PREP PREVIEW / BOYS TRACK : Strong Performance in Track Validates Parrish’s Leap of Faith : Marina: Senior made switch from baseball and has no regrets.

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  On the day Tony Parrish finally relented and turned out for the track and field team at Marina, he jumped 42 feet in the triple jump.

No practice, little warm up, horrible form.

He simply started sprinting near the end of the runway, hopped, skipped and jumped. And flew.

Marina Coach Dick Degen and his assistant, Dave Thompson, looked at each other knowingly.

They had been after Parrish since he was a freshman, because the thought of what he could do for the track team made their heads swim. But for two years their pleas fell on deaf ears.

“I’m a baseball player,” Parrish said.

Well, a funny thing happened to Parrish on his way to Cooperstown. He quickly discovered baseball was as dull as watching grass grow, which was is what he spent most of his time doing in the outfield.

Boring. Boring. Boring.

Track offered more variety, so Parrish ventured into Degen’s office one day and proclaimed: “I’m a track man now, coach.”

Last season, Parrish sprinted, long-jumped and high-jumped. But the triple jump was to be his route into the record books.

When he soared 49 feet 1 inch to win the CIF State meet last June, Parrish became only the second Orange County athlete to win a state triple jump title. And, really, that was probably the least staggering feat of the season, according to Degen.

“Just phenomenal,” he said, shaking his head.

Looking back, it’s easy to wonder how far the senior would be jumping now if he had started as a freshman.

Moreover, an observer can’t decide what’s more startling: Parrish’s results or what he might accomplish in the future.

“Last season, I wanted to jump 47 feet,” he said.

He wound up with a best of 49-4 1/4, the fourth-longest jump in county history.

“I want to try to jump 53 feet this year,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”

The county record is 51-7 3/4, set by Magnolia’s Phouphet Singbandith in 1990. The State meet record is 52-4 3/4, set by Ken Frazier of San Francisco Mission in 1981. The national record is 52-10 1/2, set by Charles Mayfield of Pasadena Muir in 1980.

“If I pick up my training a little bit, hopefully I can do it,” Parrish said.

Go ahead, scoff. But consider this:

With next to no preparation, Parrish jumped 46-6 1/2 to place fourth in his first competition indoors at the Sunkist Invitational meet last week in Los Angeles.

So where does all this talent come from?

From a young age, Parrish played baseball, basketball and soccer. He competed in track and field in seventh and eighth grades, but thought so little of the sport that he hardly gave it a second thought when he came to Marina.

At 5-feet-11 and 184 pounds, Parrish seems a bit too short to excel in the jumps. Mike Powell, the world record holder in the long jump is 6-3. So is Willie Banks. Carl Lewis and Mike Conley are each 6-2.

So far, however, there don’t seem to be any limiting factors for Parrish.

Early last season, he didn’t really know what he was doing, and winning came as a pleasant surprise.

On April 25, Parrish won the Orange County championship by leaping 46-10 1/4, a good but hardly eye-catching mark. It was an improvement over a 46-8 1/2 jump at the Arcadia Invitational April 11, however.

With little competition to push him, Parrish won the Southern Section 3-A title with a rather ordinary jump of 47-1 1/2. And then came the great breakthrough.

At the Masters meet, Parrish pushed back the envelope by soaring 49-4 1/4 on his first jump of the night. It broke his personal best by more than two feet.

“I’m sure before the season he never dreamed of being the state champ,” Degen said. “I don’t think he looked that far ahead.”

At the State meet a week later, Parrish shook off the pressure of being the favorite. What concerned him most were his aching shins. He had been suffering from shin splints since almost the beginning of the season--the result of too many jumps.

After a few jumps, Parrish ran to the trainer’s tent in search of ice packs for each shin. Up in the stands, Degen and Thompson were troubled.

“It scared the hell out of me,” Degen said.

Parrish pressed on, finally recording a wind-aided 49-1 jump that pushed ahead of Leonard Haywood of Berkeley St. Mary’s, who had jumped 48-11 1/2, and Keir Gumbs of Oakland Bishop O’Dowd, who leaped 48-11 1/4.

The baseball player had won a most unlikely state championship. Now the question is whether he can jump into the record books again.

Boys’ Track and Field at a Glance

Top jumpers: Brian Carlson, Katella, Sr., high jump; Keith Carraby, Katella, Sr., triple jump; Matt Denny, Mission Viejo, Sr., long jump/triple jump; Matt Gwaltney, Fountain Valley, Sr., high jump; Jay Lim, Sonora, Sr., high jump; Paul Nihipali, Esperanza, Sr., high jump; Tony Parrish, Marina, Sr., long jump/triple jump; Ace Riggins, Valencia, Sr., long jump; Gary Van Sluis, El Modena, pole vault.

Top runners: Jason Boyce, Corona del Mar, Jr., 100/200; Scott Elkin, Cypress, Sr., 400; Erick Fielding, Mission Viejo, Sr., 100/200; Ben Flamm, Huntington Beach, Sr., 3,200 meters; Shawn Frack, Esperanza, Sr., 3,200 meters; Dylan Guggenmos, Newport Harbor, Sr., 800 meters; Tad Heath, Foothill, Sr., 800 meters; Jimmy Hutsell, Cypress, Jr., 400 meters; Michael Love, Katella, Sr., 1,600 meters; Brendon Mahon, La Habra, Jr., 3,200 meters; Jaime Martinez, Orange, Jr., 1,600; Ethan Taub, Foothill, Jr., 400 meters; Gary Young, Woodbridge, Jr., 100/200.

Top throwers: T.J. Brown, Mission Viejo, Sr., discus/shotput; Chris Conrad, Brea-Olinda, Sr., discus/shotput; Travis Kirschke, Esperanza, Sr., discus; Chad Peare, Trabuco Hills, discus/shotput; Beau Ralphs, Newport Harbor, Sr., shotput; Nicky Sualua, Mater Dei, Sr., discus/shotput; Wade Tift, Newport Harbor, Jr., shotput.

League favorites: Century--Foothill; Empire--Esperanza; Freeway--La Habra; Garden Grove--Rancho Alamitos; Olympic--Orange Lutheran; Orange--Valencia; Pacific Coast--Trabuco Hills; Sea View--Woodbridge; South Coast--Mission Viejo; Sunset--Fountain Valley.

Key dates: Katella Relays, March 19-20; Tustin Relays, March 27; Trabuco Hills Invitational, April 3; Arcadia Invitational, April 10; Mt. San Antonio College Relays, April 17; Orange County championships, April 24; Southern Section preliminaries, May 15; Southern Section finals, May 22; Masters meet, May 28; CIF State meet, June 4-5.

Notes: Last season, Marina’s Parrish took the great leap forward to become the state triple jump champion. He was a 46-foot-10 1/4 jumper in April, but by June he had improved to 49-4 1/4, the fourth-best in county history. Katella’s Carlson appears to be the class of the county high jumpers, with a best last year of 6-8. Esperanza’s Kirschke made his name throwing people out of the way on the football field, but the All-County lineman is a pretty fair discus thrower, too. Esperanza’s Frack, Katella’s Love and Orange’s Martinez (in no particular order) are the county’s top distance runners. Valencia, which won the county meet over Saddleback, Foothill and Santa Ana Valley last season, lost the sprinting Alexander brothers to graduation. With the Tigers rebuilding, look for Esperanza and Woodbridge to have the strongest teams this season.