Brooke Pleger's Journey A Story Of Focus And Determination

Bowling Green State University redshirt junior Brooke Pleger will throw the hammer for a chance at a national championship on Wednesday in Eugene, Ore. A record-smashing two-time Mid-American Conference champion, Pleger's accomplishments say volumes about her, but her journey to this point is just as impressive as any of those feats or what might happen this week.

Pleger's march to this week with the hammer began only four years ago.

As a teenager, Pleger competed in gymnastics and ran sprints for the Saline (Mich.) High School track and field team. Her introduction to throws came at the suggestion of her gymnastics coach, who happened to be married to her track coach. "She said to him that I should try throwing, because I have good body awareness as a gymnast," Pleger said.

The switch from sprints to throws was not met with enthusiasm at first. "I was really unhappy about it, because in my mind, throwers were unathletic," Pleger said. "That's where they sent people who couldn't do anything else, so I was insulted at first."

Pleger started with the shot put and discus and discovered that she really liked it. She competed in those events during her first three years at Saline and met with some success, particularly in discus, where she won all-conference as a sophomore and placed first at state regionals as a junior and senior.

Finally, in the summer of 2010 and before her senior season, Pleger picked up the hammer for the first time. The match was perfect, so much so that she broke a state record almost immediately. "That was exciting, because it happened just a couple of months after I started throwing," said Pleger. "At that time, I wasn't practicing every day. I had school and threw shot put and discus, too."

Because of her relatively late emergence, Pleger says that she did not go through much of a recruiting process. This allowed her to select the school that was best for her, which happened to be Bowling Green. She said that the school atmosphere and relatively small campus size attracted her to BGSU.

Brooke Pleger atop the medal stand
at the 2013 MAC Championships.

As a freshman, she immediately became an integral part of the BGSU throws group. She competed in the shot put and weight throw during the indoor season and placed seventh at the MAC Championships in the weight throw. She resumed the hammer when the season moved outdoors, and she posted a seventh-place finish at the MAC title meet in that event.

The BGSU track and field program underwent a coaching change following Pleger's freshman season, and that brought in new head coach Lou Snelling and throws coach Matt Conly. The change in the outlook for the program was clear to Pleger.

"Their outlook on where our team needs to be and how it needs to get there is very different. We have much more structure," she said. "The people who are here want to be here, they're working hard, and they care about this program."

First impressions were also good for Snelling and Conly, and that led to very positive working relationships. Snelling was impressed with the level of concern that Pleger had with making sure that the team had the right throws coach, which was ultimately Conly. According to Conly, "I had seen her throw as a freshman, so I knew what kind of talent and potential was there."

He noted that there were some challenges as changes were made but added, "To her credit, she really trusted me and kept grinding away at it, despite it not being a smooth process."

In his first year at the helm, Snelling understood that there was not going to be much team success, so he chose to redshirt a large number of athletes. Pleger was among that group, and she spent her second year at BGSU competing as an unattached athlete while training for future success with the Falcons. Snelling said, "It gave her the opportunity to get more comfortable with Coach Conly's training, to get to know it and experience it."

Conly also emphasized that becoming accustomed to working with one another was a big part of Pleger's redshirt season. He added, "It was also about making some big technical changes and adapting to a different style of training."

Both coaches believe that the decision was very successful. Snelling commented, "She handled it well. She took a huge step during that season. We already knew that she was special, but at that point, it went to a new level."

Conly said that Pleger had the potential to be a MAC champion and national qualifier that season. However, he added, "Now she will have two legitimate chances to win a national title. We wouldn't have that if we had not made the decision to redshirt and have an extra year of development."

Pleger's return to active competition for BGSU went as well as one could possibly hope. She won the weight throw in her first indoor competition as a redshirt sophomore, then won that event two more times during the indoor season before ultimately finishing fifth at the MAC Championships.

"It was nice to see all that work that I had put in during my redshirt year pay off," Pleger said. However, she added, "I know I'm a much better hammer thrower than weight thrower."

Fans may not realize it, but the two are very different events that have some similar aspects.

"You wind the weight, you wind the hammer. You turn similarly, but the weight is 20 pounds and short. The hammer is eight pounds and much longer, so technical aspects of the throw are very different."

