Published: May 26, 2015
Throwing knowledge
Slinger grad, national champion now coaching throwers at
West
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
Working with a national champion is awesome. It’s also hard
work.
But it’s not without some fun in the process.
All that is providing a unique experience for the girl
throwers at West Bend West.
This year is the first season for Breanna Strupp as the
girls throws coach for the Spartans’ girls track and field team.
“I absolutely love it,” said Strupp, a 2009 graduate of
Slinger High School.
Her throwers love having Strupp around.
They love her personality.
“She’s so humble,” West’s Nikki Heimark said.
Once they learned her background, a wow factor overtook
them.
“We’re so lucky to have her as our coach,” West’s Anna
Duening said.
Strupp won three national championships at the University of
Wisconsin-Oshkosh. She won the outdoor discus title as a sophomore, outdoor
shot put as a junior and indoor shot put as a senior.
At Slinger, she qualified for state in her junior and senior
years. As a junior, Strupp was 11th in discus at state. As a senior, she was
third in discus and 11th in shot put at state.
And Strupp may not have been the best thrower on the team.
She would admit as much. In 2009, Sam Steinbring finished second in discus at
state.
But somehow, to maybe even her amazement, Strupp became a
national champion.
“A lot of work — just a lot of dedication and time and the
drive to want to be successful,” she said when asked how she did it. “You can
put in the work and everything, but if you just go through the motions, you’re
not really going to get anything out of it.”
When Strupp graduated from Slinger, she aspired to be an
All-American.
“I never really had my eye set on being a national champ,”
she said.
“I was happy with my one place at state,” Strupp added. “I
ended up becoming a national champion. It was fun, coming from a small town
where not many people expected me to do anything in college.”
Strupp might have swept the shot put national titles as a
senior, but an injury sidelined her from accomplishing that feat. It was one
reason why she decided she had enough of competition. Other reasons were she
was tired and, more importantly to her, she believed she had accomplished more
than she dreamed of, which was good enough for her to keep her head up.
Just being an All-American — without or without a national
championship — was satisfactory to her.
“Being an All-American would’ve told me that all my hard
work paid off and that I would have something to show for it,” Strupp said.
She accomplished her goal of being an All-American — four
times.
“I definitely exceeded my expectations,” Strupp said. It’s
because of that Strupp believed she had something to give back to track and
field. After all, it did some good things for her and that’s why she got into
coaching.
However, the ambition to become a coach didn’t happen until
toward the end of her collegiate career at Oshkosh.
She always knew she wanted to be a teacher. But as she
worked with some summer camps with the program, she developed an itch to be a
teacher next to the discus and shot put circles. She was moved by the feeling
she’d get to see someone make progress, no matter how small or big.
“When I would help with camps and things like that, it was
nice to see that passion in the younger kids,” Strupp said. “I knew I wanted to
be a part of that.”
Strupp is ready to move on and the Spartans couldn’t be
happier to have her.
“I will always be an athlete,” she said. “But I’m ready to
pass on my knowledge, what I know and share it with kids.”
Knowing her background, whatever Strupp tells the near 20
girls that make up the throws group for the West track and field team, they soak
it up like sponges.
“She’s very motivational,” West’s Lauren Klemstein said.
“When I found out that she was a national champion, I was super hyped to be
working with her.”
Strupp is a special education teacher at Kewaskum Elementary
School. She was hired as a long-term substitute after her graduation in
December. Recently, she was hired to become a full-time teacher starting in the
fall.
When she stands next to the circles at practice, Strupp
can’t help but think of the good and difficult times she spent in those
circles.
Seeing a girl improve on something, whether it is better
technique or farther distance than the throw before it, is almost as good as
winning a national championship.
To accomplish these feats, Strupp keeps things simple, which
was a big help for Duening. To help with that situation, Strupp simplified
everything; focus on one element at a time.
Strupp also tinkered with Duening’s technique. Before,
Duening did one technique for shot put and another for discus. This year, it’s
the same for both, more spinning in the shot put. It’s help with consistency
and power.
In the shot put, Duening reached her goal distance for the
season in only her second meet of the season.
“I over-analyze everything, so I always have so much going
on in my head,” Duening said. “She said to focus on one thing you want to
change.”
The other point of emphasis by Strupp, maybe the most key,
often at practice is this: keep it fun.
“Once it stops becoming fun, there’s no point in doing it,”
Strupp said, adding having fun also builds confidence.
With confidence, comes a greater ambition to come to
practice and work hard. When that happens, the results start to show.
The West girls appear to be having fun and are making
strides that leave them in awe.
In Heimark’s case, her personal best in discus was 93 feet
going into the season. At the halfway point of this season, she soared right
past it and is in triple figures in the event and doing so more consistently.
And one more key piece of advice Strupp has passed down
which has helped ease tension: “It’s OK to fail,” Klemstein said.
And don’t forget this: “She’s a hoot to work with,”
Klemstein said.
No comments:
Post a Comment