It was the conference championship track meet, and Our Lady of the Lake University was looking for revenge.
Tomaj Gordon, a senior jumper on the team, stood at the back of the runway. Only, it wasn’t his typical long jump approach. He was getting ready to throw the javelin.
The previous year an NCAA Division I team dropped down to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and ended up in the same conference as Our Lady of The Lake.
They blew the competition out of the water and took home the title during Gordon’s junior year.
“My junior year, they beat the breaks out of us bad, really bad,” Gordon said.
After day one of competition, the reigning champions had over 100 points on the rest of the competition.
But little did they know, the fire in Gordon was just starting to burn, and he was ready to redeem himself and his team from the year before.
Day two was lights out for Gordon and his team. Even though he had never thrown the javelin before, he did it so his team could earn as many points as possible. He also competed in the 4×100 meter relay, the 4×400 meter relay, long jump, and triple jump. “To see the look on the other teams’ faces when they lost, I think that filled me with so much joy,” Gordon said. “I never threw javelin until my senior year, and I did it at conference just for points.”
Getting to win the first conference championship in school history for the men’s track team is one of Gordon’s fondest memories. Growing up in San Antonio, Texas, Gordon was always involved in sports as he went through his middle school and high school years where he described himself as an “athletic” and “springy” kid. “Seventh grade was my first year ever doing sports,” Gordon said
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Here, at Pease Middle School, was when he began to get involved in football, basketball and track.
He figured out very quickly that football wasn’t for him and focused on his other two sports.
At Stevens High School, he also dropped basketball during his junior year.
“I wanted to go to college for sports,” Gordon said. “From there I got more serious with track my senior year.” He received his first athletic scholarship offer during his junior year, but that didn’t make him slow down any.
After working hard and deciding he wanted to stay close to home, he ended up committing to Our Lady of the Lake University. “Overall, that was probably the best decision I made,” he said. “I feel like, for me, where I went to college at, that shaped me how I am today.”
After he finished his athletic career, he was able to take on a part time coaching role at Our Lady of the Lake University. After budgeting issues, he was forced to look elsewhere for work opportunities.
“Never been to Oklahoma a day in my life, so it was my first time,” Gordon said. “Honestly, I love it. Even when I was in San Antionio in a bigger city, I really didn’t do much besides go out to eat. I think coming from San Antonio to Alva, the transition too crazy. I think the hardest thing for me is not having a Wingstop and a Chipotle.”
Men’s head coach track Derrick Young Jr. And women’s head track coach Jill Lancaster were both involved in his hiring process here at Northwestern. “He was very youthful and energetic,” Lancaster said, “This is not a job for the weary.” His past experiences also spoke volumes about his character during his interview for the job. Going to a conference meet and doing an event you’ve never done spoke volumes to Lancaster and showed her that he was a real team player.
Young said that his ability to learn and pay attention to details makes him trustworthy and dependable.
“I trust that he does everything he needs to do to get everything done,” Young said, “We can see the improvement in the athletes and he’s doing a great job.” Since coming to Northwestern last February, Gordon has affirmed his calling to coaching. “I want to give back to athletes who didn’t know as much as they do now,” Gordon said. This reflects how his experiences in track were, as during high school and college, he saw lots of coaching changes and never quite understood the reasoning behind his workouts until his late career.
He often takes inspiration in his coaching from his old head coach in college, Patrick Torres.
He came to Our Lady of the Lake University during Gordon’s sophomore year, and made a huge impact on his career, even convincing him not to quit at one point. “I think he was the first coach to actually truly believe in me,” Gordon said, “He saw what I can do, how talented I could be, and I think he worked in me a lot to get to where I’m at now.”
After facing a stubborn injury in his foot, Gordon had convinced himself it was time to hang up the spikes.
He walked into Torres’ office with the intention of walking away, and he came out of the office with a newfound sense of encouragement from someone Gordon felt truly believed in him.
Now, being a coach himself, he has impacted athletes just as Torres did him.
“His coaching has impacted me greatly at Northwestern,” Connor Miers, a junior decathlete from Blanchard said. “Coming from another school, I’ve had experiences with other coaches outside of NWOSU and he is as good as they come.”
A big approach to his coaching style is understanding that all athletes and people are different.
“I want everybody to be better than they were this time last year, last month, last week, athletically, academically, emotionally, mentally, any aspect,” Gordon said.
“No matter what, if you’re a long jumper, a high jumper or a pole vaulter he’s going to make your workouts for you specifically, because he knows that different athletes need different things even if we’re all technically jumpers,” Said Olivia Saner, a junior pole vaulter from Dawson, Nebraska.
During his time coaching here so far, not only has Gordon made meaningful contributions to the program and to his athletes, but he’s also begun to learn how to put himself out there more, something he has previously struggled with.
“I’m more of a laid back, reserved, go with the flow type of mojo,” Gordon said, “Just dealing with emotion and putting myself out there in certain situations, that’s the hardest thing for me.”
Social anxiety is another struggle that Gordon has faced, but it has improved as he’s been put into real world situations during coaching, especially during the recruiting aspect of his job.
“It’s something I’m passionate about, so I could talk about recruiting and the program and everything this whole day if I really wanted to,” Gordon said.
If you were to ask his coworkers and colleagues if they thought he was shy, the response would be a resounding no.
Gordon has been described by numerous people as energetic, enthusiastic and has even been compared to the Energizer Bunny by Lancaster. One of Mier’s favorite memories with Gordon, or “Coach T” as he is commonly referred to by the athletes as, was when they were in the weight room and had just finished a workout. Miers and a few of his other teammates noticed Gordon dancing along with the music and they proceeded to restart the song and make him dance to the whole thing. They all ended up dancing, laughing and having a good time.
“It was a cool bonding moment to have as a team, small, but impactful in team chemistry,” Miers said.
If there’s a place in the Health and Sports Science Building to hangout in, it would be Gordon’s office.
At any time during the morning hours of the day, his office will be packed with athletes from all different events laughing with each other, studying, or just waiting in between classes. Gordon aims to constantly better himself, whether that be on the track coaching, or outside of sports.
“For me, what I’m doing now, I’m doing a lot better than I was last year,” Gordon said, “Finding success and being passionate about what I do, I think that’s something I can live on each and every day. . . It’s a great day to be great.”
