Hughes has come a long way

Prep Scene

Irondale High School senior Juriad Hughes Jr., who recently committed to the University of Arkansas, is one of the top track and field athletes in the country as a sprinter and jumper. As a junior last year, he broke the 41-year-old state long jump record set by St. Paul Central’s Von Sheppard in 1982.

The first time I met Juriad Hughes Jr. he was at the beginning of what has become quite the athletic career. In 2015 Juriad Hughes Sr. was officiating a summer league basketball game at Concordia University when he spotted a columnist of a local newspaper taking in the action. 

“We need to get together and do that interview,” he said in between plays. “When can we do it?”

One might think that Hughes, the former St. Paul Central hoops star who earned Metro Player of the Year, was a Mr. Basketball finalist as a senior in 1989, and went on to star collegiately at New Mexico State University and South Dakota State University might be referring to himself as the focus of the story.

This, however, was not the case.

Hughes, a 6’-1” guard who torched opponents with his athleticism and outside shooting while at Central, was talking about his son, nine-year-old Juriad Hughes Jr.

“He’s been having a real good season,” Juriad Hughes Sr. said with pride at the time. Plans were made to meet at the University of St. Thomas, where Juriad Hughes Jr. was competing.

The younger Hughes was not participating in a basketball tournament like his father would have at his age. He was at the USA Track and Field (USATF) State Championship participating as a sprinter while establishing himself as one of the top track and field athletes in the nation for his age group (nine-ten-year-olds).

He broke a 17-year-old record in 100 meters with a time of 13.47 (shattering a personal best of 13.53) and placed first in the 200 (28.74) and 400 (1:10.80).

He was named the USATF Minnesota Athlete of the Year in 2013 and 2014. Of the 36 medals Juriad Hughes Jr. had earned up to that point during his brief career, 34 were gold.

Quite a bit has happened since then.

In a day and time in which fathers want their sons to follow in their athletic footsteps, the elder Hughes seemed cool with the path his son ended up taking. “Basketball was my love,” he said at the time. “But I wanted my son to try other sports besides basketball. Track and field seems to be what he is good at. He likes it and he’s having fun.”

It seems as if Juriad Hughes Jr. made the right choice.