Some thoughts on the throws at the State Meet

Two things stood out to me.

One, the crew that currently runs the throws at the Boys State Meet is top notch. They are all about providing a welcoming atmosphere for the kids, which has not always been the case. In the past, there were times when I wondered if the throws officials had been trained by the East German border police.  They’d grimly examine your shots about fifty-seven times looking for secret “finger holds.”  They’d inspect kids’ uniforms during warm-ups, looking for egregious violations such as a pair of shorts that said “Wheaton North Football” rather than “Wheaton North Track.” (A few years ago, one of my athletes was threatened with disqualification for that transgression.) They either didn’t realize or didn’t care that that kind of treatment was hard on already-nervous kids. And as a coach, God forbid you ever tried to ask them a question.

But this current group, led by Jim Effinger, is the complete opposite. They go out of their way to be friendly to the kids and to try to help them relax. Jim does a thorough job of inspecting the implements, but the whole time he’s doing it he jokes with the kids and offers encouragement. Throughout the weekend, I saw other officials doing the same thing. And they were all immensely patient with coaches like me who bothered them incessantly about weigh-in times and possible schedule changes. By my count, I asked Jim 147 questions over the course of two days. The only time he had a moment of peace was when he jumped in to help measure during the 3A shot final and I couldn’t get to him. But he never lost his cool or his determination to help the kids have a great experience.

So, thanks much to Jim and his crew for running an excellent meet under hot and hectic conditions.

The other thing I kept noticing was how many technically excellent rotational shot putters there are in the state of Illinois right now. Is anyone else old enough to remember the days when the rotational technique was considered exotic and risky? This weekend, I felt like every time I looked up there was a rotational putter using smooth, well-balanced technique to drop a bomb. Sam Sikon, the 2A champion. 3A finalists William Matzek, Josh Kowalski, and Dylan Scheirich. The 3A champion John Meyer, only a sophomore. And AJ Epenesa, who finished second in the 3A shot and broke the State Meet record in the discus and is big and strong enough to throw far with any style, has clearly worked hard to develop a solid rotational shot technique. This speaks to the commitment of these kids and their coaches to the sport, because nobody just walks into the gym and masters the rotational technique in a day or a week or a month. It takes a lot of effort and determination.

Now I’d like to talk about the decision to move the shot competition indoors on Friday because that, along with AJ’s monster discus toss, was the most noteworthy occurrence of the weekend in terms of the throwing events.

For those of you who weren’t there, let me describe what happened.

I had two putters qualify out of our sectional. I like staying in the dorms so I can be close to the track in case of rain delays or changes in schedule, but our athletes and the rest of our coaches stay in Matoon. With the the 3A shot prelims scheduled to begin at 1:05, we planned to get my guys to EIU at 10:45 thus giving them plenty of time to warm up, weigh in their implements and what have you. With no need to hurry, I was puttering around my dorm room about 8:00am when I received a text from our head coach, Don Helberg, informing me that the shot would be contested indoors.

This was, to say the least, very surprising. I’ve been coaching since 1992, and though there have been years when the vault and the jumps have been moved inside I’ve never heard anyone even discuss the possibility of contesting the shot indoors.

The reason for this is simple: throwing the shot indoors is very different from throwing it outdoors. The indoor shots are much larger, and indoor throwing surfaces (typically a painted wooden platform like they have at EIU) tend to be much slicker than the concrete pads used outdoors. Yes, many kids throw great during the indoor season, but that is because they practice regularly with indoor shots on indoor surfaces. Once the indoor season ends in mid-March, everybody heads outside and trains on concrete with iron shots.

To all of a sudden ask the kids to switch back to indoor implements and to compete on a wooden surface in the most pressure-packed meet of the year is asking a lot, and my first thought when I read that text was that there must be some insanely bad weather on the way.

My second thought was, “where in the heck is everyone going to get indoor implements?” I happened to have an indoor shot in my car, but I don’t know how many coaches are as neurotic as I am or have wives patient enough to let them convert their car into a mobile equipment shed for six months a year.

Curious as to how this was going to play out, I headed over to the field house as warm-ups for the 2A shot were about to begin. The officials had collected three indoor shots from (I think) Charleston High School, but they were pretty misshapen (this can happen to certain types of indoor shots after repeated use), so I offered to contribute my shot to the pool. Offer accepted, I fetched my shot, handed it over to Jim and went out to breakfast expecting severe storms to descend at any moment.

When I returned to the field house around 10:00am, however, the sun was shining and the forecast had changed.  It now appeared likely that there would be no rain until late in the afternoon, and there was talk that the 3A shot might be held outside. It was too late for 2A, as they were already a couple of flights in when it became clear that severe weather was not imminent. But it seemed silly to me and to other 3A shot throws coaches I spoke with that the 3A shot should be contested indoors on a sunny, 80-degree day.  So, we started campaigning to get it moved outside.

The officials, wanting to do what was best for the kids, were with us on this and sent a request up the chain of command that the 3A shot be held outdoors. The request was denied, and so the 3A shot, like the 2A, was conducted in the field house with indoor implements while the conditions outside remained perfect.

It is to the credit of the kids and their coaches that many of the competitors made great throws under those conditions. It is not unusual for 53 feet to make the final in 3A, but this year it took, I believe, 54’8″. Again, that just goes to show you that the quality of shot putting in this state is at a very high level.

My worry, though, is that the resilience demonstrated by these kids will encourage those higher up in the chain of command to treat moving the shot indoors as a viable option at future editions of the State Meet.

I hope that does not happen, and here’s why.

First, as described above, throwing a large, plastic, indoor shot from a wooden platform is very different from throwing an iron shot from a concrete ring. It is not fair to ask kids to make that adjustment in the biggest meet of their young lives.

Second, you only need two 90-minute windows of decent weather in order to get through all flights of the 2A and 3A shot. And, unlike in the pole vault or high jump, a delay in the middle of a flight is not a disaster. So, even in lousy weather conditions, the chances of getting all the prelim flights done in one day are pretty good.

Third, unlike the vault, the shot can safely be contested in the rain. It is not ideal, but on a well-prepared concrete surface (and the surface at EIU is well-prepared) it is quite possible for kids to maintain their technique even in a wet ring. And it is very likely that kids will have practiced and competed in wet rings in the weeks leading up to the State Meet, whereas they will not have practiced indoors with indoor shots.

Those are my feelings on the matter, but I’d like to hear from other coaches about this before formally contacting the IHSA. Please reply in the comments section of this blog or send me an email at daniel.mcquaid@cusd200.org.

Again, congratulations to the kids who competed this weekend and thanks to Jim Effinger and his crew for doing everything in their power to put on a great meet.