While the Arizona Interscholastic Association has allowed high school track and field athletes to throw the javelin for the last two years, coach Harry Schneider hasn’t gotten much of a chance to coach it at Sedona Red Rock High School. That’s changed this year.

Schneider didn’t find out until late in the 2018 season that the javelin was allowed. When he did, only one person participated. He entered the 2019 season prepared to coach it, but no students were interested.

But as the track team is getting prepared for the 2020 season, no fewer than nine of the Scorpions have taken an interest in the sport. The coach said he was excited at the opportunity to coach javelin, having been a javelin thrower at Springfield College in Massachusetts in the 1960s.

“I would think as a kid, ‘Hey, want to throw a spear? Yeah. Okay,’” Schneider said. “To me, it’s like common sense. It’s just fun.”

It’s safe to assume that if freshman Colton Stevenson was a year older and on the track team a season ago, the Scorpions would have had at least one javelin thrower in 2019.

Stevenson shares the view of his coach and when the opportunity to throw javelin was offered to him, he leapt at it.

“What kid does not want to chuck a stick — why would you grow up and not want to chuck a stick?” Stevenson said. “I love it. It’s my favorite event so far by far.”

Other athletes on the team had different motivations for becoming javelin throwers.

“I’ve always loved throwing football with my brothers,” sophomore Morgan Welch said. “I always wanted to bring that into here. I thought this was sort of similar to that. So I wanted to try it.”

While the coach and athletes have been excited about having javelin this season, the event does create some unique challenges.

For starters, Schneider is the only coach on the Sedona team who’s experienced with it. As such, javelin practice can’t begin until after the rest of the track practice has wrapped up. The strain that throwing a javelin puts on the shoulder also prevents the team from practicing it every day.

Additionally, the javelin is not conducive to the astroturf football field. So, the throwers practice on the Scorpions old practice football field. It’s also where the javelin contests at any of Sedona’s home meets will take place. Finally, as the javelin is essentially a spear, even a slow- moving one can cause significant damage to anyone hit by one being thrown or even walked into.

“I told them, if someone gets hit, even a little bit, it’s over,” Schneider said.

With that understood, Schneider was also quick to note that the athletes have been diligent with their safety precautions and thus far, javelin practices have gone on safely.

It’s too early to determine who the team’s best throwers will be. Most of the early practices have involved working on technique and featuring only light throws.

For the athletes involved, the experience has been both unusual and enjoyable.

“It’s pretty weird,” senior Carolina Lopez said. “You don’t really throw anything like you throw a javelin. But it’s fun so far.”

It’s also an event that they hope even more SRRHS students will try in the future.

“I’d say for people that don’t know if they want to join or not to just try it out,” junior Francisco Bekele said. “Track has like a million different things to offer. You don’t know what you might be good at.”