1 of 2
Aaron Ernest
LSU sprinter Aaron Ernest, a former Homewood High track and football star, prepares to run in the 200-meter race at the Auburn Invitational at the Birmingham CrossPlex in January. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
2 of 2
Aaron Ernest
Homewood High School graduate Aaron Ernest is an eight-time All-American sprinter. Photo courtesy of Homewood City Schools.
It was a gust of fate that changed the course of Aaron Ernest’s life forever. It was called Katrina.
In 2005, he was an eighth-grade boy who loved being outside and playing football with his friends, running through the schoolyards and playgrounds in New Orleans. But on Aug. 28, he was instead cooped up in the backseat of a car headed toward someplace where the grass was greener, or at least wasn’t underwater. That place was Homewood.
The Birmingham metro area saw its share of refugees in the aftermath of the hurricane that devastated much of Louisiana’s Crescent City. Many of those displaced were children who needed a home and a hope that there would be some kind of normalcy in their lives.
Homewood and the people there helped a 12 year old with that.
Ernest, now a senior All-American sprinter for Louisiana State University, talked about his days in Homewood during the Auburn Invitational track meet at Birmingham CrossPlex.
“It was a big experience for me. I really wasn’t a runner when I came to Homewood,” Ernest said. “I had only played football, never really run track. I didn’t like track at first. I was just staying in shape for football.”
Homewood High track coach Tom Esslinger said his fellow track and physical education coaches at the middle school are always on the lookout to identify athletes who could be exceptional in another sport. Ernest was one of those athletes. He excelled in all the jumps and sprint events.
But just as important to Ernest, he’d found his footing.
“On the track and off the track, they took me in as one of their own, and that really meant a lot to me. We didn’t know anyone here, and I don’t really know why we came here. I was just 12 years old, so I was going where the car was going to go.”
Blessed with natural speed, it still took a while for Ernest to become the sprinter he is today.
“He came out his freshman year,” Esslinger said. “It wasn’t one of those things where he came out and was just amazing. But by the end of his freshman year, he was pretty good. Just like everything else, the better you are technically, the more you’re going to reach your potential. Through his sophomore year and really into his junior year, he started taking it seriously. He always worked hard. But by his senior year, he had one of the top three times in the country. He won the state long jump and 100 and 200 his senior year.”
He still holds the state records for any class in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.
That performance at the state championships at Gulf Shores kicked off an outstanding summer season, taking medals at AAU events and nationals, including a sweep of the golds in the 100 and 200 at the Mobile Challenge of Champions, breaking the meet record in the 200.
He’d had a great senior season in football, his first love, and had offers from UAB, Kentucky, Southern Miss and Louisiana Tech, among others.
But LSU offered him a full ride for track — uncommon, since track programs usually divide their limited aid among several athletes.
“That’s pretty impressive,” Esslinger said. “That tells you how good he was.”
He quickly established himself as the top freshman sprinter in the country, winning three All-America honors, three SEC honors and winning an NCAA championship as part of the Tigers’ 4x100-meter relay team, clocking the third-fastest time in school history as he ran the second leg.
As of this writing, besides the NCAA Championship, he’s an eight-time All-American, two-time Southeastern Conference champion, a six-time All-SEC performer and a World Junior champion and World Junior silver medalist.
He’s got lofty goals ahead: He wants to break the indoor American record this year; he wants to make the U.S. team for the World Championships. The Olympics in 2016 would be the next step: “That’s the ultimate goal. But one step at a time.”
“My long-term goal, I’d like to try for three Olympic Games. I’m young enough it’s not that far-fetched. And of course medal in all of them.”
Pretty spectacular goals — some met and accomplished and some still ahead — for someone who “wasn’t a runner” not quite 10 years ago.
Esslinger said Ernest also has a great shot at a lucrative pro career, noting that sprinters’ careers can be very profitable with shoe and apparel contracts.
Ernest said he hasn’t closed the door on football, perhaps as a fifth-year player, and maybe there’s a shot at the NFL.
“I think about it every day,” he said. “I don’t want to, 15 years from now, have that doubt — ‘Should I have played that year of football?’ I’m still wrestling with that every day.”
When asked if he stays in touch with former Patriots football teammate Ameer Abdullah, he laughs, holding up his cellphone. “He just now texted me, asking how I did in the race today!”
Homewood still has his heart — his mom, Dawnelle, lives here and his sister is a senior at Homewood — and he likes coming home for the Auburn Invitational, the first indoor meet every season since he’s been at LSU.
“I like going back to Homewood, to the high school, and see everyone. I’m really good friends with Dr. (Bill) Cleveland, the superintendent. I like to see the coaches, of course. I love, love Homewood.
“Today, I wasn’t feeling too well before the race, but I knew everybody came out to watch me run, so I kind of had to push through it. I wasn’t coming out here for a great race, just getting out to compete and run in front of my family and friends.”
He said he’s in good shape, not bothered by hamstring issues that plagued him during the spring of his junior year.
“[I’m] perfectly healthy,” he said. “Rehabbing three times a week, working hard to make sure I don’t have any hamstring issues this year.”