Jarrett Young is littered all over the University of Rhode Island’s track and field record book, as the fourth-year native of Haverhill, Massachusetts is a seven-time individual champion and nine-time Atlantic 10 Conference champion.
Through three and a half years, Young has solidified himself as one of the greatest track and field athletes in the history of Rhode Island, which has been one of the most dominant programs in the Northeast. Young owns multiple school records, broke an A-10 record that sat for 26 years, won the A-10’s 2024 Most Outstanding Track Performer and over the course of Rhode Island’s dynasty, nobody has scored as much as Young.
Young had no plans of running track in college and had never played the sport until his junior year of high school, but Young is a natural athlete, playing both football and lacrosse at St. John’s Prep.
“I always was a fast kid; that’s where I had success in football and lacrosse with my feet,” Young said. “I started running track, and I started running school records, so I was like, ‘you know what, I’m going to pursue this.’”
Despite the late start, Young was immediately one of the best runners in Massachusetts, holding top times in the 200 and 400-meters. Due to Covid-19, his recruiting process was unconventional, but Young still got the attention of schools all over the country.
“Covid had made it really hard; I couldn’t travel, go on visits, I couldn’t do any of that,” Young said. “I did talk to a few bigger schools, [Pennsylvania State University] and [University of California, Los Angeles], but since I started late, I wasn’t in the place to go to one of those schools… I wanted to stay in the Northeast and develop myself.”
Young wanted to surround himself with Rhode Island’s winning culture and was impressed by its history of great sprinters, something difficult to find in the Northeast. Young’s decision to develop himself at Rhode Island turned out to be a great one, as he was paired with head coach Trent Baltzell and sprints coach Brian Doyle.
“Doyle is a very modern coach, and that aligns more with my views on sprinting and training,” Young said. “Me and coach Doyle see eye-to-eye on a lot of things and were able to work together and kind of come to an agreement on a lot. So, I think that’s a big part of why I’ve had so much success.”
Doyle was instrumental in developing Young from a natural athlete into an elite sprinter.
“The best runners, you watch the kid, and you say, ‘hey it doesn’t even look like he’s trying,’ and I think that’s where Jarrett has been the most coachable,” Doyle said. “The modern style is less is more, thinking more about the technical side of things… as a sprinter, you should be leaving practice most days still feeling pretty good… that’s the difference; if you get guys feeling good, that momentum carries over.”
Not only is Young coachable, but he carries himself with a confidence and toughness that is infectious.
“He would rather have the race be in a blizzard because he believes, and he probably is, the toughest guy on the track,” Doyle said. “When a kid has that attitude, there’s really no ceiling.”
Young is a team player as well, willing to do whatever it takes to lift trophies with his teammates.
“He was on the [4×100-meter relay] this past year when we set the New England record… he ran that race anticipating still being a national qualifier in the 400 as an individual,” Doyle said. “We said, ‘we think we could have our best team if you run the relay, even though that takes away from your running as an individual,’ and that’s someone who I want on my team every day.”
Entering his last collegiate season, there is one thing on Young’s mind: become an All-American.
“My entire career has been towards achieving this one goal; everything I’ve done from working on the 100-[meter], to working on the 200, to working on getting over the mental block in the 400,” Young said. “All those little events and all those little pieces I’ve put together have been towards achieving that one goal of putting it all together in one 400-meter race outdoors of my senior year to get to nationals and get All-American.”
It’s a lofty goal for Young; Rhode Island has had 16 outdoor All-Americans since 1906 and only one since 1991. However, if there was one Ram with the toughness and confidence necessary to be an All-American, it would be Young.
