Port Washington senior Bella Lucas is a sensational athlete, but she’s also someone who knows her sports history.
In Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals, Michael Jordan was feverishly ill with the flu and seemed barely able to walk, much less compete at the highest level of his sport.
But Jordan somehow willed himself to score 38 points and led the Bulls to a win, and it is known in NBA lore as His Airness’ “flu game.”
Well, Lucas also felt pretty ill and had trouble keeping food down on Feb. 4, the day of the Nassau County Class A championship meet.
But just like M.J., Lucas powered through. And after clearing 5 feet, 4 inches to win the high jump and flying 36-10 ¼ to take the triple jump, she told her dad, Matthew, “I think I just had my flu game.”
“I didn’t go to school for the next four days after that, I was so sick,” Lucas said with a smile before practice this week. “But that day I recovered in time for state quals.”
Lucas, as expected, did just fine at that meet five days later and headed to Ocean Breeze in Staten Island on March 8 to once again battle the state’s best.
This is now the sixth state meet Lucas has been at, and since she was a freshman, she has been the only “field” athlete for the Port Washington girls team.
Competing in the long jump, the high jump and the triple jump, she’s an Energizer Bunny of movement at meets, scurrying between one area of the track perimeter and another, constantly on the prowl for first-place wins.
“It’s a little tough because I’m the only person on our team doing this; (head coach Jeremiah) Pope knows I’ll score enough points for what we need,” Lucas said. “But I’m part of the team but not always like “part” of the team, not with them. Nobody is here doing what I do; they’re all doing their running events.
“But I’ve gotten to work with great coaches and I love doing it.”
One of those coaches, jumping coach Brendan Klein, said Lucas has gotten better each year and will be impossible to replace.
“Talent will take you to a certain level, and then it’s the work you put in every day at practice that separates you” Klein said. “Bella is at every practice and works hard to build on her technique. She’s been so great to work with; I wish we had five of her.”
Lucas came out for indoor track and field for the first time as a freshman and laughed at the memory of how excited she was when she got her first medal.
“I think I jumped like 33 feet, which if I did that now, I’d be like, ‘did I trip or something?’” she said. “But I was ecstatic, getting a medal, and wanting to have that feeling over and over again.”
As the years and medals have piled up, Lucas has learned the hard way about self-preservation. She goes to the athletic trainer all the time, before and after practice, to stretch and get treatment on her legs.
“I know when I’m hurting, I have to dial it back a little,” Lucas said. “Freshman year, it was worse because my body wasn’t used to competing and stuff. As the years have progressed, I’ve gotten stronger and gotten used to the aches and pains of track, and I’ve learned how important it is to preserve myself.”
Now a senior, and with star running teammate Ashley Carillo the only Port Washington track teammate who’s been on the team all four years with her, Lucas knows her time in high school is short before she matriculates to Binghamton University in the fall to compete there.
The kid who always has had multi-colored hair and a big smile after a successful jump knows she’s only got a few meets left to grab that elusive state crown; she’s medaled before at states, with a seventh and eighth place finish but wants a first-place win at either the Ocean Breeze meet, or the outdoor states in the spring.
“I would just be so ecstatic,” Lucas said. “I know, seedings-wise, I’m not the favorite to win or anything, but if I could win, or get top 3, it would just be such a great ending.”
A storybook ending, just like M.J. got.
