A Thrower's Ambition

Shorecrest senior discus thrower Connor Wingo has never been averse to hard work. The captain of both the football and track teams, he entered his final fall in high school ready to reap the fruits of his labor with an eye toward collegiate ball. After attending a summer regional football camp in California he felt confident in his abilities against Division I prospects, and with a spring near-miss at a trip to state in discus and hopes at the school record for this season, Wingo had every reason to believe senior year would be as successful as he intended it to be -- of course, only after more hard work and determination.

Just how much hard work it would take was something he never could have imagined, nor how much will and perseverance he would need to draw on. In a September mid-week practice Wingo, who normally plays running back, took a stab at defense.  

“He was such a tremendous athlete and we wanted to utilize his skill sets on both sides of the ball,” Shorecrest head football and track and field coach Brandon Christensen said. “So we had him running some defensive drills when it happened.”

It being the moment that would significantly alter Wingo’s season and future hopes. Upon making a tackle, the other player landed on his right ankle. The result: a broken fibula, a broken tibia, and a dislocated ankle. And no more football.

“It was really frustrating for me because I had really high aspirations to play football in college,” Wingo said. “I had spent all summer going to camps and everything trying to better myself. Then my season and football career was cut short because of injury, so that was really frustrating for me to deal with.”

After spending a week in the hospital and receiving encouragement from his football teammates (“Practically the whole entire team made one or more visits to come visit me,” he said) and getting a plate with 10 screws put in his leg, the former football hopeful was on crutches and then in a walking boot. He would not walk normally until January, putting a serious dent in his off-season training plans for discus, especially coming off a track season where he was ranked 13th in his event and missed state due to exceptionally tough district competition.

“He was such a weight room-bound kid where every minute he could he was trying to do things to make himself a better athlete,” Christensen said of his work ethic. “It just so happens that he wasn’t able to hit those workouts anymore and it set him back strength-wise.”

Dropping from 195 pounds to 168, Wingo had a long ways to go to get back into game shape on top of necessary adjustments in training and throwing form due to the injury. This, to a very technical throw with a steep learning curve.

Always up for a challenge, it’s what initially drew Wingo to the event.

“Freshman year I came out just sprinting,” he recalled. “Anyone can go out and sprint, but not everybody can go out and throw. Discus is a very technical throw. I think it’s the hardest to learn because it takes so much repetition and I thought it was a good way to challenge myself.”

To protect his ankle, Wingo had to change his finish from one where he exchanged his feet on the jump to one where he now just plants them. And he had to bulk up again for an event where he was already undersized at 5’ 11’, 195 pounds, whereas most of the top throwers are over 6 feet and in the 200s.

After going through what he had to in a remarkably short amount of time to even be able to run again, putting on some muscle was nothing for a young man with a drive uncommon relative to his youth.

“A lot of people would just have packed it in and finished their high school careers just trying to enjoy themselves in school,” Christensen said. “He really, really hit the rehab hard and it’s a testament to his determination and his will as an athlete to want to get back and compete.”

Though still working to reach his pre-injury bests, Wingo is placing near the top in discus at all of his meets and is a sure-bet to make state and finish high, capping an outstanding athletic career made all the more remarkable in light of this fall’s happening.

Wingo admits to occasionally thinking about what could have been in football, but is focused on discus and hopes to throw collegiately at a Division I university, probably as a walk-on. More hard work, but nothing he can’t handle. He hopes to pursue a career in a sports-related field, possibly one in which he has become an expert.

“I’ve pondered the idea of going into physical therapy because I’ve spent so much time doing physical therapy for my injury,” he said. “I wouldn’t be nearly in the position I am right now if it wasn’t for the physical therapy. If I could just help out other athletes the way I’ve been helped out, that would be really something.”

As if his 2011 season hasn’t been something enough already.