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Rebels’ Perry breaks shot put record
Thrower aiming to make state
By Brian Dzenis
EAST FAIRFIELD
Stretch, step in the circle, put the shot in your right hand, throw and then step out of the circle.
Crestview thrower Dominic Perry’s goal is to simply get a better throw than he did the previous time.
“My goal is just to beat my [personal record] and wherever that takes me is where I end up,” Perry said.
Right now, his personal record would take him to Columbus and there’s still time to get even better.
On April 11, Perry broke the school record in the shot put with a throw of 54-7.25. The previous mark was Scott Raschilla’s throw of 52-7.25 in 2004. The sophomore’s throw would have been good for sixth place in last year’s state tournament.
“He’s had some incredible throws in practice that you just sit there and watch a kid that’s only 16 years old throw that far,” Crestview coach Greg Woolman said.
Perry crossed the 50-feet mark — a safe number to get to state — during his freshman season.
“I didn’t really know where I was going to end up. It just sort of happened,” Perry said.
He won a district title before injuring himself at regionals.
“I was warming up and I stepped out of the pit and I slipped and fell on my foot and I ended up tearing a plate in my [big] toe,” Perry said. “The big toe is a lot of balance. There was so much pain going through there. It changes your form. It changes everything.”
He took ninth place with a throw of 46-2, missing the cut for state.
“It was actually remarkable that he still threw that far with a broken foot,” Woolman said.
In football, the 6-foot-1, 280-pound Perry has been a starter on Crestview’s offensive line for the past two seasons, where Woolman also coaches Perry.
“It’s amazing to see him on the football field and then [in track].”
“I wouldn’t want to be in front of him and I’m a big guy, too,” Woolman said of Perry. “Dominic is one of those kids that you go up against him and you’re just afraid of what he would do to you.
“You see on film how quick he is and how explosive he is off the football. It’s just remarkable at a such a young age,” he said.
Woolman considers Perry to be the best sophomore in the area at his event.
“Dominic is just that next-level athlete that you don’t see very often,” Woolman said.