Tevin McLean doesn’t spend a lot of time competing on the track. That’s because he’s so fast.
The East Bladen sprinter signed Wednesday, May 20 with Barton College during a ceremony inside the school’s gymnasium.
“I feel like it’s a great opportunity,” McLean said. “The coach has been looking at me since my junior year. He thought I was a senior.”
McLean will join former East Bladen teammate Chace Butler as a member of the Bulldogs track and field program. Former East Bladen basketball and track athlete Laila Smith also attends Barton. She was on the track team and the developmental basketball team this season.
“I’ve been (to Barton) a couple of times,” McLean said. “Chace goes there and I’ve been there a couple of times with him. I feel like it’s a great place. I feel like it’s safe.”
Barton is based in Wilson and is a member of NCAA Division II Conference Carolinas.
“I look at him like a son,” East Bladen track and field coach Wilson Bolden said. “He has a great passion about what he wants to do. He doesn’t like to lose.”
McLean anchored East Bladen’s 4×200 relay team that won the conference and N.C. High School Athletic Association 2A East regional championship before placing seventh in the state meet. Other members of the team were Jayden Hawkins, Joel Lewis and Riley Collins.
That quartet also won the 4×100 relay in the Carolina Conference championship, placed second in the regionals and 12th in the state meet.
McLean placed fourth in the 100 meters in the Carolina Conference championship in 11.10 seconds and was second in the 200 behind Collins. He finished sixth in the 100 in the regionals.
“Tevin has come a very long way from fifth grade,” East Bladen teacher and coach Jessica Eason said. “He’s grown. He’s matured. He’s doing great things as he always was meant to do.”
McLean admits he changed over his four years at East Bladen.
“I used to always be in trouble,” McLean said. “My mom would get phone calls.
“Coach Patty (Evers) said she saw a bright future for me with sports, but my GPA was not so good and I wouldn’t be able to go to college to play sports. That right there made me feel like I had to turn this around. It really made me buckle up and change and made me the person who I am today.”
McLean also played basketball and soccer while at East Bladen.
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