New Milford track coach Jeff Bliss had heard all about Ivan Bempah before he ever met him.

“Our winter coach (the now retired Greg Kelly) told me at the beginning of Ivan’s freshman season that he had this freshman sprinter who could be the real deal,” said Bliss, who has been the boys head coach at New Milford for 16 years. “He also told me the kid didn’t like running the 400.”

That’s not unusual for a sprinter who runs 55 meters in the winter and 100 and 200 in the spring. And for his first two years, Bempah, the North Jersey Male Athlete of the Week, presented by HSS, seemed to fit the pattern of 400-phobic sprinters.

He had immediate success, taking third in the North 1, Group 1 sectionals at 100 meters as a freshman and placing in league and county races at 200 meters. He then won league titles in the NJIC Patriot 100 and 200 last spring and made it to groups again.

But unlike many New Milford sprinters of the past, he wasn’t ready to go a full lap of 400 meters.

“I played lots of sports when I was younger,” said Bempah, American-born to parents of Ghanaian descent. “But when I joined the track team in middle school, I knew I wanted to take track seriously.”

His motivation is the all-time great Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, the eight-time Olympic gold medalist who had retired from competition when Bempah was only 6 years old.

“I saw a story about him on television when I was in fifth grade and the way he presented himself and the power in his running ability drew me to try it,” Bempah said.

Bempah, seven inches shorter than the 6-foot-5 Bolt, dipped his toe into the 400 waters as a freshman, but after running a 62-second quarter against the likes of state champion Jaden Marchan of Leonia, he wanted no part of the event.

Until this season.

“Jeremy Friedberg and Luke Johnson kept trying to get him to run the 400 on our relay team and they gave him a lot of positive reasons to do it,” Bliss said. So finally, at a midseason dual meet, Bempah gave it a shot.

He approached Bliss at the team’s dual meet against Park Ridge and Waldwick and asked on to the relay. Placed on anchor, Bempah sped to a strong 50.1-second clocking and the Knights easily won the race. The 100-200 guy had added the 400 to his repertoire.

“I had to get over my fear of doing it,” said Bempah, who split 49.73 at the Bergen C championship 4-x-400 to give New Milford the easy win and put them into the Bergen Meet of Champions on May 20. “I call myself a 400 runner now, to a degree.”

He’s not the finished product at 400, with an open personal best of only 52.86 seconds, but Bliss is certain the junior will get much better.

“He’s still a little raw and today in practice, I had to correct him to keep his opposite arm up when he runs, and he still runs with his head back,” Bliss said. “But he’s realized the potential he has and takes extra steps every day to try and get better.”

“He prefers the relay because he likes running with his friends,” said Friedberg, who himself turned into one of North Jersey’s top shot and discus throwers as the Green Knights have assembled their best team in decades. “He has two sides to his personality. He can be very quiet if he doesn’t really know you but he’s the funniest guy on the team and he’s always cracking jokes until it’s time to get ready for his race.

“He has one goal when he gets to the track − to be better.”

Now everyone in North Jersey is finding out who he is.

“I’m really proud of myself and my team and what we’ve been able to do this year,” Bempah said. “I definitely feel I can go faster and be in the conversation to be the best in North Jersey.”

Ivan Bempah

Sport: Track and field

School: New Milford

Class: Junior Age: 17

Accomplishment: He won the 100 and 200 meters at the Bergen County Division C championships in school records and ran a terrific anchor leg in the 4-x-400 relay that capped New Milford’s first title in 33 years.