His Best Shot Looks Unbeatable Schoolboy Shot Putter Overcomes Size With Speed, Brute Strength

On a recent blustery afternoon at Bayonne Park, Kevin DiGiorgio pushed his father’s car across the parking lot, sprinted down a field while pulling a sled carrying 300 pounds and raced up a hill with 140 pounds of extra weight on his torso.

These unorthodox, muscle-searing training methods have enabled DiGiorgio, a 17-year-old senior at Bayonne High School, to develop into the nation’s leading high school shot-putter. DiGiorgio has won 25 consecutive shot-put competitions over two years, thrown the 12-pound ball more than a foot farther than his nearest opponent, set several state records and on Sunday won his third straight title in the National Scholastic Indoor Track and Field Championships in Boston.

DiGiorgio, who is also the outdoor national champ, heaved the shot 66 feet, 6-1/2 inches in the indoor championships, defeating Van Mounts of Bakersfield, Calif., by 17 inches.

Gaining the power to squat 600 pounds has enabled DiGiorgio to overcome his size, 5-10 and 220 pounds, in an event dominated by people who look like Refrigerator Perry and scowl like Mike Tyson. Baby-faced with a gentle manner, DiGiorgio stands to revolutionize the shot with his approach, streamlined physique and quick throwing style.

DiGiorgio said that when he wants a boost, he drinks an extra glass of milk. He goes to bed at 9:30 every night. He said he doesn’t eat junk food. Instead, he snacks on four bananas a day for energy.

With coaching from his father, Dominick, a former shot putter, DiGiorgio appears to be a beacon among teenage athletes, whose rising levels of drug use have caused some high schools to start random drug testing. Last year, a Penn State University study found that steroid use among high school girls had doubled since 1991. Earlier surveys showed that 6.6 percent of high school boys used steroids, which increase muscle mass and hasten recovery from training.

DiGiorgio, who once burned his hands raw climbing the ropes in gym class, threw the shot 69 feet 8-1/2 inches in outdoor competition last spring and 67-3 indoors this winter to break state records and lead the nation.

At Bayonne Park, DiGiorgio crouched behind the family car, a 1993 Buick LeSabre. His father took the wheel, put the gear in neutral and tapped his foot lightly on the brake. Kevin lowered his body for leverage and, with enormous power generated by the rock-hard, 29-inch quadriceps muscles, began to push the car.

“Brake!” Kevin yelled, asking his Dad to make the task that much harder.

A tavern owner, Dominick has devoted himself to the event’s intricacies and coaching his son to Olympic promise. With a carpenter’s touch, he constructs homemade training aides, such as a “shot wagon” to ferry Kevin’s 15 shots.

In high school, the 12-pound shot is used; after that, it’s 16 pounds. DiGiorgio has not decided where he will tackle the 16-pounder, but he has narrowed the list to five schools: Florida State, Manhattan, Ohio State, Rutgers and Wisconsin.