On one side of her, Marauders’ head coach Elliot Lightfoot is smiling and pointing his left index finger at her, a proud acknowledgment of the athlete he’d helped nurture for three seasons and watched excel with first place finishes in meets across 13 states and several times in Ohio.
On the other side of Lofton was the beaming Brad Kocher, CSU’s assistant athletics director, who’s appreciative of any moment when the Marauders shine on the national stage.
But four weeks later, had someone taken a photo at the Centre (College ) Invitational in Danville, Kentucky last weekend, the image would have been far different and not just because the meet was outdoors in rainy weather that resembled a monsoon.
There were fewer smiles.
CSU had no high jumper.
Amarianna Lofton was not there.
After the nationals, the 5-foot-11 junior had made another career-defining leap.
In a surprise move because of its timing and clandestine nature, she’d jumped into the transfer portal just as the Marauders’ outdoor schedule was about to begin.
She’s not competing for CSU.
She has redshirted for the outdoor season and is no longer on scholarship.
It’s the second time she entered the portal in her CSU career. The first came freshman year, but she quickly returned to the program. This time there appears there’ll be no about face.
Her mother, Sharon Griffin, said 15 schools quickly reached out to her and that her daughter has narrowed her choices down to two schools. Amarianna would not identify them when asked, and Lightfoot and others at CSU said they don’t know her suitors.
An informed source outside of the school said one is a Big Ten school, and the other is in the Ohio Valley Conference.
With the no-holds-barred transfer portal, the lure of NIL money and the possibilities of pay for play from big-time college programs, scenarios like this are playing out in almost every college in the nation.
Lofton said she’s not leaving for money or because she is disgruntled, but just to further develop her raw talent. She just started high jumping when she was a senior at Ocoee High outside Orlando, where her coach was David Peaco, the former Colonel White and CSU standout athlete.
Central State’s storied program is run by Lightfoot and a part time assistant, while big time D-I programs have several assistant coaches, often including one who just coaches the jumpers.
Yet, while at CSU, Lofton went from jumping 5-foot-2 when she came in, to the personal best 5-10 (1.78 meters) she made at the Indoor Nationals in March. She’s a two-time All American.
The transition period – when an athlete prepares to leave one program, but must stay until the end of the grading period to finish classes and remain eligible – can be uncomfortable for everyone involved.
CSU is trying to make the best of it.
Kocher stressed the ongoing success of Lofton’s ascendant career and how it reflects positively on her, the coach, the school, and especially the program, which, as an NAIA power in the 1990s, won 10 national titles, saw former Marauder hurdler Deon Hemmings win Olympic gold at the Atlanta Games and, as recently as five years ago, had hurdler Juan Scott, who won two individual national crowns.
Lightfoot has had other athletes enter the portal over the years – and likely a couple more will this year – and has had some, like a freshman sprinter last year, cavalierly tell him (for the second time) if he didn’t find something better, he’d be back.
“We can’t sit and hold a roster spot and a scholarship while you go see this place and that place,” Lightfoot had responded. “Central State is not going be like that old pair of house slippers you have that you put on when you can’t find nothin’ else.”
Kocher said he understands Lightfoot’s disappointment this time:
“It’s tough for him. He’s losing a superstar athlete. He helped her develop from something small to this point, so it hurts, but you also know our elite athletes may get other opportunities.”
He said other athletes often leave for the wrong reasons: “They always think the grass is greener and a lot of times it just isn’t. But that’s what we deal with in college athletics today.”
For her part, Lofton apologized in person to her coach last week for initially informing him by text she was in the portal. She said she thanked him for all he had done for her.
Lightfoot said he told her: “Well, good luck to you.”
From my standpoint, there aren’t any bad guys (or girls) here. I don’t claim to know any of the principles well, but I sat and talked with all of them at length.
I’ve written on Lightfoot before – when he came to CSU four years ago after an impressive career as an athlete and coach – and I know his inspirational story.
