You may see him lifting at the gym, in the musical, at a student government meeting, or coming in first on the track. Senior Nick Dekaney leaves no unfinished business in anything he’s involved in. Dekaney has run for Jamesville-DeWitt since his seventh grade modified season. The Red Rams saw Dekaney’s long journey and hard work pay off after he beat the J-D boys hurdling record of 7.93 seconds coming in at a time of 7.90 seconds.
Dekaney is inspired by another hard worker in his family, his mom. When describing his mom, he explains that how hard she’s worked for him and his family and the dedication she put into becoming a professor, inspires him.
Dekaney says that his mom is his biggest inspiration because “the work she has done to support me and her family and where she came from to now being a really influential professor inspires me to do the same.” It is no question that hard work runs in the family.
Even though nobody else in his family ran track, Dekaney’s older brother and J-D alumni, Lucas Dekaney, dives for St. Bonaventure and graduated from J-DHS in 2020. Much like everyone who meets him, Lucas has nothing but good things to say about his brother.
He explains that “Nick is a disciplined and hard working athlete and he is an even better brother. He always keeps his goals in the front of his mind and doesn’t allow anything to stop him.” Dekaney is consistently thinking about how he can better himself, from analyzing races by watching videos of himself to weight training during his off season.
Although many know him as an athlete, athletics aren’t the only extracurriculars Dekaney has to put on his résumé. Not only is he an all star on the track and a massive contributor to the Red Rams Athletics Department, but he is also involved in the Music Department at J-D and is the secretary of the senior class. Dekaney has been doing chorus throughout middle and high school.
Next year, Dekaney will be studying Communications at Syracuse University’s New House School of Communications. Striving for success, he commentates the sports games here at J-D and reports for the RamFeed broadcasts to help him prepare for the next step in his life. Dekaney does the most to work toward his future goals, continuously doing anything he can achieve them and giving 100% in everything he does.
So far Nick has qualified for Sectionals in three different events: hurdles, the 4×200 relay, and high jump. And he has qualified for states in hurdles as well. Even though his success in track and field is very inspirational to everyone on the outside looking in, Dekaney does not plan to run track and field at the collegiate level.
Dekaney explains, “It was something that interested me in the beginning but for the major I’m going into. I’m going to be really busy and it’d be hard to keep up with everything.” He continues, “As hard as it is to walk away from it, I think it is a good way to end my career.” Nick has left a huge legacy at J-D and he will likely cross many more, less literal finish lines in the future.
