- April 25, 2024
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In February 2013, Michael Mohamed found himself team-less, a victim of cuts from Matanzas’ baseball team. By the middle of that spring, he was throwing mid-90s — as a discus hurler on the Pirates’ track team. With another season under his belt, Mohamed has added both distance and distinction — his 135-foot, three-inch throw at regionals on April 22 set a new Matanzas school record.
Matanzas coach Jeremy Schaefer had previously worked with Mohamed on the junior varsity football team, and viewed his 6-foot-5 build and lanky frame as potential assets in the circle. He recruited his former ward for track, and it was an easy sell.
“Everybody sees throwing events, and they think the bigger kids,” Schaefer said. “But (Mohamed) is tall, and he’s got the long arms. Those are the discus kids. They turn the body into a human slingshot and really get it out there.”
There were growing pains. Mohamed dabbled in the triple jump for a while, but that event didn’t mesh with his skill set. He joined the Pirates last season as the No. 4 discus thrower on the squad.
“My body is shaped for it,” he said. “Getting used to it was hard at first, technique and everything, but once you got that, it wasn’t too bad.”
It helped that a bunch of the other discus throwers and shut-putters were Mohamed's friends and former football teammates. They helped him get acclimated during his fledging sophomore season and laid the foundation for him to put in solo work once it ended.
“I started practicing more over the summer, because I actually enjoyed it,” Mohamed said. “When the season started back up, I just started working more on my technique for my spins and everything. I got into the weight room a lot more, and that bumped me into the No. 2 spot.”
Mohamed’s throw at regionals gave him a seventh-place finish, meaning he’ll miss out on states this year despite setting the school record. But Schaefer can’t imagine a scenario in which he won’t make it next year, as a senior.
“He came out for track and really took to it like a duck takes to water,” Schaefer said. “It’s been going really good for him.”
A lot of people think Michael Jordan was once cut from his high school basketball team. That’s not true — he was snubbed from varsity and bumped to jayvee as a sophomore. Michael Mohamed took a similar second-year ordeal and converted it into a place in Matanzas track history.
Getting cut from baseball, “aggravated me a little bit, but I understood that you can’t always make it,” Mohamed said. “I was just willing to move onto the next thing and be successful.”
Lucky seven: Pirates make states
The Matanzas girls 4x100 relay squad of Bre Armster, Miracle Porter, Paige Jennings and Theresa Whalen finished third in regionals with a time of 49.4 — another school record. They’re headed to states along with Liam Conville (1600-meter run), Savannah Drummonds (long jump), and Angel Perez (3200-meter run).
