Grit Brought Ethan Lazare a TVL Title

Unlike most athletes, Millis’ Ethan Lazare was a latecomer to throwing the shot put for the Mohawks’ track and field team. As a sophomore, Lazare decided to join the team, where he threw the discus and javelin his first season. However, come his junior campaign, he decided to throw the javelin aside and pick up the shot put instead.
“It just didn’t feel right when I was throwing the javelin, and it started to bother my elbow,” the Millis athlete said. “In my junior year, I made the decision to try the shot put out instead and found out that I had success with it. I guess throwing big heavy balls are my forte.”
After throwing a personal best of 38’ 8” and finishing eighth in the Tri Valley League Championship, the then junior decided he needed to work on his throwing.
“Coming into this year (his senior campaign) I knew I needed help. I was just a brut out there throwing the shot put in any way,” he said. “Coach Pat (Diskin, the team’s throwing coach) taught me a lot about throwing with the proper technique. Coach Pat is good at what she does.”
At the team’s very first meet of this season, Lazare threw just under 40’ and found himself angry because he didn’t accomplish the goal he set for himself for the season of topping that mark. With his goal in hand, Lazare found it almost impossible to reach the 40’ mark. It wasn’t until the second to the last meet of the season in which the senior thrower finally accomplished his goal of originally tossing the rock 42’; so he thought.
“When I first picked up the ball and threw it, I knew something was wrong; it just didn’t feel right,” Lazare said. “They weighed the ball and found it was only 11.4 pounds instead of the required 12 pounds so my throw of 42’ didn’t count.”
At the next meet, the Tri Valley League Championship Lazare took all his angry from the previous meet and let the ball soar, tossing it 41’ 8.” Unfortunately, while he knew his toss was over the 40’ mark, he didn’t know how far it actually was. When all the throws were recorded, Lazare had found out that his toss was the best of the day, and he had captured the TVL Title, much to his shock.
“I didn’t think much of it, I just knew that it was a throw of over 40, so I was excited,” he said. “When they made the announcement that I had won, Coach Pat, my mom and girlfriend where all proud of me; I was just relieved and couldn’t believe that I captured the championship.”
The win also caught the coaching staff off guard as well.
“It surprised us a bit. Ethan didn’t get better overnight. Each meet he seemed to improve a little – inches at a time,” Coach Diskin said. “He was already a strong kid and wanted to work hard to learn the proper technique, and he put it to good use.”
Head Coach Jay Dupuis was also surprised, but did expect him to be successful.
“He was seeded third going into the TVL Championship, so I expected him to be one of the better shot putters in the league,” Dupuis said. “Ethan worked extremely hard with Coach Diskin, and she did an outstanding job with him.”
Following the League Championship meet, the Millis native met up with the rest of the state to take part in the Division 5 State Championship, where he threw another personal best at 41’ 9.5”. Although his latest toss was his personal best, it was not enough to capture the title, and Lazare finished in ninth place, just a mere ¼ of an inch away from eighth place and a ribbon.
“I’m not upset. It was a good throw and another personal best for me,” he said. “I knew going in that the others guys I was going up against had been throwing for years and were probably going to smoke me.”
With Mass Bay Community College on the horizon, Lazare will not being throwing the shot put anytime soon. He will, however, pick it back up when he continues his education following his two years at Mass Bay. At this point, the only thing Lazare regrets is deciding on the javelin his sophomore year.
“Throwing the shot put was a whole new ball game compared to the javelin,” the Millis athlete said. “I had a couple of friends start throwing shot put in sophomore year, looking back I wish that I had gone that way instead of the javelin. I’m jealous of the extra year they got; who knows what I could have done with it.”