Still Throwing His Weights Around : Shotputter Blutreich Battles Against Injuries, Self-Doubt
Brian Blutreich still holds the Orange County high school records in the shotput (69 feet 6 1/2 inches) and the discus (210-8) by a long shot.
He set them in 1985, during his senior year at Capistrano Valley High School. That was the year everything went right, the year he received a plaque for four years of perfect attendance, the year he took the homecoming queen to the senior prom, the year he received his second All-American award in track and field.
He was a sure shot to excel in college. Track powers UCLA, USC, Arizona State, Arkansas, Texas and Southern Methodist wooed him. He chose UCLA and arrived with high expectations.
He was redshirted his first year at UCLA and, competing for the Santa Monica Track Club, set a national 19-and-under record in the shotput with a throw of 63-5 1/2.
He hasnât put the shot that far since.
At the end of his season with Santa Monica, the shot, his favorite event, backfired.
âThe shot slipped out of my hand and I basically pushed it out with one finger,â Blutreich said. âIt was not a good sight. They said I tore ligaments.â
âHe basically was the leading thrower in the world for the juniors at age 19 right before he injured his hand,â said Art Venegas, UCLAâs throwing coach. Venegas said the injury made Blutreich throw tentatively. Instead of generating power by snapping the shot with his wrist and fingers, he began guiding the shot, Venegas said.
âThe shot is a very unforgiving implement,â said Blutreichâs father, Len, who helped coach Brian in high school and who threw the discus for Cal State Los Angeles and competed in the 1960s for the Southern California Striders amateur track club.
âHere you are generating speed through the spin, generating all these forces that all come out through the wrist and hand, and you know some pain is coming at the end of that, so you try to modify your form a little bit so as to try to not have as much pain.â
Blutreich did reinjure the hand during his first season of competition at UCLA, making his first two seasons of competition at UCLA a struggle from which he is only now beginning to emerge.
But as he competed through pain for two years, Blutreich began to doubt himself.
âHe hit rock bottom,â Venegas said. âI mean the kid was absolutely destroyed his freshman and sophomore years. He started to rise his junior year,â which ended this month.
âBased around the injury he just felt like, âGod, I canât produce.â He used to be a major part of the program and now he felt like he was just hanging on.â
Blutreich describes the period as âjust a very tough time. My teammates, who I came in with, were all making the Olympic team and going to Europe and competing, and it was just very tough on me not doing what I was capable of doing.
âWhen youâre hurt throwing the shot, your legs donât do what they are supposed to do. . . . Last year I really thought about quitting the sport. I had the phone in my hand and I was ready to call coach and say, âHey, Iâm not having fun; I just want to quit.â Obviously I didnât make the call.â
Instead, he talked with friends and did some soul-searching on the beach.
âI tried to think what life would be like without the sport and basically decided I had to keep going because I never quit.â
Blutreich is a perfectionist by nature. He was awarded plaques for perfect attendance in junior high and high school and earned the arrow of light, the highest honor in Cub Scouts in Mission Viejo Troop 704. His bedroom is covered with medals, trophies and plaques for his athletic and other accomplishments.
âThere was a lot of pressure on you to do well,â Blutreich said. âThey give you a scholarship and expect a lot of big things out of you and you donât produce. A lot of pressure is there from the outside and inside.â
Said Venegas: âI donât think he had a lot of pressure from outside people. His family is very low-key and very supportive. Here at UCLA, though, you have very high-level people like Jackie Joyner-Kersee. The pressure has been more Brianâs pressure. He is very demanding of himself. But that is what makes him a good athlete.â
Blutreich is a solid 6-foot-5 1/2, 280 pounds, helped in part by an extensive weight-training program he started in junior high under coach Dave Elecciri, now football coach at San Clemente. Because he has a frame that he has to fold to fit into the front seat of his Mustang, some people think Blutreich uses drugs such as steroids or human growth hormones, he said.
âPeople always ask me, âSo what are you taking?â I say Iâm taking pizza,â Blutreich said.
But he was not so nonplussed about such queries when he was injured and struggling.
âYou throw far and people have to come up with some excuse on how you did it,â he said. âWhen I wasnât doing well, everyone started saying, âOh, heâs not taking his drugs.â At first I felt a lot of hatred and bitterness. But I learned how to deal with it. I did a lot of growing up during that time. I definitely matured a lot.â
No matter how bad things got, Blutreich said he never considered taking steroids because he is a Christian, and because he did not want to embarrass his family.
âIt (steroid use) is crazy,â he said. âIt defeats the whole purpose of sport. I never took the drugs probably because of my family. Iâm an only child and my parents mean a lot to me, and they sure wouldnât approve of it.â
Blutreich says heâs looking forward to a new policy that goes into effect July 1, in which The Athletic Congress has authorized random drug testing of the top 25 competitors in each discipline.
Blutreichâs comeback began when he finished third in the discus with a throw of 188-6 at the 1988 NCAA outdoor championships. âThat was the motivation he needed to move on,â Venegas said.
â(This year) at the Pac-10 championships and the NCAA championships, he began to show signs of the Brian of old with a lot of snap in his wrist where he put pressure on his hand again.â
Blutreich won the Pac-10 title in the discus last month with a throw of 195-0. He placed third in the shot at the NCAA indoor meet in Indianapolis in March with a throw of 60-0 1/2.
In the NCAA outdoor championships in Provo, Utah, this month, he placed third in the shot (61-9) and fourth in the discus (189-0) despite an injured knee.
A week later, he went to the Tucson Invitational in Arizona and threw a lifetime best (199-8) in the discus, the fourth-best mark in UCLA history.
But while warming up for the shot, he severely sprained his ankle, causing him to miss last weekendâs The Athletic Congress national championships in Houston. He had thrown the shot 62-8 in the qualifying rounds before the injury.
âHe has had some bad luck with injuries, there is no doubt about it,â Venegas said.
His bad luck hasnât run out yet. He is taking off a month or so from training while he recovers from surgery that removed a cyst from his back.
âNow what he has to do is overcome that fear and really start attacking his throw and I predict he can throw the shot 66 feet next year and the discuss 210 feet,â Venegas said.
(Mike Buncic of the University of Kentucky holds the NCAA record in the discus at 217-11, set in 1985. UCLAâs John Brenner holds the shot record at 71-11 1/4, set in 1984.)
âHe has a very good shot at being rated No. 1 in the shot and discus his senior year in college and that is a natural progression,â Venegas said. âHe has talent enough that if he becomes motivated and gets the financial support, he could be an Olympian.â
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