Athlete Returns for a Shot at Stardom : Colleges: Brandi Gail was Division II shotput champion in 1988. After a three-year layoff, she’s at Cal State Los Angeles and picking up where she left off.

The feeling still comes too infrequently, sometimes during a workout and occasionally during competition.

Brandi Gail will pick up the shot or the discus, make final mental notes and then unleash a long, seemingly effortless throw despite an exclamation that reflects sheer strain.

“There are times when I sit there and everything I have learned to this point comes together,” Gail said.

Gail, 23, appears to have put her track and field career back together at Cal State Los Angeles after taking a three-year layoff from competition.

She was the NCAA Division II outdoor shotput champion at Cal Poly Pomona in 1988. In March, competing for Cal State L.A., she won the Division II indoor shotput championship with a mark of 47 feet 10 3/4 inches.

Gail’s immediate goals include winning another NCAA outdoor title and qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Trials to be held in June in New Orleans.

“Right now, I’m kind of where I left off after 1988,” Gail said. “My strength is good and I feel healthy, but I need some work on my technique.

“It’s not a matter of making the (Olympic) team at this point. I just want to get to the trials and achieve some of my own goals.”

Gail, who graduated from Rowland High, was the girls’ national high school shotput champion in 1986 with a mark of 47-4 3/4. As a sophomore at Pomona, she won the Division II shotput championship with a throw of 49-7 and finished second in the discus at 161 feet.

But when her coach, John Turek, left Pomona to finish a master’s degree, Gail left school. She went to work for her father’s graphic arts company with designs on someday resuming her athletic career.

“I was sort of ready for a break,” Gail said, “but not one that long.”

When Turek became men’s track coach at Cal State L.A. in 1990, one of the first calls he made was to Gail.

“I had always told her that she could come back because in the throwing events, you could take time off and the only thing you do is get stronger,” said Turek, who works as Gail’s personal coach. “This is an athlete with tremendous talent. I think she has world-class potential down the line. She is built to throw.

“You can coach someone on technique and those kinds of things, but you can’t coach the ability to perform. She can perform, and perform under pressure.”

Gail, 5-foot-11, was attracted to Cal State L.A. because the school offered a degree in print management. She works full time as an apprentice lithographer and, when she re-entered school, needed college credit to obtain status as a journeyman.

“If it wasn’t for what the school offered in the way of graphic arts, I don’t know if she would have come back,” Turek said. “She really wanted to compete, and compete well, but she didn’t think she needed to come back to school to do that, and she was right.

“But the thing that makes Cal State L.A. unique is our diversity. We attract a lot of kids that have been out for awhile or who just want to get back into track. I think Brandi enjoys being out in that atmosphere.”

Though Gail is focusing on the shot and the discus for now, she and Turek have agreed that next year she will take up the javelin with an eye toward the 1996 Olympics. Gail has thrown the javelin only twice in competition and has recorded a mark of 124 feet.

“I’ve always wanted to throw it,” Gail said. “I don’t see why I can’t do well in it.”

For now, however, Gail will continue to juggle work, school, the shot and the discus.

“I still have a lot to learn,” Gail said. “I don’t think I’m anywhere near my peak yet.

“I haven’t felt what it’s like to be absolutely perfect in technique, but I felt little parts of it here and there.

“If I do put my technique together, that thing (the shot) is going to fly. One day it’s all going to come together for me. We’re getting closer and closer.”