Brooke Pleger earned the MAC's Most Outstanding
Field Athlete award in 2013.

Pleger said that she gained the most confidence at her first outdoor meet with the hammer during that redshirt sophomore year. In that meet, the Raleigh Relays, she broke the BGSU hammer record with a toss of 212-6. She ultimately won five of the seven meets in which she competed. Her confidence continued to blossom, and at the MAC Outdoor Championships, she won the hammer championship by breaking the meet record, earning MAC Field Athlete of the Year honors.

Following that, she threw 210-1 at the NCAA East Regional to become the first BGSU athlete to win an event at a regional meet. She then became the first Falcon to score points at the national meet in 12 years when she placed seventh in the hammer. That result earned her first-team All-American honors.

Pleger loved her initial experiences on the postseason stage.

"Regionals last year was one of the most nerve-wracking meets I'd ever competed in, but I knew that I was physically prepared," she said. "It was just being in the right mental state. Winning it was nice, but the best part was that I got to move on (to nationals). Nationals was also a really great experience. It was just nice to be in Track Town USA, where track is so present and everyone is so interested in it. I also learned a lot from those experiences that helped me this year."

According to Snelling, he knew that she would take a step that season because of the consistency of her training and how hard she worked.

"It wasn't any big surprise that she took it to the next level," he said. "The most impressive thing was how she handled all the new experiences. It was really special how she handled all of that the very first time."

Throws Coach Matt Conly and Brooke Pleger at the NCAA
National Championships in 2013.

Snelling said that, more often than not, athletes don't succeed under those new pressures.

This season has brought even more success for Pleger. She finished first in six of her seven meets thus far and has registered throws of at least 208-7 in every meet. She set a new personal (and BGSU) record of 223-0 at the Toledo Invitational, then won her second straight MAC championship with a new meet record of 218-9. Her only non-winning meet was the NCAA East Regional, but her second-place throw of 216-2 will allow her to enter nationals seeded second.

As she gets ready to head to Eugene again, Pleger believes that last year's experiences will help her in this year's meet.

"Being through it and understanding how the meets work, it's a long, drawn-out process," she said. "They randomize it, so even though I'm going in seeded second, that doesn't mean I'm going to be in the second flight. I might be in the first, then have to wait for finals, so being through it once really helps mentally."

Pleger admitted that the possible results of the upcoming national championships have crossed her mind, but she knows that she can only control so much.

"I can only go in and do what I do. Even if I throw my best, someone else might throw better," she said. "This year, I feel like I'm going into it with a different mindset than what I did last year. Last time, I just wanted to throw well, make it to finals and be a first-team All-American. This year, I want to be national champion. I'm a lot more focused on the path to get there."

Conly is also very determined and confident.

"She has been consistent, healthy, and calm. I know we have made the right decisions along the way," he said. "The goal in August when we started was to have a legitimate opportunity to win a national title. We will head to Eugene with a chance to do just that."

But how does an athlete go from a hammer novice to a potential national champion almost overnight? How could Pleger so quickly catch up to others who were throwing far earlier? Both of her coaches cite her training and knowledge of the sport.

Snelling said, "She brings a lot of focus. She trains hard and does it day in and day out. Outside of that, she's just a student of the sport. She could talk to you in depth about what's currently going on with the hammer throw nationally and internationally. She's just very educated there."

Conly commented that Pleger's rate of progression has been astonishing and that it speaks loudly to how talented and determined she is. He added, "She has an incredible attention to detail. She's very in tune with her own throwing and preparation. She knows what she wants to accomplish and stays focused on our plan to get there."

Regardless of what happens on Wednesday, the whirlwind that is Pleger's journey in the hammer throw will not end. She still has her senior season left, and beyond that, she says that she has aspirations to train for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

"I'd like to train at least through 2016 and then see where I'm at, because I'd love to keep going," she said. "But even if not, I'm going to throw forever, even if it's just for fun."

The NCAA Division I Women's Track & Field Championships begin Wednesday in Eugene, Ore. at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon. Pleger will compete in the hammer throw beginning, which begins at 4:30 pm on the first day of competition.

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Brooke Pleger's Journey A Story Of Focus And Determination

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