by Jake Terry
LSU Sports Information
The gun fired at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships and eight finalists in the men’s 60-meter hurdles took off running and leaping ? one hurdle, two hurdles, three hurdles until finally the finish line was crossed.
The race was over. LSU’s Alleyne Lett took a moment to catch his breath and realized that he had done something that he had longed to do since first setting foot on campus.
He had broken a school record and cemented his name in the LSU record books with the fastest time ever by a Tiger in the event.
That’s not all. Not only did Lett set a new school record, but he did it twice. He finished his preliminary race in a blazing 7.70 seconds while recording his second straight time of 7.70 in the event finals, shattering the previous school record of 7.77 set by former LSU standout Bert Rareshide in 1996.
Lett broke the school record and just missed out on winning a national title by finishing second overall in the event. But for Lett, his mission was accomplished and the No. 1 goal on his list was achieved.
“That was my main goal,” Lett said. “I said, ?I don’t care if I come last. I just want to get a school record to get my name in the books.’ It just happened that I ended up running the same time twice, and it does feel really good.”
There was a time not too long ago when things did not go so well for Lett.
Trying times and many frustrations marked the 2006 season. A hamstring injury suffered late in 2005 worsened as the 2006 season loomed, and Lett’s participation was limited to just two meets during the indoor season. The injury, which forced him to redshirt during the outdoor season, was hard on Lett not just physically, but emotionally as well.
“It was very stressful ? one of the hardest thing ever for me,” Lett said. “I was on the sidelines and I couldn’t do anything. There were just so many things I wanted to do for my team, and I just couldn’t do anything.”
But the 6-foot-4 hurdler knew exactly what he had to do to help himself and his team.
“I just had to stay focused because I was battling through it,” Lett said. “My wife said, ?Just take your time. Do one step at a time and try to get back up again.’ That’s exactly what I did.”
Lett was able to persevere through the injury both physically and mentally and his wife, Melinda, was with him every step of the way. But his story does not start at LSU. Lett’s story begins back in his home country of Grenada.
Early years in Grenada
Growing up in the Caribbean city of St. David’s, Grenada, Lett lived with his parents, Jermone and Meredith; his two sisters, Patrina and Anisha; and his brother, Anderson.
He was interested in sports from an early age, but the sport that attracted his attention the most was basketball. But at the age of 12, the track coach at Lett’s school noticed he had long arms suitable for throwing the discus.
“The first event I ever really learned was discus,” Lett said. “This guy saw me and said, ?You have long arms. Try to throw some discus.’ That’s what really started it for me.”
It wasn’t easy for Lett to be on the track and field team because support was not always felt at home, and the family’s situation was difficult at times to support the youngster.
“It was really tough because my dad did not really want me to do track and field,” Lett said. “He felt it was a waste of time, and my parents didn’t really have a lot of money to get me (track shoes). It was pretty hard, but a lot of people believed in me.”
Lett fought through the adversity and thrived from the support that he was given, and he began to excel in the sport and broaden his interest in it. One year, his coach asked him to try out the heptathlon. Lett agreed and worked diligently to learn the multiple events performed in the heptathlon.
In 2002, Lett participated in the Carifta Games ? an annual track and field competition for teenagers among all Caribbean countries. His hard work and willingness to learn paid off because Lett won the heptathlon competition.
After competing in the Carifta Games, Lett discovered how much he enjoyed the hurdle event which was part of the heptathlon. He enjoyed it so much so that he decided to focus his concentration on the hurdles in addition to his first ever event ? the discus.
Lett signed to run track and field at Central Arizona Junior College later in 2002 ? a tribute to his dedication and hard work at the sport he had grown to love.
From the tropics to the desert
When Lett arrived at Central Arizona, he not only moved away from his family and friends, but he also moved away from a beautiful, tropical climate surrounded by water with mountains close to home to a dry, arid desert with all the flat land that anyone would care to see.
The adjustment was difficult at first.
“At first I said, ?What did they send me here for?’ But it was a really good program, and I enjoyed every moment over there,” Lett said.
Lett earned numerous honors at Central Arizona, including NJCAA Region I titles in both the discus and hurdles in his freshman and sophomore seasons in 2003 and 2004. He was also named the Most Outstanding Athlete at the 2003 Region I Championships.
Lett’s time at Central Arizona was significant to him not only because of the accomplishments and accolades that he achieved, but also because that is where he met his wife, who was a hammer thrower on the women’s track and field team.
