Comments and thoughts shared by Assistant Track & Field Coach, Tom Ellis
To begin I want to give a bit of an overview on this year's girl's javelin group. Coming into this season I thought this was going to be perhaps the strongest overall group of girl throwers that I have had in 20 years at BHS. We had several seniors who had already shown that they were ready to compete at and beyond the league championship level, as well as a good group of underclassmen with experience who also had shown they were ready to compete at a high level.
Nicole Campbell and Rachel Moran -
It is very hard for me to think one of these girls without thinking of the other. Clearly very good friends, they almost always arrived at practice together and left together. Last year I was at the 5th Avenue to see a performance of "Dear Evan Hansen" and while in the lobby spotted Rachel, and when I looked again sure enough there was Nicole!
Both girls have been part of the javelin group since their freshman year, with Nicole following her older brother Gabe into the ranks of the spearchuckers. Both have excellent attitudes and are a joy to coach - except for that foolish business with soccer! Both have shown steady improvement each year, with Nicole qualifying for the Kingco meet as a sophomore and both girls making it to Kingco as juniors. Last year as a junior Nicole had a big breakthrough in her throwing and hit 91-7, showing she was ready to enter the ranks of high-end throwers. I had big hopes for Nicole to be throwing over 100 feet and have a shot at going to the state meet this year, and I think there was a good chance this would have happened. Rachel was a bit behind Nicole in her distances but hit 84' as a junior and also looked like a potential 100 foot thrower.
I have greatly enjoyed working with both Rachel and Nicole and feel cheated that I was not able to spend time with them in their senior season. I hope that they will come back to visit us next year and beyond so that they can catch me up on their lives after high school.
Meghan Weber
- Meghan is a second-year thrower who has shown big-time potential almost from her first practice. She is not only a very talented athlete but also has been a lot of fun to work with, and I had really been looking forward to getting to know her better this year. She is very athletic and also plays volleyball, which caused her to miss a few practices as a junior, but she told me she was going to concentrate on track this spring. Part way into her first season I told Meghan that she showed serious potential, but she didn't really seem to believe me. At the Shoreline Invitational meet last year I was not able to be at the meet due to a work conflict. Meghan had a very good throw in the prelims of 107-5, but because she was a first year thrower she didn't realize that there were finals for the top throwers, and left right after her prelims were finished; which would not have happened if her foolish coach had been there to help her. She did find out until later that not only had her throw qualified her for the finals, but even in her absence from the finals she still finished in 5th place in one of the most competitive meets of the season.
During our early practices this year Meghan showed that she was stronger, and her technique actually looked better than at the end of the previous season. I am quite sure that with a year of experience behind her that Meghan would have made it to the State Meet and had a good chance of finishing on the podium.
