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Business is booming for Ortege Jenkins.

The former ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Wildcats quarterback – author of the “Leap by the Lake,â€� one of the iconic plays in UA football history — is the owner of in his hometown of Long Beach, California. Gyms have been closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, but personal-training opportunities abound — especially for Jenkins, whose facility happens to have an outdoor space.

“People like individual, personal attention to detail, and I found a way to get people to reach their goals,� Jenkins said. “I found a little sweet science to how to do it.�

After his football career concluded in 2002, following one season with the B.C. Lions of the CFL, Jenkins began working for fitness clubs. He quickly ascended to management positions and, a little over a decade later, started his own business with the help of friend, client and former UA basketball star Jason Terry.

Jenkins found a new career, but he knows how quickly football can end and how difficult that can be. He played a starring role in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s greatest football season — the 12-1 campaign of 1998 — and returned the following year, which began the program’s decline.

Many theorize that the ’99 opener — a 41-7 loss at Penn State — was the inflection point. The Star chronicled that game to kick off our series of UA football retrospectives in lieu of the postponed Pac-12 season; ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ was supposed to have begun the ’20 campaign Saturday against Hawaii.

It’s also where we started our interview with Jenkins, 42, personal trainer and father of 4-year-old Ortege Jenkins Jr. The conversation has been lightly edited for context and clarity.

What do you remember most about the Penn State game in 1999?

A: “The first thing that pops into my head was just how much hype was surrounding the game prior to us getting out to Happy Valley. And of course I remember just walking into that stadium with all that white (fans wearing white T-shirts), the crowd, just the overwhelming support system that they had.

“And then, to be honest, the size of the athletes that we were dealing with was just on a whole ’nother level. They had a guy named Courtney Brown, they had LaVar Arrington – just a whole slew of enormous athletes. I remember the size difference was just, it was like men amongst boys.

“They were stacked. They were big. They were physical. And it definitely showed up on the field, often and early.�

UA football chroniclers contend that game was the beginning of the end of the Dick Tomey era. Do you agree with that?

A: “Yeah, in a sense. We lost a lot of the physicality of the team that doesn’t show up in the stat sheet but that is a very critical part of what makes football work. Your tough guys. We lost Mike Lucky, Paul Shields. We lost different parts of our offensive and defensive lines.

“That was a big part of how the dynamic of our team changed, even though we had the Marcus Bells, the Trung Canidates, the Dennis Northcutts, me and Keith (Smith, Jenkins’ fellow quarterback). People don’t really know that unless you really know the inside of that football team that we had.�

What was it like to be part of a true platoon at quarterback?

A: “It was a really good experience for me and him. It was an unselfishness that me and him had. It was about the team, and it was about winning games. And it was something that, if I could do it all over again, I would do the same thing because that bond that I had with him – that we share together – is huge.

“It was a great experience for me to learn to how to overcome adversity when people might say that he should play more than me or I should play more than him. We’d just silence all the noise, block it out and go out and get the job done.�

How often do people bring up the Leap by the Lake?

A: “All the time. It’s probably one of the signature plays and moments in my collegiate career, in my life in general. It’s brought up every time (there’s a) similar flip or something along the lines of creating a magical play at the end of a game.�

Do you ever get tired of it?

A: “You never get tired of it. It was a great play. But what I always try to tell people … there were so many plays that happened in the last drive that make it more special than just the final play. I caught a pass on that last drive. We started on like our 5-yard line. We had to drive all the way out in a hostile environment.

“There were so many guys that did their job that, again, wouldn’t get recognition because of the final play. Those linemen, they blocked their ass off. The receivers made great catches. … It’s not just about the Leap.�

You played for both Dick Tomey and Lute Olson. How did those men influence the man that you eventually became?

A: “Coach Tomey was a player’s coach, and Coach Olson was more of a disciplinarian for me. It was good. It was a great contrast between the two.

“With Lute, he was able to help me with my basketball IQ and understanding a lot of the things that I didn’t know about the game of basketball – playing in a system and just doing the job that you need to do to be successful. And then off the court, just having the responsibility to take care of your business and not letting anything in your personal life affect what you’ve got going on in basketball.

“And then from Tomey, he was the family figure. He was like the dad. I was very close to him. He was a guy that sat in my living room and told me that you can play quarterback at the collegiate level; a lot of guys, a lot of coaches, said I couldn’t and wouldn’t give me that opportunity. I was super close to Coach Tomey and Nancy and their whole family my whole five years.

“That community and the school, they treated me with open arms. A lot of that tone was set by the way Coach Tomey ran his program.�

You were in training camp with the Baltimore Ravens and played one year in the CFL. How would you summarize your pro career?

A: “When I look back at it, I probably should have had a little bit more focus. I should have been a little bit more locked in. The quarterback position is definitely a very difficult position to play, especially when you go to the next level.

“I got there, but I didn’t maximize it. It wasn’t anybody else’s fault but mine.

“It takes time for you to look back and say it like that. I’m a very honest person with myself. I should have looked at possibly playing a different position as well. I wasn’t open to that because my whole life I was always told I couldn’t do it. I had a little bit of success in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, and it made me feel like I could do it.

“I got out what I needed to get out. I didn’t hang on to the dream so long to where it affected me being able to be the businessman that I am today.

“A lot of athletes, because we’re wanting to get to that next level and wanting to be a pro athlete so bad, you get caught up in not realizing that just because you don’t make it doesn’t mean that you can’t be successful. That’s a big part of my story when I was able to go back and talk to the kids in my community, here at my old high school (Long Beach Jordan): ‘Hey, I was one that got there, but I didn’t make it. But I’m still here today. I’m still successful.’ �

How did you get into fitness-club management?

A: “I had a contract issue with the B.C. Lions. They ended up releasing me. So I was like, ‘I’ll come home and work out, I’ll get picked up by another team.’ I start working out at LA Fitness. Then one of the managers was like, ‘Hey man, I know you played ball.’ I was a local kid, so people knew. I was on ‘Hard Knocks.’ ‘Man, what are you doing home? You should be playing. What happened?’ Blah, blah, blah.

“I go through that. And then the guy was like, ‘You can make a decent living running health clubs.’

“At the time, I’m still young. I’m like, ‘Y’all ain’t making no money over here, whatever.’ And then he’s like, ‘Man, I’m gonna show you my paycheck. … You can make a lot of money here. You’ve got an athletic background, you know team concepts, you know how to talk to people, you might think about it.’

“Long story short, I started there as a regular sales counselor making $8 an hour plus commission. Three months later, I was an assistant manager, and six months later I was the general manager where I had my own club.�

What was the appeal of starting your own business?

A: “I had done the corporate thing already. I told myself that there were some things in the corporate-gym industry that I would never do. It’s just a lot of dangling carrots, a lot of over-promising and under-delivering, no work-life balance.

“And so I just said, ‘You know what? I’m gonna start my own thing.’ I learned a lot from working in the big boxes, don’t get me wrong. I would never say that I didn’t because I did. The foundation of my business now is based on a lot of the things that I learned from when I was in the big corporate boxes.

“But I just decided to do it my own way, and it ended up working out.