It all started when Terrell Wilks and his classmates went on a field trip.
The destination was the FBI building in New Haven, Conn.
“We were walking around the building, just looking,” Wilks said. “I was young, but there was something about the FBI that just stuck with me.”
Fast forward to another one of Wilks’ field trips.
This time, he was with Florida track and field coach Mike Holloway and his teammates, who were celebrating their first NCAA Indoor Championship last summer.
On this occasion, Wilks was visiting President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, D.C.
During the trip, Wilks reconnected with Mike Coleman, a former rival runner from Ole Miss working with the Secret Service.
“I just paid a lot of attention to what was going on in D.C. with the Secret Service,” Wilks said. “I had dreams of being in the FBI anyway, so seeing the Secret Service and how they operate … it’s become my new interest after track and field is over for me.”
After exchanging information with Coleman, Wilks seems well on his way to finding some good connections in the industry.
“I think it excites him because it’ll be a big challenge for him,” said Bridget Draughn, his mother. “For me, if that’s what he wants to do, then I’m OK with it.
“It doesn’t matter to me what he does. As long as he’s staying positive, that’s all I could ever ask for.”
While Wilks is excited about a potential career as a federal agent, he has other plans first.
With the second-best 60-meter dash time (6.59 seconds) and the seventh-best 100-meter dash mark (10.15 seconds) in school history, Wilks is hoping to turn his collegiate success into a professional running contract and, hopefully, a shot at the 2012 Olympics.
“If you’re in this sport and you don’t want to go, there’s something wrong,” Wilks said. “I think the sky’s the limit for my potential, and I want to pursue track full-time.”
*****
Wilks wasn’t always a sprinter.
In fact, he spent most of his time in high school playing basketball and football, winning two state championships on the hardwood and nearly attending Villanova as a defensive back.
But Wilks’ experience on the gridiron actually jumpstarted his foray into track.
During Wilks’ senior year at New Haven (Conn.) James Hillhouse High, the football team’s speed coach, Gary Moore, was also the track coach.
Moore recognized Wilks’ speed and insisted he run track, but Wilks remained reluctant.
“I just didn’t see the point of running around in a circle,” he said.
His senior year at Hillhouse saw him win state championships in the 55m dash, 100m dash and the outdoor 200m dash. As a result, he was named Connecticut’s Gatorade State Track and Field Athlete of the Year.
His impressive résumé, limited as it was, convinced Holloway to take a chance on the talented but inexperienced athlete.
Holloway was most impressed with Wilks’ speed, his height (6-foot-2) and his early success in a sport he was still learning.
“I asked coach Holloway when I came to be patient with me and for us to work together on everything,” Wilks said. “I told him that, as soon as he agreed to that, then I would have no problem coming here to work with him.”
In the end, taking a chance on track has paid great dividends for Wilks.
“He has grown tremendously,” Draughn said. “For him to go from Connecticut to Florida was a very large step for him, but he has adapted very well, and I’m pleased with him.”
*****
Should Wilks attain his goal of protecting the leaders of the United States after he hangs up his spikes, it would be a fitting career for the sprinter.
While the Gators don’t officially name team captains, UF assistant director of communications Sean Cartell said Wilks’ role as Florida’s leader is “understood.”
Junior Christian Taylor said he appreciates how vocal Wilks is in practice and how his fellow 4x100 relay running mate carries himself and steps up in tough situations.
“When you have your teammate says something to you, it’s a little different than when a coach does because he’s actually going through what you’re going through,” Taylor said. “It makes it a little more real, so you have that better connection.”
Holloway’s admiration for Wilks can be seen just from speaking to the coach. He speaks of the senior sprinter as more of a peer than an athlete under his tutelage.
“He’s helped solidify my belief that a coach and an athlete can be on the same page,” Holloway said. “And when Terrell and I are on the same page, things go very well.”
Wilks and Holloway’s ability to get on the same page has worked wonders for UF, earning the men’s squad two consecutive NCAA indoor titles.
Florida is currently the top-ranked team in the nation and is gunning to win its first-ever outdoor national title. The Gators have come close the past two seasons, placing as the runner-up to Texas A&M both times by just three points combined.
“The past two years have sat on the wrong side of my stomach for a very long time,” Wilks said.
Wilks described the last two national outdoor meets as “bittersweet” because he won individual titles in the 4x100 relay, but the Gators still came up short as a team.
And as a leader, he willingly shoulders the blame for Florida not getting it done.
While Wilks qualified for the national outdoor meet in the 100m and 200m dashes, he failed to advance to the finals in both events, keeping him from scoring any team points from his efforts.
“To know that I didn’t make it and we lost by one point, it eats at me every day. … It’s not OK for me,” Wilks said. “I could’ve helped us do better, and I want to see us win.”
With a leader as motivated as Wilks, Florida may want to make some room for more championship hardware.
Ten victories at the Tom Jones Memorial Classic this past weekend against the likes of No. 2 Texas A&M and No. 10 Nebraska, including a new personal-best for Wilks in the 200m dash (20.51 seconds), have the Gators thinking about a title sweep in 2011.
“He challenges me to challenge him, and I like that,” Holloway said. “He’s never a guy that walks out there and says, ‘I don’t want to do this today.’”
With all of the success Wilks has enjoyed in his career, another national championship seems like the only fitting end to his time in Gainesville.
“When I came, I wasn’t the leader, and I had seen how the program was down,” Wilks said. “It was like, ‘Yeah, they’re Florida, so we’re paying some attention, but what are they really doing?’
“I’ve seen the program transform, and I became a leader. I kind of just took it, and I guess everybody respects me. It’s great to see how it has all turned out.”
