After basketball season ended, Eisenhower High School senior AJ Abrams joined the track team and practiced for a few days before the indoor conference meet.
The first event Abrams competed in was the long jump. He won the event on his first try. That's right, it was his first competitive jump.
“My heart was racing on the first jump,” Abrams said, “but after the first jump I calmed down and just got the hang of it.”
Yes, after focusing on one sport growing up, Abrams made the most of his senior year of high school, excelling in three sports: football, basketball and track and field.
Abrams has dedicated most of his life to basketball.
“We've known him since he was in the seventh grade, when he started coming to youth games and all-star games,” said Neil Miguez, who retired as Eisenhower High School's boys basketball coach after this season. “He was little.”
Abrams actually played youth soccer, but because of his size and the disrupted sports calendar following the pandemic, that part of his athletic career was put on hold.
The IHSA was trying to cram all school sports activities into a four-month period in early 2021, causing football and basketball dates to overlap, so Abrams chose basketball.
“My dad really wanted me to play. [football] “My freshman year of college I graduated from high school. I didn't want to graduate because I thought I was too small,” Abrams said.
Still, then-Eisenhower University football coach Seamus Murphy tried to change his mind.
“You can see my athleticism on the basketball court,” Murphy said. “Every year I worked hard.”
Meanwhile, Abrams was emerging as one of the top basketball players in the south suburbs. After excelling at the lower levels following his COVID-19 recovery, Abrams was promoted to the varsity team in the second semester of his sophomore season, where he led the Cardinals in scoring and rebounding.
“[The next] “I knew this summer that this kid had a chance to be one of the best players around here,” Miguez said.
As a junior, Abrams averaged more than 20 points per game and led the team in rebounds, steals and assists.
The following summer, as Abrams was entering his senior year, Murphy finally convinced him to play football.
“we [after] “After the first few workouts, I knew this kid was going to be something great,” Murphy said.
And that was the case for Abrams, who played receiver and finished with 45 catches for 1,222 yards (27.2 average) and 18 touchdowns while earning All-State honors.
The Cardinals went 7-4 and advanced to the second round of the Class 6A playoffs, where they lost to Kankakee, 49-35.
“Against Kankakee, Abrams probably had the best halftime I've ever seen,” Murphy said, with nine catches for 285 yards and four touchdowns.
Coach Abrams then returned to basketball and led the Cardinals to a historic 24-8 season despite missing nine games with an ankle injury suffered in the opening game, Eisenhower defeated Hillcrest for the first time in 29 years and Richards for the first time in nine years.
Abrams scored more than 1,400 points in his career, averaging 23 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals per game and was a two-time South Suburban Red Player of the Year.
But his big senior year wasn't over yet. Like Murphy, Eisenhower University track and field coach Tony Sosnowski had been trying to recruit Abrams for years.
“They asked me to come out for a little while,” he said, “and they thought the track team could use my speed and athleticism.”
He was right. Abrams set a new record in the long jump with a record of 23 feet, 1 inch and qualified for the Class 3A state meet as a member of the long jump and 400-meter relay teams.
“He’s a tremendous athlete and a hard worker,” Sosnowski said, “and he’s one of the most coachable kids we’ve ever had. [see]. “
Abrams now has his sights set on college, where he plans to play football and basketball at Iowa Central Community College, but he will also look back fondly on his final competitive high school season.
“It went by so quickly,” Abrams said, “but it was fun all the way through.”
