Print Version
Email this story
Comment
From spheres to spears
 |
| H&N photo by Andrew Mariman OIT senior Steve Carter lets the javelin fly during a meet earlier this month. Carter, a longtime baseball player, switched to track and field during his junior year, and has experienced great success. Carter’s throw of 196 feet, 8 1/2 inches is second among NAIA athletes this season, and he feels he has a throw of 200 feet ‘waiting to be unleashed.’ |
April 20, 2007
He spent most of his life playing baseball. Now, senior Steve Carter is among the favorites to become a national champion in an unlikely place - throwing the javelin for Oregon Tech's track and field team.
Carter, a health sciences major from Albany, currently has the second-best throw among all NAIA javelin throwers in the country and fifth-best in Oregon Tech history with a top effort of 196 feet, eight and one-half inches.
Doesn't matter yet
“It doesn't mean anything right now,” Carter said. “It's nationals that count. I just hope I can pop one out.”
All of which is remarkable since, 14 months ago, he had no idea what a javelin was.
That Carter even can talk about being a national champion contender is unique.
Friendly encouragement
“I was talking to a couple of friends who were on the track team last year, Krystal Lonien and Rosanna Estes, and they told me I looked like I could run fast and should try out for the track team,” Carter said recently. “I talked to the coach (Ken Coffman) and he said to come on out. I tried multiple events and I didn't know what a javelin was.”
Despite some occasional tendencies to throw sidearm, like he did in baseball, Carter said he knows there is a 200-foot throw in his body waiting to be unleashed.
If he were to win the NAIA national championship at next month's meet in Fresno, Calif., he would add to OIT's reputation as a javelin school.
Nick Bakke, who now coaches at Southern Oregon University, has helped Carter, especially last year when Bakke still was at OIT. Bakke, the 2003 national champion, is one of two OIT javelin throwers, along with Tony Grant (1972), to win a national title.
“I still throw it like a baseball,” Carter said. “I have some technique flaws.”
He said learning how to throw a javelin has been a difficult process.
“The hardest part was learning how to throw it so that it wouldn't topple end over end,” he said. “My first throw might have been 20 feet. My coaches are still trying to get me to throw more overhand.”
Carter said that is crucial since he almost has been disqualified for throwing with too much sidearm action.
He credits Coffman, Bakke and Kasey Bird for getting him where he is.
Good coaching
“We have five people already going to nationals in the javelin, so I can say that Coach (Coffman) knows what he's doing,” Carter said.
It helps, too, that the javelin throwers get along well.
“We help each other out all the time and have good camaraderie,” he said. “In fact, I got warned at a meet because the officials thought I was coaching one of my teammates.”
Part of the irony of what Carter is doing is that the track and field coach at West Albany High School, where he played varsity baseball, is 1992 Olympic bronze medal winner Dave Johnson.
“I know who he is,” Carter said with a grin.
“But it was my varsity baseball coach in high school that inspired me to do sports,” Carter said of West Albany's Don Line.
Carter said he had hoped to play college baseball, and his mother laughed about her son now being a track and field athlete at the college level.
“When I told my mother that I was going out for track, she reminded me that I don't like to run,” Carter said. “She thought the idea was hilarious.”
Carter clips
Carter also runs a leg on the 4x100 relay team when healthy, but he missed running last weekend's relay at the University of California at Davis with an ankle injury. He plans to run in the relay Saturday at Cal State-Chico.
Bakke holds the OIT record at 209-4, and Brian Mahoney is the only other Hustlin' Owl to go over 200 since new javelins have become part of the sport.
Grant holds the OIT record with the old-style javelin at 249-0.
Jeff Buller of Bethel College of Kansas has a throw of 211-4, which is the best NAIA throw this year.
Also breaking 190 feet this season are Tyler Richardson of Oregon's Concordia (193-2), Ben Francis of Doane (193-0), and Concordia of California's Paul Greive (192-8).
- Steve Matthies
He spent most of his life playing baseball. Now, senior Steve Carter is among the favorites to become a national champion in an unlikely place - throwing the javelin for Oregon Tech's track and field team.
Carter, a health sciences major from Albany, currently has the second-best throw among all NAIA javelin throwers in the country and fifth-best in Oregon Tech history with a top effort of 196 feet, eight and one-half inches.
Doesn't matter yet
“It doesn't mean anything right now,” Carter said. “It's nationals that count. I just hope I can pop one out.”
All of which is remarkable since, 14 months ago, he had no idea what a javelin was.
That Carter even can talk about being a national champion contender is unique.
Friendly encouragement
“I was talking to a couple of friends who were on the track team last year, Krystal Lonien and Rosanna Estes, and they told me I looked like I could run fast and should try out for the track team,” Carter said recently. “I talked to the coach (Ken Coffman) and he said to come on out. I tried multiple events and I didn't know what a javelin was.”
Despite some occasional tendencies to throw sidearm, like he did in baseball, Carter said he knows there is a 200-foot throw in his body waiting to be unleashed.
If he were to win the NAIA national championship at next month's meet in Fresno, Calif., he would add to OIT's reputation as a javelin school.
Nick Bakke, who now coaches at Southern Oregon University, has helped Carter, especially last year when Bakke still was at OIT. Bakke, the 2003 national champion, is one of two OIT javelin throwers, along with Tony Grant (1972), to win a national title.
“I still throw it like a baseball,” Carter said. “I have some technique flaws.”
He said learning how to throw a javelin has been a difficult process.
“The hardest part was learning how to throw it so that it wouldn't topple end over end,” he said. “My first throw might have been 20 feet. My coaches are still trying to get me to throw more overhand.”
Carter said that is crucial since he almost has been disqualified for throwing with too much sidearm action.
He credits Coffman, Bakke and Kasey Bird for getting him where he is.
Good coaching
“We have five people already going to nationals in the javelin, so I can say that Coach (Coffman) knows what he's doing,” Carter said.
It helps, too, that the javelin throwers get along well.
“We help each other out all the time and have good camaraderie,” he said. “In fact, I got warned at a meet because the officials thought I was coaching one of my teammates.”
Part of the irony of what Carter is doing is that the track and field coach at West Albany High School, where he played varsity baseball, is 1992 Olympic bronze medal winner Dave Johnson.
“I know who he is,” Carter said with a grin.
“But it was my varsity baseball coach in high school that inspired me to do sports,” Carter said of West Albany's Don Line.
Carter said he had hoped to play college baseball, and his mother laughed about her son now being a track and field athlete at the college level.
“When I told my mother that I was going out for track, she reminded me that I don't like to run,” Carter said. “She thought the idea was hilarious.”
Carter clips
- Steve Matthies
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of HeraldAndNews.com. Comment Disclaimer: The editors of heraldandnews.com reserve the right to refuse publication of any comment posted for consideration. We may refuse for any reason, including use of profanity, disparaging comments, libelous comments, etc. Any reader who notices a comment they believe is particularly offensive, should notify us at webmaster@heraldandnews.com.
Bill Hoffman wrote on Apr 10, 2008 10:07 AM:
" Long live Matt Miles! He was the "Billy Kilmer" of Semi Pro Football: tough, gritty, fiery leader, winning mentality. I will never forget this "young gunslinger", he made this league better for being in it.
Respectfully submitted,
Bill Hoffman
CO Stampede, #45 "
Respectfully submitted,
Bill Hoffman
CO Stampede, #45 "
RSS
Ken Karnes wrote on Oct 3, 2008 4:23 PM: