Keizer continues to soar
By Terrance Gardner , Special to the Register
Robert Keizer has achieved a lot of success in his career at
Southern Connecticut State.
Keizer is a two-time NCAA Division II Northeast Region men’s
indoor field athlete of the year.
But if you asked him, it was never his intention to go into the
sport of track and field.
“I was a basketball player,” Keizer said. “I went
out for track, thinking I was going to be a runner. So I went out
and I saw people jumping. I asked Coach what was this? He said,
‘Triple jump, you should try it.’ So I fooled around,
jumped about 40 feet and never did it before. He said if I stuck
with it, I could get some scholarships and go to college. My eyes
lit up.”
It was from there that Keizer’s career in track and field
took off. He specialized in the triple jump and as a sophomore was
named an All-American in the event.
In 2007, Keizer won his first of two field athlete of the year
awards for the indoor and outdoor seasons. This season, he won the
Northeast-10 Conference and the IC4A championships.
“As a player, we helped him develop his skill level,”
Southern coach Jack Maloney said. “Obviously, we knew we were
developing him for top-flight competition in the NCAAs, the IC4As,
the New Englands.
“As a person, on our team here we look for total development
of people. We help them with careers down the road, as well as life
skills. We look to develop our athletes for careers, success in
life. He has benefited from that.”
Assistant coach Wil Wright also reflected on Keizer.
“One of the things that’s really helped Robert succeed
is that he has something that I like to call great motor
ability,” Wright said. “When we’re talking about
what we’re wanting a segment of your body to do, he grasps
it. He’s not in the fog and doesn’t know what
you’re talking about.”
Wright also talks about Keizer’s willingness to learn and do
what is asked of him.
“His willingness to do away with what he wanted to do and do
what we wanted him to do. And you get that a lot with incoming
athletes,” Wright said. “They’ve had a lot of
success along the way, and they’re really dedicated to their
high school coach. It takes a while to get acclimated to new
coaches. And he came around very well.”
On March 9, Keizer won the IC4A championship. His leap of 51 feet,
1 inch broke the SCSU indoor record of 50-5½, which was set
by Winston Adams in 1984.
“It felt great,” Keizer said on his record-breaking
day. “I usually come back from track meets and was like,
‘No, I didn’t do too well.’
“But this felt really good because I set a goal and
accomplished it. I shocked myself. I look back and all that hard
work paid off. Coach always said that it’ll come one day. He
told me just to be patient, and I believed that.”
Said Maloney: “We were very excited because we knew he had
that recognition coming. I think the most exciting thing is that
anytime when an athlete breaks a record, it’s a great thing.
He was having quite a duel with three rivals of his. I don’t
think Robert had beaten either of them. And for him to break the
record and win the IC4A championship was something that both me and
coach Wright got excited about.”
Keizer has been sidelined for the outdoor season after an injury
suffered late in the indoor campaign. He will graduate in May with
a degree in liberal arts and sciences. After college, Keizer wants
to go into teaching. He finished sixth in the NCAA Division II
Indoor championships in mid-March.
