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My Scottish athletics story

1998 Gatlinburg games invitational amateur group

As you can see from my creation and maintenance of this page, I am very interested in Scottish heavy athletics. I am also an amateur competitor. But my father is Polish, and my mother is Irish-Italian. I have no Scottish ancestry. So how did I become involved in the Scottish highland games?

I was a (track & field) thrower for Virginia Tech from 1986-88. While competing in a track meet at Appalachian State University, Steve Jeck (then an Appy State thrower) was telling other throwers about the annual Grandfather Mountain highland games.

In 1990, the opportunity arose to go to Grandfather mountain. Steve Moran, my former teammate at Tech, was now working in Greensboro, and I was now a graduate student at Tech. We planned to meet at the games. I was supposed to dig up some kilts. I was only able to borrow two small skirts from the Virginia Tech women's lacrosse team.

We met in Boone on a rainy Friday evening and shared a hotel room. Unfortunately, the rains kept up throughout the night, and Saturday's amateur competition was tentatively postponed to Sunday, but it might be cancelled, because the pros had first priority. We decided that we couldn't afford to stay another night, but we agreed to try again next year.

We returned to the mountain in 1991, where we both got our first taste of heavy athletic competition. In the meantime, Steve had practiced some of the events with friends in Greensboro, and his wife made him a kilt. We end up sharing the same kilt, changing back and forth between throws.

I didn't really know what to expect; I vaguely remember watching some highland games on television years ago. The first two events were qualifying events for the rest of the competition. They were the stone and the #56 weight throw, and we got two throws in each. Unfortunately, my main throwing events in college were the hammer and the discus. Steve, on the other hand, was a shot-putter, so he had a good stone throw. In fact, I think he got third in that event.

These are the amateur competitors at the 1995 Grandfather Mountain Highland Games. That's me on the left end, holding the caber up with one finger.

I also had difficulty in keeping a grip on the #56 weight. In track & field, we use two hands; it's a lot easier to hang on with two hands. I was disappointed when I didn't qualify for the rest of the competition. Steve made the cut, but didn't have a very successful day. He couldn't even manage to pick up the caber.

I was impressed by the pros; especially Carl Braun. I remember him as the thrower with the funny technique, from Christopher Newport University, whom I used to beat in the (track) hammer throw. He used to throw the (indoor track) #35 weight with one hand. I thought how bizarre. Now I see him throwing the Scottish hammer close to the world record.

I continued my (track) hammer throwing through 1992, when I had a back injury. Then I moved to Florida in 1993, and I watched the local Miami games. I was then inspired to get back into competition.

My first season was in 1995. I competed in ten games that year. I made my own kilt out of a clearance remnant of rayon fabric from the Piece Goods shop. It was the only fabric that I could find that had an authentic tartan pattern. It was a Rob Roy MacGregor, black and red check, made popular recently by the Lamar Alexander campaign. So I take this 4-yard piece of tablecloth and make a pretty decent-looking kilt out of it. Total price: about $10 and a day at the sewing machine.

Here are my best results:

Stone: 39'4" with a stone of unknown weight at Scotchtown in 1996
       38'4" with a #16 stone at Southern Maryland in 1998
       36'11.5" w/a #17 stone at Frederick in 1995
       33'0" with a #20 stone at Clover in 1998
#56 weight: 29'5" at Radford in 1997
#28 weight: 61'5" at Southern Maryland in 1998 (64' foul)
#22 hammer: 86'6" at Gatlinburg in 1998
#16 hammer: 112'3.5 at Flora McDonald in 1997
#16 sheaf: 27' at Indian Springs in 1998
#20 sheaf: 24' at Alexandria in 1998
#56 toss:  13' at Southern Maryland in 1998
Caber: 12:00 at Loch Norman in 1996, Radford in 1997,
   and Indian Springs in 1998 (unknown dimensions)

I hurt my back at the end of 1998; did not compete in 1999-2001. Came back and did a few games in 2002 after 3-yr layoff. Tied my best with #16 sheaf at Southern Md, but my other distances wre down.

Returned to games in 2006 as a masters athlete at Potomac Celtic Festival.