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Last Friday, nearly 45 student-athletes received the ultimate preseason morale boost, a rousing two-hour talk and training session with an NCAA champion who craves Olympic gold. Eager representatives from Ss. Neumann-Goretti High School, 1736 S. 10th St., and Bok Technical High School, 1901 S. Ninth St., gathered at the latter to meet Ryan Whiting, a Harrisburg native who dominated discus and shot put competitions during his decorated career at Arizona State University, where he majored in civil engineering.
Whiting, 24, made his second visit to the area at the request of his brother, music teacher and track team coach Ross Whiting. The 2005 Gatorade National Male Track and Field Athlete of the Year, he owns three national collegiate indoor titles in the shot put, two outdoor crowns in the same event and one outdoor championship in the discus. His sibling recruited the services of the track star to provide additional motivation as Ross’s charges embark on a 12-week preseason workout program that began Monday.
Before demonstrating the weightlifting exercises he has used to acquire his 290-pound body, the 6-foot-3 soon-to-be graduate student at Pennsylvania State University noted how busy he has been since gaining professional status.
“I traveled the European circuit, competing in Sweden and England,” Whiting said of August trips to Stockholm and London.
Those competitions, which resulted in sixth- and eighth-place finishes in the shot put, followed a fifth-place result in June’s USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Iowa — marking his professional debut — and a fourth-place showing in last July’s Prefontaine Classic in Oregon, both in the shot put.
“I am taking a break from the discus this year,” Whiting said, revealing he is eager to attempt to qualify for next year’s International Association of Athletics Federations Championships in Daegu, South Korea, and the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games, huge gatherings for which he must be ranked among the top-three Americans to enjoy.
“I finished sixth in qualifying for the Beijing 2008 Games,” he said, having lost some of his power because of an ankle injury. “I would love to go to London and maybe even Rio de Janeiro in 2016.”
In his brother’s second-floor classroom, Whiting addressed the students for roughly 15 minutes. The spacious room contained a poster of Whiting from his collegiate days. Under his determined image, the words “Pain is temporary. Championships are forever,” reminded everyone of the need to endure regardless of results.
“It takes a ton to be a professional athlete,” Whiting, whose next big slate of events will begin by next March, said. “Even when you guys are frustrated, you have to think the next meet will be better. Track and field is very goal-oriented, and you get out what you put in.”
As a Sun Devil, Whiting excelled in the classroom, twice earning Second Team Track and Field All-American honors.
“You will need to put in so much effort to balance undergraduate work and athletics,” Whiting said of their next-level ambitions. “If you go professional, you won’t really be able to take any time off.”
In an hour-long stay in the weight room, Whiting demonstrated numerous lifts, including repetitions of dead lifts, in which he has achieved a personal best of 660 pounds, and bench presses — mandatory lifts for those who aspire to be professional football players, which many of the attendees wish to become. His bench press best is 520 pounds, and he effortlessly lifted 405 pounds to display proper technique.
Each lift came with guided instruction and drew admiration from the mostly-male audience.
“I’ve been lifting for 10 years. After so many years of learning, I consider many of these lifts straightforward. This, however, is probably the single hardest lift,” Whiting said before executing a flawless snatch lift made easy by his powerful legs.
He stressed proper footwear, use of a belt to support one’s core and gloves to negotiate the lifts. The excited throng followed Whiting to the girls’ gymnasium to watch him execute his specialty, the shot put.
Minus the traditional seven-foot circle from which shot putters make their heaves, Whiting made a footwear change to launch a 16-pound ball. At June’s NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships, he hurled the ball 72-1, a personal best that the students cheered for him to break.
“Hit the wall,” a few chanted as he chucked the projectile across the court.
Whiting nearly accommodated them. His massive throws inspired a dozen students to make their initial throws of the weighty ball.
Bok sophomore Vittorio Goggins, who is an offensive lineman for the Wildcats’ football team, sent two attempts from his right arm and earned Whiting’s praise for showing solid form.
“I just wanted to try something new,” the resident of the 2900 block of South New-kirk Street said.
Goggins plans to throw the shot put for Bok, so he enjoyed having Whiting’s tutelage.
“He’s impressive, no doubt,” Goggins said.
Neumann-Goretti junior Rob Kralle, who often ventures to Bok to train, may try out for his school’s track and field team as a runner or discus thrower. A defensive tackle and offensive lineman for the Saints, he found Whiting’s stop “awesome.”
“He was so motivational,” Kralle, of 10th and Wolf streets, said.
Following a few more valiant throws, the students huddled around Whiting, who received a Bok Tech weightlifting T-shirt from Athletic Director Frank “Roscoe” Natale for giving his time to the budding athletes.
Grinning over having been able to enlighten the students, Whiting ended another successful jaunt to South Philadelphia. His other trip came three weeks ago, as he watched the Eagles’ victory over the New York Giants at Lincoln Financial Field.
“The time here was great. I am glad they picked up some ideas,” the Olympic hopeful said. “I hope they feel more excited about the upcoming season.”
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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