Upper Arlington’s Track and Field team has been successful for years, breaking records almost every season. Even with the team’s progression, Daniel Rohrs’ high jump record of 7 feet 1.25 inches and long jump record of 23 feet 5 inches from 1978 are still truly unbreakable.
From the moment he was born, Rohrs was interested in jumping, a passion that became clear well before he officially began the sport.
“I had always been a jumper. My mom always said that I would be a jumper because I used to kick her all the time before I was born. I also remember always trying to touch that next object: first the ceiling in our living room when I was young, a “high” limb on one of our trees in our backyard, then the rim on a basketball basket,” Rohrs said.
Rohrs started high jump in the fifth grade after learning how in gym class. During his first year doing the sport, at ten years old, he was able to qualify for the national meet and eventually competed for Upper Arlington when he was in high school.
“I qualified for the national meet that was held in the Denver, Colorado area in the 10 and under age bracket, but I jumped at the national meet that year in the 11-12 age bracket because my birthday [August 1] came seven days before that national meet,” he said.
Like many top-tier athletes, Rohrs has faced his share of setbacks. However, his greatest disappointments have led to some of the best advice that helped him for the rest of his athletic career.
“After an epic failure at a national meet in Gresham, Oregon, as a 15-year-old, I sat down with my family and was seated next to a man from Long Beach, California. He could tell that I was dejected at my performance, so he challenged me to persevere for the next year and to come back bigger, stronger and more confident next year. At the next year’s national meet, I jumped as a young 16-year-old and tied for 2nd,” Rohrs said.
At the of the high school state meet his junior year start of the meet where he broke the high jump school record in 1978, he experienced setbacks, but as an elite athlete, Rohrs knew what he was capable of doing and was able to put the setbacks aside and have a record-breaking jump.
“The only thing I thought about was ‘How much higher can I go?’ I took three jumps [and missed all three] at 7′ 3 1/2″, which would have broken the national record, but a jumper from Illinois jumped seven feet four inches the following week. My jump of seven feet one and a quarter inches at the state meet in 1978 was an Ohio high school record that stood until 1987,” Rohrs said.
Rohrs claims that when he was in high school, he was a passive person who would usually just “go with the flow,” but when it came to jumping, his coach and teammates helped him build confidence and overcome all of the fear that he had.
“‘No Fear, Danny Boy!’ rings in my head from my high school high jump coach. My natural tendency is to be passive and to react to what is happening around me, but in the jumping events, you need to focus on what you need to do to clear the bar, and not the bar itself. When I was ‘aggressive’ and had ‘no fear’, I jumped my highest heights because I wasn’t focusing on the bar, but what I had to do technically to clear that height,” Rohrs said.
Rohrs said that his biggest regret as a high school student-athlete was not stepping up as a leader.. While he’s often tired to lead by example, he has come to realize that wasn’t always enough..
“By nature, I am a follower, but I have learned leadership qualities that I would have liked to implement at a younger age. I always believed that my achievements gave me a platform to lead, I just didn’t understand how to lead. In my teenage and young adult years, I thought that my actions always would lead others in the correct direction, but I have learned that doesn’t always work for everyone,” Rohrs said.
After high school, he continued his athletic career at Miami University and then came back to Upper Arlington as a math teacher and track coach.
“[Post grad] I had four job offers, but returning to Upper Arlington was a way for me to pay back the city of Upper Arlington and Upper Arlington City Schools for the incredible opportunities both academically and athletically that I had been afforded while here – that was my mindset,” Rohrs said.
