Nashua South's Paul Marchand with Jonathan Pacheco and Doug Booth.

The runway had life.

If you couldn’t feel it, all you had to do was open your eyes.

“Watching him warm up, you could see how fast that ramp was, how fast he was,” said veteran Nashua South track coach Doug Booth.

And with the bright lights on, Paul Marchand took flight at the East Coast Indoor Invitational Meet in Providence. The Panthers’ senior exploded then floated through the air, crushing a 37-year-old school long jump record set by Mike McLeod in 1983. He smashed it not once, twice.

In the end, his meet record 22-10.25 placed Marchand, the defending Division I state outdoor long jump champ in the rarest of air. It also heaped some serious expectations on an already scintillating career.

“I’ve been dreaming of 22 feet forever,” said Marchand, whose previous best of 21-10.25 was fractions of an inch way from the school mark. “Warming up, I definitely felt fast, and the adrenaline was pumping. We were talking, and we just knew this was going to be the day.

“I just jumped farther than I ever could have expected.”

Expectations. They have been placed on the 6-foot, 190-pound Marchand’s shoulders since his freshman year, when he chose track over baseball.

“I had tried track in the sixth grade, but the plan was to play baseball,” Marchand said. “Before the spring, I ran into coach Booth and he asked me to give track one more chance.”

Four years later, Booth’s prodding borders on brilliant.

“From a coach’s perspective, I believed in Paul as a freshman, and I told him he could do great things in track as a senior,” said Booth.

“He is one of the hardest-working athletes I have ever coached.”

Marchand has poured himself into track and field. “Competing in track and training for track, that’s what I do,” he said.

Followers of the Granite State track scene are quick to spot the versatile sprint star. If Marchand is competing, you find out which events. Currently, he’s the top seed in the state indoors in both the long jump and 55 meters. He’s also top 10 in high jump and shot put.

Clearly, he’s paid his dues in the offseason, with one giant goal in mind.

A year ago, Marchand came painfully close at the annual state decathlon, taking second by the slimmest of margins, just 29 points.

You’re talking a couple inches here, a second or two there, separating Marchand from the title.

“That lit a fire under him,” said Booth. “It’s definitely motivated him.”

While other athletes may have been playing football or soccer this fall, Marchand pounded the iron in the weight room.

He’s bigger, faster and stronger, now, but it may have been technical work that helped put him over the top.

“I’m getting up off the board now, getting more height,” he said. “I had been jumping out, not up, and I needed that extra air.”

Don’t expect any complacency, now that he owns the school mark.

“When I was a sophomore, I used to think there was no way I could ever dream of jumping 21-feet,” he said. “I’m definitely going to keep pushing myself, just like that, only now I’m going to be pushing to go 23-feet.”

Marchand’s future, now like his jumps, remains up in the air.

He had planned on joining the United States Marine Corps after graduation with a couple of friends who are headed there. The success on track has added a giant variable to that equation.

“I definitely could see myself in the Marines,” Marchand said. “I know I could handle it. Now, I’m just unsure about school.”

Booth noted that Division 1 track schools like Hartford, UMass Lowell, Albany and others have inquired.

“We’re trying to keep his mind open right now,” Booth said, and it is.

But for now Marchand is laser-focused. He’s never won a state title indoors. And coming February 9, he will get the opportunity.

Then, of course, there is that late June matter of the decathlon and some unfinished business.

“We’re not going to overwork him,” said Booth. “Right now, it’s all about fighting hard to preserve his energy. That decathlon is certainly the goal.”

Newsletter