There’s No Doubt Now: Discus Thrower Wins Confidence, Acclaim

When she started throwing the discus as a freshman last season, Reneeka Williams of Nogales High in La Puente was unsure of herself.

“I was only throwing about 112 feet,” she remembers. “I guess I was nervous and didn’t know what I was doing.”

But the 16-year-old sophomore has caught on in a hurry.

In winning her second straight CIF 3-A Division title last week, Williams broke the division record with a heave of 153-0. That moved her into fourth place nationally among high school performers this season.

As impressive as it was, the best may be yet to come.

That’s what Coach Don Robben of Nogales thinks. Robben is in a position to know, considering that he coached former Nogales standout Lii Ili to the state title (162-2) in 1985.

“You hate to make stupid statements, but I saw Ili and I saw the girl at Rowland (Brandi) Gail, and what she has over both of them is super quickness. She’s just explosive. I’ve never seen anybody else as quick in terms of body movements.”

At 5-9 and 160 pounds, Williams is “real strong,” Robben says. “She benches 185 pounds. I’m sure she’s probably the strongest discus thrower in California.”

The coach said Williams’ rapid development is a little unusual.

“If you look at people who are good in the technical events, they usually started early--maybe in junior high--while she started as a freshman,” Robben noted.

Williams credits hard work.

“I spend a lot of time in the field and in the weight room. It’s something you think about constantly. You have to think about what you need to do to improve.

“Last year was my first year as a thrower and I just seemed to get better and better.”

She is also quick to credit the people around her.

“Coach Robben works very hard with me. I get a lot of support from the people at school and from friends. Mr. Robben is one of the best coaches around. He’ll tell you he doesn’t put in the hard time, but he puts in a lot of hard work.”

Robben said she also benefits from strong family support.

“She has a real nice family and they give her a lot of support,” Robben said. “Her mother (Betty) goes to all the meets and I think that helps. I think there’s a lot of love there. You can certainly feel it.”

The youngest in her family, Williams has three brothers and two sisters. She said she may have picked up some of her athletic skills from playing against her brothers.

“I had three mighty big brothers and used to compete in everything with them,” she said. “I played a lot of basketball and volleyball.”

Williams also plays on the volleyball and basketball teams, although there is little doubt that track is her best sport.

“I try to keep busy,” she said. “I don’t like to stay in one sport for the whole year. But I feel that all the rest of the sports are something to prepare me for track. I look forward to track.”

Besides having good athletic skills and background, Williams has also benefited from a considerable amount of confidence--more than the average sophomore in high school.

“When you get to know me I’m a person who jumps around a lot and likes to be active, and I don’t dwell on the negative,” she said. “I’m a pretty positive person and generally I’m on the up-and-up.

“I’m just very confident with myself, and I don’t mean to sound arrogant. But I always want to finish on top. I will not take second place to anybody.”

That’s why Williams says it was so difficult to accept her performance at the 3-A preliminaries May 13 when she finished second with a throw of 134-4--considerably less than her usual distance.

“It was disappointing for me and I was a little down after that, but I knew I had a week to get better,” she said.

Robben said it did not help that Williams had to wait nearly six hours, from the time she arrived, to throw in the preliminaries. But Williams is not the type to make excuses.

“It was a long wait but I don’t like to dwell on it because then I think too much about the things I did wrong,” she said. “I like to keep a positive attitude.”

For the most part, though, Williams has not had many disappointments since she started competing in the discus.

Williams thinks her best performances are ahead of her.

“I think this year I haven’t hit a peak yet,” she said. “I feel there’s more to come, and as the years go by I feel I can improve from one year to the next.”

She is particularly looking forward to the CIF state meet June 3 and 4 at Cerritos College in Norwalk, when she hopes to improve upon her sixth place showing of 137-0 last year. First she has to qualify at the CIF Masters Meet on Friday at Cerritos.

“I feel when the state meet rolls around and I get in I’ll be ready for the challenge,” she said. “But you never know because people are erratic. But I think I’ll be there.”

To this point, Williams’ success in track has been limited to the discus. Robben said he has not pushed her to compete in the shot put, although she will probably start next season.

Said Williams of the event: “I tried the shot put but I really don’t care for it because I don’t like having a metal ball on my neck. But I’ll probably pick it up next year.”

“A lot of girls don’t like the shot put, so I don’t like to push them into it,” Robben said. “Ili wasn’t a shot putter at first, either, but she became a pretty good one when she finally got going.”

Robben has little doubt that Williams will eventually succeed in the shot put, but for now he is more than happy with her rapid progress as a discus thrower.