Young muscles her way to OFSAA bronze
Ava Young quickly realized that javelin would be the perfect track and field discipline to pursue in high school.
“I am a strong-armed girl and I like hitting and doing arm stuff more than running. I am not a fast runner at all,” the Grade 10 student at E.L. Crossley said.
The travel volleyball player with the Mountain Volleyball Club found volleyball was a perfect primer for javelin.
“Volleyball helped me because throwing a javelin is the same motion as hitting a volleyball.”
The 15-year-old Fonthill resident was introduced to the sport two years ago by her friend, Cassie Orr, who she had met while playing volleyball for the Niagara Rapids.
“She was doing javelin and she told me it was so much fun.”
Young picked up the sport quickly and this spring, she headed to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations track and field championships as the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association and South Regionals junior girls champion.
Her first OFSAA appearance was a pressure-packed day.
“There were a lot of crazy calls we had to get the coaches involved in because they weren’t officials. It was very nerve-wracking,” the Thorold Elite Track Club member said. “I just tried to keep my head up high and tell myself to do the best I could and I did get a personal best. I only beat it by a metre but it was still pretty good.”
She threw 33.17 metres on her fifth attempt to earn her spot on the podium. Winning her first OFSAA medal was a memorable event.
“When they were putting the medal around my neck, I was thinking about all the sports I had done in the past to help me get to this point and how hard I worked.”
That hard work was amplified when she was trying to balance practices with the Mountain Volleyball Club and the Thorold Elite Track Club.
“It was really tough because there was schoolwork too and the practices in Hamilton are an hour there and an hour back and we could only get late gym time because of COVID,” Young said. “I just worked hard, pushed through and tried to manage my time as best as I could.”
She is planning to continue with that hard work because she has specific goals in mind for javelin.
“I want to get far in javelin and try to get a scholarship somewhere,” she said. “I love volleyball, don’t get me wrong, but javelin is not a team sport so you can individually focus on what you have to fix and you worry about yourself and not about everybody else helping. And it is easier to get a javelin scholarship.”
There was no secret to her success at the provincial meet.
“I worked a lot and went to a lot of practices because you have to dedicate yourself to it if you want to be successful at it. You can’t take a break because you will fall behind and not do your best.”
