Shot-Put Teams Preview for Middle School Track

Written Friday April 2nd at 6:42 PM

This blog is about one of the best shot-put rivalries throughout the city of Lake Orion, in the Middle School level. Three coaches that will work hard and try to bring their respective Middle School’s the Lake Orion City Championship in the shot-put for their respective track teams. This rivalry may have the feelings of something for years to come.

Enter the three shot-put coaches who were on the 2001-2002 Scripps Middle School team (under coaches Gail Miller, who coaches Scripps, and Carl Zookowski, who coaches at Oakview), and the 2003 Shot-Put team for Lake Orion High School as freshman under the teachings of Ryan Irish, Mike Hatch, and Stan Ford. They have brought greatness and success to their respective schools, in forms of winning, and proving who the best Middle School throughout Lake Orion is. One owns a Summit League Championship in Basketball at his respective University and currently holds the girl’s city championship crown represents the green and gray. Another one is a body builder who represents the green and light green. While the other one is the holder of the boy’s city meet championship, and the current boy’s shot-put Oakland County champion, that represents the green and black.

The first shot-put coach is Anthony Taormina, who coaches at Waldon Middle School. In his year in a half at Waldon, Ant has turned an already experienced but not disciplined shot-put team into a much sound disciplined and fundamental team with his knowledge and experience under the Irish and Rutledge era. Before Ant got to Waldon in May, the Waldon boy’s shot-put team last season only had three throwers, but increased in numbers once he got there. He made a very good team into a better team, and under Coach Pam Craft the sky is high for him. Waldon’s girls were also experienced and got better as well, including winning the City championship last season under Ant’s watch. The challenge this year for the newly crowned Summit League manager of the year is to rebuild the girl’s shot-put team from scratch after losing a lot of his girls to the High School, it will take some time to do so. On the boys side Ant is loaded once again and deep, led by Kevin Flynn, but Ant’s challenge in the boys will be finding a supporting cast for Flynn. Maybe some championship hardware in the near future for Waldon is in the boy’s side of the shot-put this season.

The next coach is Ben Knight, who coaches at Oakview Middle School. In his third year at Oakview, Ben is trying to rebound after a heartbreaking City Championship loss to Ant and his Waldon team in the girl’s side of the shot-put last season. Ben will likely to promote open competition and use his body building experience to help his girls get back to championship glory as they did in 2008, but it will be tough, he lost a lot of experience as well in that side of the shot-put, especially Maddie Osentowski to the High School. On the boys side Ben will be led by Josh Duncan, but his challenge will be finding a supporting cast to make sure he gets those points in that side of the meet. Ben also lost a lot of Boys from last season to the High School, this year could be very interesting at Oakview, as Ben and his close friend, in Oakview Sprint Coach, Ian Witherspoon try to pick up the peaces and reload Oakview shot-put teams back to shot-put dominance.

The last coach is Sammy Taormina, who coaches at Scripps Middle School. In his third year at Scripps, Sammy has made Scripps into an Oakland County power in shot-put, with the championships in both the City and the Oakland County Championship teams last year under Alex Lewis and John Yeglinski. Now with both of them gone to the High School, Sammy has to pick up the peaces and rebuild the boy’s shot-put team, if they have a chance at competing for another City or another Oakland County Championship. Sammy does not have that true superstar, unlike last year when he had Yeglinski and Lewis, but he also has the knowledge of his head coach Gail Miller, and the Irish and Rutledge era to back him up. In the girls side Sammy had a young team last season, most of his girls were seventh graders, and only had one eighth grader in Marissa Gonzalez. Now with Gonzalez gone to High School, Sammy has to count on the girls who went through the experience and some recruits to bring his girls shot-put team back. This season Scripps is very deep in numbers in both boys and girls in shot-put but depth alone can not win meets in shot-put, as they have to produce, and they have too if Sammy wants to have his shot-put teams compete for the city and maybe the Oakland County Championship.

All three shot-put teams do have some holes in their respective teams, as they prepare for the Regular Season on April 23rd, but we’ll find out a lot about them before the City meet occurs at Oakview on May 20th. So stay tuned