by Malcolm Butler
Although Campbell Woodard hasn’t been throwing the javelin very long — less than a year — the 8th-grader to be at Cedar Creek School experienced a first in Jackson Friday during the USTAF Regional Meet.
In fact, Woodard referred to it as “chaos.”
After winning the Association Meet (including throwers from Louisiana and Mississippi), Woodard traveled to Jackson to face competitors from Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama on the regional level for 13- and 14-year old boys.
Normally, each competitor receives three throws and takes the best mark out of the three. However, on Friday, this wasn’t the case.
“We had a little bit of rain come in,” said Woodard. “They told the girls before us that they would only get one throw. But then they ended up giving them … the first half three and the second half only about two. They got to us. We get down there and we are about to warm up and then they say, ‘All you boys come on down.’ From there it turned into chaos.
“We had to share javelins with people. They were rushing us. Yelling at us. Clapping at us. Telling us to hurry up. I don’t think I even got warmed up. On my throw that counted, I was still trying to warm up.”
Woodard said he only managed to get one warm up throw on the runway before he had to actually take his lone toss of the competition.
“You couldn’t hear,” said Woodard. “Everyone was yelling. They were calling names. It was just chaos. And then I only get one throw.”
However, the one throw — although not up to Woodard’s standard — was good enough to send him to nationals in College Station, Texas, on July 22 to the 27th.
His mark of 133-feet, 9-inches was second best in his age group Friday, and only missed out on first place by half an inch.
“I wasn’t happy,” said Woodard. “It wasn’t my greatest throw. I got second place by the length of the javelin tip.”
Woodard said he will continue training with coach Tripp Marcus leading up to nationals. On Sunday, he practiced with two of the top throwers in the state in West Monroe High School’s Colton Brasher and Jaxon Talley who he has befriended.
“That’s going to help me to practice with those guys whenever Tripp isn’t available,” said Woodard. “I just need to be working non-stop if I am going to have a chance.”
For a young man who didn’t pick up a javelin until last fall, an opportunity to go to Texas A&M to compete in nationals is quite the storyline … one even he has a hard time believing.
“No sir, I never could have imagined this,” said Woodard. “I didn’t even know what Junior Olympics was.”
