Cabral Focused On Future, Not Football

An edict from his father will force Agoura High junior Jonathan Cabral to change any 'Friday Night Lights' plans he had for the fall. Instead of wearing pads on the field, he will be eating popcorn in the stands.

Cabral's football playing days have come to an end.

"It's a little bit disappointing,'' said Cabral, who was a starting cornerback for the Chargers last fall. "It would have been my last year playing football and I think I would have been able to play running back.''

One can envision the rangy Cabral popping through a hole, dodging a would-be tackler and then leaping over a defender intent on taking his legs out from under him. And that's precisely why John Cabral has stamped a veto on his son's fall football aspirations.

The younger Cabral is one of the nation's finest high school track and field athletes. His specialty is the hurdles and he is the best underclassmen in the nation in the 110-meter high hurdles and the 300-meter intermediate hurdles. His blistering 13.58-second clocking in the 110 high hurdles last Saturday in the CIF-Southern Section Divisional Finals at Cerritos College is the second-fastest time in the nation. Later in the meet, Cabral claimed the 300-meter intermediate hurdles title as well, crossing the finish line in 37.59 seconds. His season and personal best is the sizzling 36.83 that he ran in April at the Arcadia Invitational.

John Cabral supervises his son's workouts. The Agoura junior practices five days a week for about 90 minutes, and years of training have turned Cabral into a master technician. He does not possess blazing straightaway speed - Cabral still has not broken 11 seconds in the 100-meter dash. But his legs flash flawlessly over the hurdles in the shorter race and he rarely chops his steps in the longer event.

All this means is that those legs of his are valuable commodities that the elder Cabral wants protected. A quick pitch to the outside? An inside handoff? Even a swing pass in the flat are red flags in John Cabral's eyes. Football? No, way.

"I'm not going to allow him to play football,'' John Cabral said. "I don't want to take a chance. Look at what happened to D.J.''

The elder Cabral's reference is to Woodland Hills' senior football and track standout D.J. Morgan, who is headed to USC in the fall to play football. Morgan won the 110-meter high hurdles last summer at the World Junior Track and Field Championships in Moscow. He has run 13.7 in the event. And in races dating back to AAU age-group competition, Cabral never has beaten his rival.

Cabral was hoping that chance would come this spring but Morgan suffered a knee injury during the football season that wiped out his track season, as well.

"I was really disappointed,'' Cabral said. "I was looking forward to racing him. One of my other friends, Thomas Gardner from Royal, also got hurt playing football. He would have gone to state, too.''

With the opportunity to race Morgan lost, Cabral has focused on making amends for the disappointment he felt last year at the state meet, when he was disqualified in a prelim heat after hooking a hurdle in the 110s that sent him crashing to the track.

Cabral's winning time in last Saturday's meet was a significant confidence boost.

"It was really good, technique-wise,'' he said, minutes after the race. "I didn't hit any hurdles. It was my cleanest race for the longest time that I can remember.''

The state records that are in Cabral's viewfinder are the 13.39 clocking run by Richmond High's Kevin Craddock in the 110 hurdles in 2004, and the eye-popping 35.02 that La Sierra's Reggie Wyatt ran last year in the Southern Section divisional finals.

"I think he'll go low 36 (in the 300s) and he might even get into the high 35s,'' the elder Cabral said. "I would love to see a 13.4 before the end of the season.''

Jonathan Cabral's introduction to the hurdles was predestined. The elder Cabral said he ran track in high school and noticed that several rivals that weren't as fast as he was ended up running the hurdles in college. The elder Cabral said he believes his son's overall foot speed will improve, as he continues to gain strength. The younger Cabral is 6-foot-3 but the dad believes that he might grow another inch.

"He grew two inches between his sophomore and junior year and two inches the year before that,'' John Cabral said. "I grew late in high school myself. He's always preferred the 110s but with his height and speed, I knew he could be tough in the 300s.''

Jonathan Cabral wants to stand atop that victory podium twice on June 5, when the state track and field finals are held in Clovis. If the records don't fall, there always is next year.

"He has a lot of possibilities,'' John Cabral said. "It's really exciting from a coach's view and a parent's, too.''

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