Player’s Diary:

  Nate Marum

Nate Marum, a sophomore thrower on the men’s track and
field team, is one of five athletes representing UCLA at the 2001
NCAA Championships this week. Here he writes about being a javelin
thrower.

“¢bull; “¢bull; “¢bull;

My journey in track and field began when I was in the seventh
grade and signed up for my first season with the Napa Track Club.
The coach of the Napa Track Club was a harsh, sometimes grumpy old
Italian man named Frank Defillipis, or “Coach D” to all
his athletes.

Coach D would make all the kids run, no matter if they were shot
putters or milers, and all the kids would try and throw the javelin
at least once. I don’t know if it was because that was the
one event the track club had had some national success at, or
because it was simply the one event you couldn’t do anywhere
else.

The javelin is a high school event in only seven states, and
California is not one of them. Technically it isn’t even
legal to own a javelin as a civilian. Either way, that is how I
first picked up the event.

After I finished third at the Age Group National Championships
in my first full season of competition, I never put it down. After
several more years of competition and many flights around the
nation, the track club became like my family and I liked to think
of Coach D as my godfather.

At the end of high school, my other two sports, soccer and
baseball, had come to an end, but Coach D talked to several
colleges, and I began to be recruited to throw the javelin. I
really didn’t know what I was looking for when I visited
schools, but I realized it when I came to UCLA. Head Coach Art
Venegas offered me something that neither Stanford, Cal or USC had:
he offered me another family in track and field, as well as much
greater expertise in coaching.

Needless to say, UCLA became the obvious choice for me, and I
feel that I have become more and more a part of my new family every
year. Earlier this year, I witnessed the sad endings of two eras in
my track and field life. Coach D retired from the Napa Track Club
after 39 years of dedication to the sport and his athletes. And
early this May, UCLA’s 22-year winning streak in the UCLA vs.
USC dual meet ended.

But for me, as I head to my first national championship meet in
three years, the end only signals a new beginning. I was a part of
the great legacy Coach D left behind, and I was also a part of last
year’s victory which put the streak at 22 years.

Now I look forward to being a part of another legendary team of
throwers under Coach Venegas and part of the beginning of another
streak of dominance for UCLA track and field.