Zimmerman glad he gave it a fling
Everyone knew Joe Zimmerman was a good javelin thrower, himself included.
That generally means getting into the 180-foot range with potential to hit 190.
But the Lewis and Clark thrower bypassed all of that, flinging the spear a state-best 202 feet last week.
“I was popping 180s in practice pretty easily,” the sophomore said. “I was hoping for 190, I didn’t expect 200.”
As a freshman at Cheney, Zimmerman threw 166-1, and watched then-teammate Bob Wilske become the first Greater Spokane League thrower crack 200 with a 200-10 at the district meet.
“We knew within the first week of practice he could throw far,” Tigers coach Andre Wicks said of his surprising transfer. “We knew he would be in the solid 180s, maybe in the 190s before the end of the season. We didn’t know how consistent he would be.”
That didn’t get any easier to predict when his non-throwing hand was broken by a teammate horsing around after Zimmerman threw 171-11 at the first league meet. In the second league meet, which came after spring break, Wicks put Zimmerman in other events.
“Joe is a super kid, multitalented,” Wicks said. “He could be a decathlete. He long jumps 20 feet, throws the shot put 46 feet, high jumps 6 feet.”
He’ll be trying to score points in some of those events today when the Tigers meet Mead and Central Valley for the league championship. All three are undefeated heading into the 4 p.m. meet at Hart Field.
“I’ve always been a jumper, since before I was a thrower,” said Zimmerman, who is 6-foot-3, 195 pounds. “I threw the shot because I was strong, but I haven’t been able to throw (the shot) very well since I broke my hand.”
But it will be the javelin that draws attention to Zimmerman, though that wasn’t what he expected when he started out in junior high.
“At a track meet I didn’t want to run a 400 – I wanted to go home early,” he said. “I went over and threw the turbo javelin (a Nerf-like spear). I was horrible so I went and bought one.”
Still, he was mainly a jumper as a freshman when Cheney assistant coach Curt Hisaw recruited him to throw the javelin.
“We knew he was strong, we knew he was a good athlete, we knew he was smart,” Cheney head coach Todd Herring said. “When you get those three together, javelin is a good fit. It was obvious from the beginning it was going to be a good event for him.”
After throwing for the varsity as a freshman, Zimmerman went to the highly regarded Ironwood Throwers Camp in Coeur d’Alene and hit the weights.
The transfer to LC has helped because he has a top-notch training partner is senior Tyler Nanny, who threw 194-8 last year and is at 187-6 this year despite battling a sore elbow.
As for coaching, Wick said Tigers javelin coach Mike Pfeifer has mostly done a lot of tweaking.
“Technically he’s pretty sound, it’s a matter of getting consistent with good technique,” Wicks said. “He has a tendency to be off-balance on his release. He has a super-fast arm, he’s strong for a sophomore, he has a lot of potential to keep getting better. He’s just young.”
Of course, Zimmerman has already reached his goal and, with a month of competition left, has to refocus.
“My next goal, the state record is like 210 (211-3) or something, I’m going to go for that. It might take a while,” he said. “If I win state, that would be great. You want to do it with a big number.”