|
|||||||||||||
Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Female Athlete of the Year: Natalie Baird
When Park View's Natalie Baird drives forward, propelling 2.2 pounds of discus deep into the sky, the chief competition is usually herself.
As a freshman, Baird broke the 24-year-old state discus record, then proceeded to break her own discus mark each year thereafter, including a throw of 161 feet, seven inches -- the greatest distance any female has ever thrown the discus in Virginia high school competition. Such achievements alone would merit her scholarship to The College of William & Mary.
But she is also a three-time state shot-put champ, holds the Virginia record for the hammer throw and started off the Patriots' 4x100-meter relay.
Three times, she has earned gold for the discus in the carnival that is the Penn Relays -- including a satisfying come-from-behind win with her last throw of the famed meet during her junior year.
For her efforts this season and throughout her varsity career, Baird has been selected a 2008 Times-Mirror Female Athlete of the Year.
The salutatorian of her graduating class, she has thoughts of becoming a scientist -- though, she said, "I think I might try a lot of different things."
It was as a soccer-playing 12-year-old, while observing her older brother at track and field practice, that she first gained interest in the sport.
"I figured, 'Hey, maybe I should try that,'" she said.
She tried pretty well, cutting her teeth with Loudoun Track & Field Club, with which she still participates. She also has gained experience under coach Tony Dziepak of the all-ages Potomac Valley Club, through which she learned the hammer throw.
Though she admits to being initially skeptical of success, her first discus toss in high school competition broke the Park View record.
Her dad, Brian, an assistant on coach Randy Kerico's staff and an accomplished multi-sport athlete during his Falls Church High School days, saw potential early in his daughter's career. She credits him with providing emotional encouragement and technical training.
"We work together as a team," Baird said. "I would not be anywhere near where I am if he hadn't been coaching me."
Paying no heed to relentless drenching rains as she got in some practice time ahead of an impending Nike Nationals meet -- one in which she landed third in the discus -- Baird enumerated several ways in which her father aids her career.
"He does all the boring stuff for me," she began her list, concluding, "... and [he] watches the tapes over and over again to check on technique."
Technique is paramount to the Bairds. Natalie related that field throws -- hurling the discus, putting the shot or flinging the hammer -- are leg-driven, not arm-driven. Brian conveyed that these events are based upon speed, not brute strength.
The younger Baird has both in abundance. The possible future kinesiologist possesses an ordinary build but is exceptionally strong, being able to squat 425 pounds three times and lift 190 pounds over her head.
Initially, Baird didn't care much for weight-lifting.
"Coach Kerico has been a blessing," she said. "He's like the weight-training guru. Now I get cranky if I don't lift."
With her teammates on the Patriots' two-time state championship squad, Baird at times does some coaching herself. She considers the possibility of coaching as a profession.
"It's great to have each other, to help work on technique," she said, listing several teammates she counts among her “best friends.”
Brian Baird's daughter has garnered innumerable friends by adhering to her father's credo: "You win by living well, and that means treating people nicely," the older Baird said.
"I'm trying to be the person God wants me to be," Natalie reported. "I'm just trying to do my best every day."
You must be logged in to post a comment.