Master in the art of throwing

Fresno State assistant track and field coach gives expert advice to athletes

By Morgan Steger
The Collegian

IN 1984, RAMONA PAGEL did what many aspiring shot putters dream of doing but few ever achieve — she made the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team and walked into the Olympic stadium in her home town of Los Angeles as a certifiable world-class athlete.

Pagel, Fresno State’s assistant track coach, said she made the 1984 team, the first of four she would earn a place on, by a mere centimeter and a whole lot of hard work.

For the 17 years that Pagel competed in throwing events, such as shot put and discus, she trained 11 months out of the year, six days a week, from four to eight hours a day.

She was in her peak condition as a competitor at the 1988 Summer Games, having just come off setting the American women’s indoor track and field record in shot put, a record which still stands, of 65 feet 3/4 inches.

Pagel said she could feel the tension in the air every time she walked through the athletes’ village in Seoul. She was not a favorite, but she felt America and the world were watching and expecting great things.

Although Pagel never stood on the medal podium during her Olympic career, spanning from the 1984 to the 1996 games, she also never walked away with less than a 15th place finish.

“You can do your best but not get a medal,” she said.

The breadth of Pagel’s competitive achievements earned her an immediate rapport with her athletes, when she arrived at Fresno State in August of 2005. Her athletes, throwers who compete in javelin, shotput, discus and hammer, said they trust her to guide them because she knows what it takes to compete with the best.

“She has instant credibility,” said junior Dave Endler. “She’s thrown the shot put farther than any other woman in American history. She knows exactly how to make you better as an athlete.”

Jamie Farley, a senior hammer and discus thrower said Pagel demands respect because, as a coach, she always does what she says she’s going to do and because she has the athletic experience to back up her expectations of her athletes.

“I know she won’t ask us to do anything she wasn’t willing to do herself as an athlete,” Farley said.

Pagel strives for a mentoring relationship with her athletes, using her life experience and athletic expertise to teach them how to succeed in sports and life, she said.

Her throwers say her key to success as a coach is how effectively she demonstrates that she is truly interested in them, both on and off the track.

“She’s done an amazing job of always seeming like a friend, a shoulder to turn to,” Endler said.

Pagel devotes at least 20 hours of her week to hands-on coaching, and said she never realized how much effort went into preparing athletes until she stepped over the threshold and became a coach herself.

“Coaching is not the same as being an athlete,” she said. “There are so many things athletes take for granted.”

Such as the time that goes into procuring the right equipment, creating time schedules, organizing heats, and developing workouts, Pagel said.

Pagel’s job as a coach doesn’t stop with taking care of the tangible factors. She also has to push her athletes to develop the mentality of champions. Some athletes believe that showing up for two hours of practice a day is all it takes, Pagel said.

Speaking from experience, she knows that a balanced lifestyle, good eating habits and mental preparation also figure heavily into how successful an athlete is in competition, and she tries to motivate her throwers to work on all of these aspects to achieve success.

Pagel’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed by her athletes. Farley said she enjoys the professional tone Pagel has set. Team morale has improved, Farley said, because athletes are taking track more seriously under Pagel’s guidance.

“With her here I’m getting what I expected out of a Division 1 experience,” she said.

Before Pagel came to Fresno State, she spent three years coaching at Southeastern Louisiana University. She made the switch to Fresno State because she was impressed by the track program’s history and its ability to draw talented high school athletes, she said. Plus, as a California native who attended San Diego State, she was ready to come home.

“I’m a Cal-State person through and through,” she said.

Pagel has high expectations for her team this season and hopes to have a few throwers qualify for regionals.

“We are going to have a strong team,” she said.

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