He’s a Real Handyman With a Hammer : Colleges: Azusa Pacific hammer thrower McCann is a good bet to win the event at NAIA championship.

Before he started competing in the hammer throw as a freshman at Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif., Ryan McCann wasn’t completely sold on the virtues of the event.

But it did not take him long to change his mind.

“I thought it was a joke when I first picked it up,” he said. “But once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down.”

The event became so habit-forming to McCann that he had to set aside additional practice times during the school day.

“I’d get so excited about it that I’d have to take a break in between classes so I could throw it,” he said. “I call it ‘Hammeritis’ because once you start you’re hooked.”

McCann doesn’t go to those lengths to throw the hammer these days, but that hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for the event.

That may go a long way toward explaining his success in the event since he arrived at Azusa Pacific University three years ago.

He won the event at the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics Track Championships as a junior and, after red-shirting last season, has returned this year to rank as the favorite in his specialty going into the NAIA championships today through Saturday at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Tex.

McCann, 22, appears to be in peak form heading into the meet with an NAIA season-best throw of 191 feet 8 inches during a meet at UC Irvine three weeks ago. He is also one of the NAIA leaders in the discus with a best of 165-0.

That is a good thing for Azusa Pacific because weight throwers have played an integral role in the success of the Cougars in recent years. The Cougars have won the NAIA men’s title seven of the past eight years and have been led by weight throwers such as Christian Okoye, who is currently a running back for the Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL, and Ade Olukoju.

“We’ve been the powerhouse in the weight events,” McCann says. “It’s kind of our meat and potatoes events. It’s always been our mainstay. With Christian, Mike Maynard and Ade we’ve always had a lot of good competitors.”

Olukoju won the hammer, discus and shot-put at the NAIA championships last year in his final season of track eligibility. McCann knows that he will be counted on to help fill the void this time.

“He’s a real key to us because he’s one of the favorites in the hammer and the discus,” assistant Kevin Reid said. “We’re looking at him as defending champion in the hammer because that’s what he did the last time he competed. The hammer goes off Thursday morning and that can get us off to a good start.”

Reid said McCann might have won the hammer at the NAIA meet last season if he had not decided to redshirt. But McCann decided that he needed to spend more time focusing on his classes.

“I knew it would take another year of school to graduate, so I talked to Coach (Terry) Franson and we decided that was the best thing to do,” McCann said.

In the interim, McCann also competed for the Athletes In Action touring team, although he didn’t see his throws improve significantly.

But McCann said he experienced the most growth away from the track while working on a church mission in India last summer.

The mission started in a small town in southern India. McCann says that at 6-foot and 225 pounds, he stood out among the local residents.

“I was out jogging and they (people along the way) saw this big American running in the streets and a policeman pulled me over and asked me what I was doing there,” he said. “He probably thought I was a terrorist or something.”

When he first arrived, McCann also had to grow accustomed to the idea of sleeping on concrete floors and not having the luxury of running water.

All in all, though, he wouldn’t trade the experience.

“It was really incredible,” he said. “Just being in a different culture and experiencing that was enough education for life. It was different but it was well worth it and fun. I can honestly say it was the greatest summer of my life.”

McCann said he did come back from the trip a little lighter, having lost about 10 pounds of muscle, but worked hard to regain his physique upon returning home.

“Now my training’s going full speed and I feel stronger and I have more muscle weight than I had when I left,” he said.

Reid says McCann didn’t simply benefit physically from the trip.

“I think where he really benefited was mentally,” Reid said. “He came away a lot better for the experience and I think that has helped him this season.”

With the trip to India and a strong season behind him, McCann has high hopes going into the final meet of his college career.

“I’ve been training really hard and we’ll see how it goes,” he said. “Coach Franson trains us to (personal record) at nationals and I’m hoping to do well. It’s my last meet unless I qualify for the (U.S.) championships and I’m really coming into focus now.”

Although he feels that he is approaching his best throws, McCann isn’t too concerned about distances at the moment.

“For me personally, more than anything else, my goal is to win,” he said. “That’s the most important thing.”

He is also thinking about the possibility of continuing to compete in the event after college in pursuit of a berth on the U.S. Olympic team.

“I think after the season I’ll evaluate where I’m at and see if I can lay down a program and go after it,” McCann said. “I think I have the potential to make the Olympics. It just depends on a lot of things.”

But for now McCann is mostly concerned about helping the Cougars win another NAIA title and starting today he hopes to hammer home the point.