After unexpected return to sport, a title is won

Carolina Siofele’s summer plans did not include throwing a discus and shot put. She hadn’t done it in almost a year, and figured her days of competing were over.

Even after she started helping coach the throwers for the Evergreen Storm track club, she did not plan to compete.

Even after Scott Slamp, the team’s head coach and driving force, entered Siofele in the Oregon state meet — just in case, he said — she had no intention of participating.

DID YOU KNOW?

• The second-year Evergreen Storm Track team joined the 48-year-old Flanagan Clan Girls Track Club of Woodland as a Southwest Washington team with athletes at the national Junior Olympics track and field meet. EDITOR’S NOTE: This item originally contained an incorrect age for the Flanagan Clan Girls Track Club.

• National medal winners for the Evergreen Storm were Carolina Siofele (first in girls 17-18 discus), Alexis Fuller (second in girls 13-14 1,500), Leon Siofele (sixth in boys 13-14 discus), and Ramon Ortiz (eighth in the boys 13-14 800).

• Heath Meler, who will be a junior at Columbia River High School, finished fifth in the 2,000-meter steeplechase for boys 15-16. He was coached by sister, Holly, who will compete for Portland State in cross country and track.

• The Flanagan Clan had four girls place in the top six at nationals: Priscilla Timmons (fourth in the girls 17-18 3,000), Anna Adamko (fourth in the girls 17-18 javelin), Jessica Flanagan (fifth in the girls 11-12 mini-javelin), and McKenna Flanagan (sixth in the girls 10-and-younger mini-javelin).

In less than four weeks, “just in case” became “just look at this gold medal.”

And it wasn’t just any gold medal.

On July 30 in Sacramento, Calif., Siofele threw the discus a personal best 144 feet, 4 inches, at the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics. It was her first throw of the day, and it turned out to be a national championship toss.

A 2009 Union High School grad who turned 19 last week, Siofele won the young women’s discus title by topping a field of 29 throwers ages 17-18.

“I just had a really good warmup,” she said. “When I was competing, I just zoned everyone out. It’s probably the most serious I’ve been about anything in my life.”

Those few minutes on the field in Sacramento might have been the only time all summer Siofele was serious about competing. It was certainly the best time.

And quite a story, given that days before the competition, the Siofele family decided not to make the trip to Sacramento.

But the opportunity to compete at a national event was too good to pass up. Relatives and sponsors of the Evergreen Storm — including Les Schwab tires — stepped up to help pay for the trip.

In addition to Carolina’s championship, the rewards included a sixth-place finish for Leon Siofele in the discus among boys ages 13-14.

“Top 10 is good,” Leon said. “I feel honored to have competed against all those great competitors.”

The Siofeles’ success was a shining example of how far the Evergreen Storm Track Club has progressed in two seasons. It is also a story that reflects the team’s knack for pulling together to find a way to reach goals.

To begin with, Carolina was involved only to support her younger brother and some friends. When it turned out that veteran Lee Cave was unable to coach this summer, Carolina tried to fill the gap.

“I was just going to help out as much as I could,” she said.

She did pretty well. Five Evergreen Storm throwers qualified for the Junior Olympics.

“I learned a lot from Coach Cave,” she said, explaining how she was able to help athletes not much younger than herself achieve lofty goals.

“I feel so young,” she said. “But being their coach makes me feel very good.”

She said she feels almost as good about Leon’s sixth-place medal as she does her own gold.

Football and basketball are the sports Leon Siofele loves. About to begin his freshman year at Union High School, training for the discus and shot put was just something to fill the summer gap between sports.

In part because the daily training sessions became a competition with his older sister, Leon threw himself into the throws.

“In practice, we’d always try to act like we were in the final three throws at a big meet,” Carolina said.

That sibling rivalry made practices more fun. It also helped make a reality of Slamp’s dream of giving local youngsters a chance to shine on a big stage.

Slamp, a teacher and coach at Covington Middle School, pieced together the team in 2009 to give a few select athletes a platform to turn potential into production. Slamp enlisted a small group of volunteer coaches, but soon began dreaming big.

With the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics national meet in Sacramento, Slamp wanted his athletes to get there.

The Evergreen Storm qualified athletes for 25 events and competed in 22 of those at nationals. There were seven top-10 finishes and four medal winners (top eight).

“A lot of people worked hard for this,” Slamp said. “I was personally in tears of joy” when Siofele won her gold medal.

For Carolina Siofele, the gold medal might not be the final twist to this story. Carolina next month plans to join sister Tanya at college in Hawai’i. After this summer, she plans to explore opportunities to throw the discus in college.

“I was just going to give it up,” she said. “But Slamp inspired me to keep going.”