying I am not coming home without winning,” said Griffith. “When I missed the first jump at the 6-0 ¾, I knew I had to make the next one because I told everyone that I would.”
Perhaps the most amazing aspect of Griffith’s victory was that she almost skipped the indoor season altogether. Eager to graduate this year, she told coaches that she wanted to take some extra classes and get ready for the outdoor season.
Bolden and her staff considered the senior’s request, and proposed a limited indoor schedule for Griffith, by which she ultimately excelled.
“To do something like that, you aren’t going to be able to run and jump your way into shape,” Bolden said. “You have to believe in your coaching and your practices because you are not competing enough to get better in competitions.”
Griffith has every reason to put faith in her coaching because her primary jumping instructor is her uncle, Al Joyner. A gold medallist in the triple jump in 1984, Joyner has coached her sporadically since high school and is in his second season as the jumping coach at UCLA.
“Maybe he is a little bit (tougher with me) when he talks to me outside of practice, but I think it makes me perform better,” said Griffith of her uncle. “I know that when he says I can jump 6-2, he really believes in me.”
If Griffith can pull off a mark like that in the high jump at the NCAA Championships next month, it could be the boost the team needs to finally win an outdoor national title. UCLA has finished in the top three at the event each of the past four years, but has been unable to get over the hump.
“This is the most well-rounded team we’ve had since I have been here,” said Griffith. “Before all of our points were with the throwers and maybe one sprinter. Now we have a number of people that are really good.”
Her own harshest critic, Griffith blames herself to some extent for the team coming up just short the past couple of seasons.
“The past few years I know we have lost by just a few points, and I haven’t scored,” said Griffith. “This year my goal is to score at outdoors. I don’t care if it’s just one point because that still helps the team.”
An outdoor title in 2002 would be the squad’s first since 1983, when Flo-Jo herself was a senior at UCLA.
Of course any memories Griffith has from that season or most of her aunt’s career are from videotape; however, she does recall watching Flo-Jo compete in person more than a decade ago.
“The most vivid memory I have is when she came to UCLA and raced Bill Cosby on our track,” Griffith said. “She dressed me and my other cousins in our one leggers, and we sat up on the wall by the track watching her beat him.”
Joyner died tragically of a heart attack at the age of 38 on September 21, 1998, a day that changed Griffith’s life immeasurably. Although it was devastating to lose someone with whom she was so close, Griffith has nonetheless put it behind her. She is on track to receive her diploma in June, and plans to start training with her uncle for the 2004 Summer Olympics after graduation.
“(Flo-Jo) always told me as long as I give it 100 percent, my best should be enough,” Griffith said. “Even though she led a short life, she touched so many people. I’m just grateful that she was here for how long she was here, and she was here to help me. I have to thank God for that and not be mad because she’s gone.”