And I found Lofton to be a delight.
She’s an engaging young woman – just 20 – who I believe has a tremendous upside. She’s still just learning the sport, and proper technique.
Unlike many bigger name athletes in the transfer portal, she has no agent guiding her moves.
She mostly leans on her mom, who has an undergrad college degree and master’s in entrepreneurship and now, in a complete 180-degree career shift, is a long-haul trucker.
I caught up with her by phone the other afternoon in an Oklahoma hotel while she was on a mandated 24-hour rest period. Her rig, parked outside, was loaded with new cars.
She said she knows her daughter is gifted and just wants her to develop her talents to the fullest.
She said one day, if her daughter’s potential is fully realized: “I think she could be unstoppable.”
Raw talent
Lofton is the youngest of Griffin’s four daughters. The others, Amarianna said, went to community colleges, but initially she had no plans to follow suit:
“At first I wasn’t expecting to go to college at all. I was just going to stay home and work. But then Coach Peaco talked to me. He said I should go to college. He told me Central State was his alma mater and said I should check it out.
“I didn’t know anything about it, but I came on a visit and thought it was pretty cool – being an HBCU and all – so I signed right then.”
It was her only college offer, she said.
In her first years of high school – and certainly before – she had considered herself a dancer, not a track athlete.
“She was with the majorettes in high school and, from when she was a little girl, she danced for the Orlando School of Cultural Dance,” Griffin, her mom, said. “She did ballet, jazz, hip hop and African dance.”
Griffin also had been a track athlete in high school, and she encouraged her daughter when she gravitated full time to the sport as a senior.
With long legs, a sprinter’s speed and explosive hops, Amarianna had the raw talent to make an immediate impact and, as an Ocoee High senior, she finished third in the state in the high jump and 11th in the 100-meter hurdles.
After her daughter continued her upward rise as a CSU freshman, Griffin said she tried to instill in her that same “do what you have to do” attitude she’s used to provide for her family.
She said she’d been working with an insurance company that went through a downturn and that forced her to find new employment.
“My hobby was sewing, so I started making prom dresses, things like that,” she said. “But then came COVID and they weren’t having proms.
“My godson started driving a truck – they were still moving (in the pandemic) – and I thought, ‘Hunh! I guess I got to give that a try.’
“I didn’t know nothing about trucks. I had to be taught. But now I drive across the country – from Florida up to Ohio and Chicago, and out to Albuquerque, all over. “
Amarianna is proud of her mom: “She’s saving money to buy a house.”
‘Best feeling I ever had’
During the summers, Griffin has pushed her daughter to work with a physical trainer in Orlando.
Amarianna laughed as she saluted her mom: “She started paying me a little bit for each week I worked out…So I never missed.”
In the past two years she has dominated the annual HBCU Showcases in New York City and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) Championships in Atlanta. She’s also won the 100-meter and 60-meter hurdles at several events.
A year ago, she finished sixth in the high jump with a 1.72 meter leap (5 feet 7 ¾ inches) at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships in Kansas.
This year’s fourth place jump was 1.78 meters or 5-foot-10.
Her mom was in the stands that day and said: “I was proud, and I was nervous at the same time. My heart was pounding.
“I had tried to record her jump, but I was jumping up and down and cheering and I kept the camera on her sometimes and sometimes not. I was just so ecstatic”.
Lofton said she had brought her CSU teammate Jurnie Hemsley along with her as a travelling companion, but her video attempts dissolved in screaming excitement, as well.
“And once I went over and hit the mat and looked up and saw the bar was still there, I was just so happy. I was jumping up and down, and clapping until my palms turned red.
“I kept looking in the crowd for my mom. I wanted to share it. I just wanted to say, ‘We did it!‘”
And it is that moment Brad Kocher wanted to focus on the other day.
So did Amarianna:
“It was the best feeling I ever had. Everybody was just so happy.”
About the Author