Jalen Rima makes it look effortless, but it's not

CEDAR RAPIDS — Jalen Rima coined a phrase, and Bill Schwarz has mixed feelings about it.

'Jog it, then jet it.'

'Oh, that drove me crazy,' said Schwarz, Rima's track coach at Cedar Rapids Prairie. 'He looks so smooth coming around that first 100 (meters). It looks like he's not working hard.

'Then you look down at your stopwatch, and, yeah, he's working hard.'

Rima is the defending Class 4A state champion in the 200- and 400-meter races. He posted times of 22.03 and 48.85 seconds at Drake Stadium last May.

'To start the season, I wasn't thinking anything about that,' Rima said. 'But the way I progressed, it made me confident. My times got super low compared to where they were earlier.'

Rima is smooth, strong and speedy. But don't call him a natural.

'I wouldn't say that,' he said. 'I couldn't wake up and go run like that. The workouts they give me, they're pretty hard. They get me in shape and put me in position to be successful.'

'He kind of hit it right, last year,' Schwarz said. 'He's so busy with all the other things he does. We had a great program for him, we rounded him into track shape, and he worked very hard to get where he got.'

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Rima is a four-sport athlete. He was an explosive playmaker in football, averaged 11.2 points per game in basketball and hit .352 last summer for the baseball team.

He has signed to play football at the University of Northern Iowa.

Yeah, as Schwarz said, Rima is a busy kid.

'Busy kid, and such a friendly kid,' Schwarz said. 'He has a smile for everyone in the hallways. He's just a pleasure to have around.'

Unless you're in the lane next to him. Rima isn't a master of starting blocks, but once he gets to cruising speed, nobody's better.

'Getting out of the blocks, that's my weakness,' Rima said. 'That's why I'm better in the 200 and 400 than the 100.'

Rima's pet events aren't contested at the Drake Relays. There is no open 200 or 400.

'Yeah, that would be fun, but they're called the Drake RELAYS,' he said. 'I'm looking forward to running with the other guys and seeing what we can do.'

Imagine Rima in the 400-meter portion of the medley relay, followed by Tysen VanDraska to anchor in the 800. Prairie will be a contender in that event.

'We have high hopes for the medley,' Schwarz confirmed. 'We'll have to find a way to beat (West Des Moines) Dowling. But, yeah, we'll want to get after it.'

Despite his football commitment, Rima is hopeful he can squeeze track into his life at UNI.

'We'll see,' he said. 'Football is kind of a year-round deal in college. Maybe I can do track in the offseason. We'll see.'

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