Star in the making

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Perched on a shaded bench no more than 50 meters from the oval track at Hayes K-8 School, Myra Hawkins was asked to forecast the athletic future of her prized pupil, Woodlawn sprinter Jayla Kirkland. 

Seated to Hawkins’ right on a mid-August afternoon, the high school senior had already accomplished more in five years of track and field than all but a handful of her peers. 

The Team USA T-shirt clinging to Kirkland’s frame bore evidence to the fact. 

But going forward, Hawkins contemplated, what could Kirkland achieve?

“I don’t think there’s a limit,” she said. 

A former Alabama State University standout in the sprints and jumps, Hawkins reinforced her answer with a list of titles she believes are within Kirkland’s future reach: Pan-American, NCAA, world, Olympic. Each designation was followed by the word “champion.”

But the soft-spoken Kirkland confidently added one more honor to the list. “In the future, be the fastest woman in the world,” Kirkland said. 

She might just do it. 

A 13-time AHSAA state champion, four-time national champion and two-time Team USA representative, Kirkland has bloomed into one of the nation’s top up-and-coming sprint talents in her three years at Woodlawn High School. 

The 17-year-old said she doesn’t plan on slowing down.

Equipped with a deep-rooted conviction, fighter’s mentality and unblinking vision, Kirkland is a star in the making.

Precocious talent 

When Hawkins first met Kirkland in 2013, Hawkins was the head track and field coach at Woodlawn, and Kirkland was a shy eighth-grader at Hayes. 

Hawkins invited her to run with the high school team at the conclusion of her middle school season. That spring, Kirkland went on to capture a pair of third- and fourth-place finishes in the 100- and 200-meter dashes at the Class 6A state outdoor track meet — Alabama’s highest classification at the time. 

Dating to her elementary years, Kirkland had always pushed herself to compete regardless of the opponent. That’s why, as a 10-year-old, she welcomed head-to-head footrace challenges from her older brother, Jacquez, and his friends. 

“They’d always want to race me for like a dollar or something,” Kirkland said. “They would always knock on my door and say, ‘Where’s Jayla?’ Like they wanted to race me.”

More often than not, the speedy Kirkland bested boys who were two, three and four years her superior. As the victories piled up, so did her trips to the neighborhood market, where Kirkland said she used the winner’s payout to purchase snacks. The races did more, however, than satiate her hunger. From an early age, they helped Kirkland recognize her talent and realize her potential. Her self-awareness only grew once she began to participate in formal track meets as a seventh-grader, when she never finished lower than fourth place all year. 

Kirkland’s breakout eighth-grade campaign only engendered further affirmation, as it provided her with confidence and conviction both on and off the track.

That now-ingrained sense of self-belief, Kirkland said, has enabled her to stay keyed in on her athletic and academic progression. “I stay focused because I knew I was different from others,” Kirkland said. “I knew that I had a really bright future ahead of me.”

Three all-time state records, one Gatorade Alabama Track and Field Athlete of the Year accolade and a 3.7 grade point average signify her dedication to fulfilling that vision. 

Fighter’s mentality

No longer at Woodlawn, Hawkins now teaches at Avondale Elementary and serves as Kirkland’s personal coach.

She said one thing that sets Kirkland apart is her determination — her sheer doggedness to push herself to the pinnacle of her craft. 

Twice this past summer, Kirkland’s fighter-like mentality stormed to the surface. 

The first instance occurred in mid-June at New Balance Nationals Outdoor, the de facto national championship of high school track and field. Facing seven of the nation’s top sprinters in the championship 200-meter final, Kirkland anchored down and held off a rally from her closest opponent. 

“That was that fighter in her,” Hawkins said. “She wasn’t going to let her pass her, so she actually picked up her speed.”

Kirkland crossed the finish line in a personal-best 23.15 seconds to repeat as national champion and earn an automatic qualifying spot for the Olympic trials. 

“I wouldn’t say I was shocked, because I knew I could do it,” Kirkland said with confidence. “The starter said, ‘Set, go,’ and I pushed, and then I only saw my lane. I didn’t see anybody else beside me.”

Although Kirkland qualified for the Olympic trials, she instead opted to compete at the U.S. junior national championships, where she claimed a spot on Team USA for the IAAF (track’s governing body) World U20 Championships in Poland. 

Hawkins said timing and finances played a role in the decision to bypass the trials, as the junior national meet in Clovis, California, concluded right before the trials began in Eugene, Oregon. 

On the world stage, Kirkland’s fighter-like mentality surfaced again.  

Although she had been nursing a hamstring/IT band injury before the late July meet, Kirkland decided to try and run her primary event, the 200. 

Fifty meters from the start line, however, she said she felt her hamstring on the verge of collapse, waiting to pull at any second.

Kirkland refused to veer off the track, instead choosing to jog the final 150 meters. 

Her finish time of 53.07 seconds stood as a testament to her grit rather than a flaw on her resume.

“I just wanted to cross the finish line,” Kirkland said. 

Olympic dreams

Kirkland’s personal finish line, however,  is nowhere in sight.

Without pausing to think, she can click off an extensive list of her short- and long-term goals. This season, which for Kirkland begins with indoor track in December and will end with outdoor track in July or August, she wants to defend all of her state and national titles. 

Within Alabama, she’ll be nearly unbeatable. Within the United States, she should be in contention for every major prep championship. 

She also said she wants to try out for the U.S. squad that will compete this summer at Pan-Am Juniors, an international competition for countries in North, Central and South America, along with the Caribbean. 

That’s the first major title Hawkins believes her athlete can win. After that, it’s anybody’s guess.

Kirkland recently signed to run track and field at Florida State University, and she eventually wants to turn pro. Already, Hawkins said, “she’s close” to professional caliber.

Then, there are Kirkland’s Olympic dreams. 

Like a diner at her favorite restaurant, she already has identified the Olympic years in which she hopes to compete — pre-picked and ready to order. 

There’s the 2020 appetizer, 2024 entrée and 2028 dessert. Then maybe, just maybe, she’ll give it one last go-round with a 2032 post-dessert cocktail. 

Mojemilat Payne, Woodlawn’s current head track and field coach, said Kirkland possesses the necessary qualities to reach those lofty goals. 

“I have no doubt that she’s going to be an amazing star for the U.S.,” Payne said, herself a former mid-distance standout at Alabama A&M University. “I’m looking forward to seeing her one day in the Olympics, because she has the quality; she has the work ethic.”

Deeper agenda

Kirkland was born in Birmingham and has always lived in or near the Woodlawn community. Having attended Whatley Elementary School before Hayes and Woodlawn, she is a product of the Birmingham City Schools system.  

It’s an experience that Kirkland admits hasn’t been the easiest, but it’s one that has shaped her into the person she is today.  

At every track she steps on, near or far, she carries the stamp of her city and her community. 

But Kirkland also carries a message. 

The athletic ambassador said she wants to help shed the stigma that “great things don’t come out of Birmingham City Schools,” because as Kirkland can attest, they most certainly do. 

“It’s just how you go and how you perform — perform in the classroom, on the track, on the court, on the football field, anything,” Kirkland said. “It’s just what you make it. I just want people to know that good things do come out of Birmingham; good people do come out of Birmingham.” 

*This story was updated at 1:45 p.m. on Dec. 1 to reflect Kirkland's recent commitment to run track and field at Florida State University. The print edition went to press before the official signing.