Lett grew as a person and as an athlete during his two years at the junior college level. His eyes were opened to a much larger world while moving from a small country with a population of roughly 90,000 people to a country with a little more than 300 million.
But when Lett moved to the United States, he attended a junior college with an enrollment of a little less than 9,000 students.
Nothing prepared him for a campus of more than 30,000 students and an atmosphere like Baton Rouge when he chose to continue his education and track and field career by signing with LSU in 2004.
From the desert to Cajun country
Following his career at Central Arizona, Lett was highly recruited because of his many accomplishments during his time at the junior college.
LSU head coach Dennis Shaver noticed Lett’s talent and offered him the chance to continue his career at LSU. Lett was searching for reasons to choose one school over another during the recruiting process, and when he visited LSU, football reeled him in.
“I had never been to big a school like this before,” Lett said. “I remember coming here for my first football game against Auburn, and I said, ?This is it.”
LSU football was not all that attracted Lett to Baton Rouge. The chance to be around his fellow countrymen was a major boost in his decision to become a Tiger.
“I have a lot of Caribbean friends here, people I knew before like Hazelann (Regis) and Neisha (Bernard-Thomas),” Lett said. “I just wanted to be among people who I could relate to instead of going somewhere else where I don’t really have many people to relate to and hang out with.”
Before his junior season in 2005, Shaver asked Lett to compete in the decathlon for the Tigers ? something he had never done before. Lett took up his new task with tenacity and hard work and it paid off.
By the end of the season, Lett was an All-American decathlete as he finished seventh at the NCAA Championships and broke the collegiate record in the decathlon discus with a toss of 174 feet, 10 inches.
Lett enjoyed a standout season by anyone’s account, but the wear and tear of the training for the decathlon began to take its toll on the Grenadian.
After his redshirt year in 2006, Lett petitioned Shaver for a move from the decathlon to his preferred event ? the hurdles. It was a move that Shaver believed was the best option for his senior-to-be.
“It made sense to me as the head coach in that here’s a young man who literally is a senior, wants to try to contribute for the team, doesn’t feel like he can contribute and stay healthy doing the decathlon, but he thinks he can help us hurdling,” Shaver said. “It was just an opportunity that I felt we should definitely give him.”
Lett made the switch from the multi-events to the hurdles prior to the beginning of the 2007 indoor season, and he struggled early on while making the adjustment.
“New York (New Balance Collegiate Invitational) was my first race, and I didn’t do any practice at all,” Lett said. “The warm-ups were different. We have scheduled warm-ups that we have to do, and I was just trying to get in to that and get adjusted to sprinting and everything again.”
Lett drew on his experience as a decathlete to help get him through the struggles he faced while switching to hurdles right before his senior season. He also looked to the hard work his teammates had demonstrated to reach their level of competition.
“Just doing the decathlon has helped me be stronger mentally with being able to compete,” Lett said. “Sometimes I might not feel 100 percent, and I think just being a decathlete has made me tougher. Being around other athletes at such a high level, it helps me stay more focused and work harder to try to get at least up there with them.”
Despite not finishing well in his early events, Lett’s hard work has paid off as he stamped his name in the LSU record books while earning indoor All-America honors just three weeks ago.
“At nationals I said, ?Just stay focused.’ That’s what I did and it came out well for me in the end,” Lett said.
The end of a college career
Lett has now entered his final outdoor season ? the last time he will compete as a LSU Tiger ? and his amazing end to the indoor season has fueled his desire to compete and succeed in the final chapter of his college career.
“I’m just trying to work hard right now getting stronger and in better condition because I am stronger outdoors than indoors,” Lett said. “So it was just a confidence boost for me when I got that time indoors.”
That time gave Lett the school record in the 60-meter hurdles, which is only run indoors, and he is now shooting for the top time in the 110-meter hurdles outdoors..
“I have three goals ? to win nationals, qualify for the world championships that will be held in Osaka (Japan), and have another school record (in 110-meter hurdles).”
Lett also has a fourth goal ? one that far surpasses the other three.
“I would like to get my mom and dad to see me compete some day because I don’t think my mom has ever seen me compete,” Lett said.
Lett has worked hard for what he has earned, and he knows exactly what goals he wants to achieve not only in his senior outdoor season, but also after his collegiate career is finished this summer.
And through it all, from his early time in track and field in Grenada to his junior college days in Arizona to his senior season at LSU, Alleyne Lett has had one motivation in mind to help him run a little faster and a litter harder each time ? the people in his homeland of Grenada.
“I try to make them proud of me each time I run,” Lett said. “I just want to make them feel really good about what I do.”