Holly and the Hammer
4/1/2004 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
April 1, 2004
Published April 1, 2004
The first time Missouri assistant track coach Brett Halter laid eyes on Holly Scherder, she was doing what any future record-setting hammer thrower would be doing - playing softball.
"Here's this 6-foot tall shortstop, scooping 'em up and zinging them to first base, and the first baseman is scared to catch them because she's throwing so hard," Halter recalled. "And she wasn't throwing her hardest."
Well, she is now.
Scherder, who ran track as an afterthought in high school, owns the MU school records in both the hammer throw and the 20-pound weight throw. She smashed the school hammer throw record by 10 feet with a throw of 190 feet, 4 inches two weeks ago at the College Station Relays in Texas.
As rare as it was for Halter to be recruiting her during the spring track and field season, and as unusual as it was for him to go watch a potential recruit playing another sport, MU's throws coach is glad he spent those couple of hours in Bowling Green four years ago.
"She's a phenomenal athlete," Halter said.
In high school, Scherder focused on basketball and softball. She was all-state in hoops and all-district on the diamond. Sure, she'd set a few district records in track, but it wasn't her passion.
"I was doing it just to waste time," she said. "I was wanting to play softball" in college, "and a lot of the community was pushing me to play basketball."
And the hammer throw, well, that wasn't even in her vocabulary.
"He recruited me as a shot-putter," Scherder said. "The hammer's just kind of something they let everyone try out when they get here, see how they like it, see how they do at it. I tried it out, and I really liked it. I had a lot fun with it, and it's my event now."
Scherder said that Halter had to explain the event to her when he recruited her. Although the throwing events are popular in Europe, you don't exactly trip over a pickup game of hammer throws everywhere you go in America.
"I'd say about a third of the people don't know what it is," Scherder said. "But I'll start explaining it, and they'll be like, 'Oh, I've seen that on TV.' "
The hammer throw actually doesn't involve a hammer. It is a 8.8-pound ball tethered to a 3-foot wire. Like the shot put, the event requires competitors to stay inside an 8-foot circle when making throws.
There's not much difference between the hammer throw and the 20-pound weight throw, except, of course, the weight. The weight throw is dominated by big burly types. Scherder is 5-11 and lean, a frame that lends itself more to tossing the hammer.
Her length and speed helps her generate velocity as she unreels to throw.
"She has long levers, great kinesthetic reaction and she can move really quickly," Halter said.
That's not to say she's a slouch in the weight throw. She can't afford to be, thanks to her roommate, Ann Snider, who broke her school record of 58-6? moments after Scherder had set it in January during the Missouri Invitational. Scherder broke it two more times, though, including a 61-10? throw at the Big 12 Indoor Championships, good for third.
She has been amazing herself recently by launching the hammer 190 feet. The biggest difference has been her health, which is nearing 100 percent after a series of shoulder and knee injuries that began with a torn ACL she suffered while long-jumping in junior high.
Plus, she's going into her fourth year, finally feeling at home in a sport whose best performers often have been doing it since childhood. College coaches often recruit foreign athletes with years of throwing experience.
"Everything kind of feels like it's coming together this year," Scherder said. "I'm feeling a lot more comfortable than I ever had. Everything feels a lot smoother."
And she's loving it, especially after the travails of last year, when her injuries prevented her from doing a lot of vital weight lifts and cut down on her potency as a thrower.
"It really was frustrating, but now I'm about 100 percent," she said. "It feels good."
MU's track and field team is in action this weekend, when it hosts the annual Missouri Relays. The women's hammer throw is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. tomorrow.
