Weidman brings wealth of experience to Griz throwers

If it wasn't for a blown-out arm a month into his collegiate career, Ryan Weidman figures he might still be involved in the game of baseball. Track & field was never on his radar. In fact, he never even stepped foot on the track until he was 24 years old.

He always had a big arm, which was attractive to his high school's track coaches, but if it meant giving up baseball, he wasn't going to do it.

"The track coaches always would come by and say, 'Hey, why don't you come throw jav for us?' I told them I would, but they'd always say that meant I couldn't do baseball, so I would tell them no every time. I was a baseball guy."

Baseball took Weidman to Edmonds College, outside of Seattle and about 300 miles away from his hometown of Spokane, Washington. By the end of the first quarter, he was back home.

"A month and a half in, they threw me against NBI, the National Baseball Institute of Canada," Weidman recalls. "Third inning in, pop, crack. That was the end of my baseball career."

An arm injury led Weidman away from baseball and away from college, where he spent the next few years performing various jobs. Soon after, he met and married his wife, Jeanene, and gave birth to their first child. Track was the last thing on Weidman's mind.

That changed in the late 1990's when Weidman couldn't stand his job anymore.

"We were taking people off of septic tanks and putting them on sewers," Weidman said. "I was the guy in the ditch. We were digging from the stub, digging from the septic tank, digging into the leach field. I'd stand there and would have them lay pipe.

"I was knee deep in sewage, and after about 9 months I couldn't do it anymore. I would come home and smell, so that's when I realized I needed an education."

Even though his baseball career was finished, Weidman had always been a natural athlete. So even when he was away from competition, the brief conversations with his high school's track coaches still resonated.

With no prior experience, he decided, more than a half-decade later and at the age of 24, to finally give the javelin a shot for the first time.

Weidman enrolled at Texas A&M-Kingsville. His first-ever meet happened to be in Missoula.

"It was hot," Weidman recalled, "and I had no clue what I was doing."

Still, he threw 192 feet, despite the javelin never clearing more than 12 feet off the ground.

"I was learning how to throw the thing on the fly," he recalled.

Weidman proved to be a quick learner. By the end of the 1999 season, he placed third at nationals. A year later, in the spring of 2000, he was a Division-II national champion. His mark of 225-7 was a school record for 15 years, and still ranks second in Texas A&M-Kingsville history.

At that point, his coach at Kingsville had become the head coach at Spokane Falls and was in search of a throws coach. Who better than the two-time All-American who had just won a national championship?

Nearly two decades, 233 JUCO All-Americans and 57 NWAC champions later, Weidman's throwing story leads him back to where it began, in Missoula.

Newly appointed head coach Clint May recently made his first hire at Montana, choosing Weidman to oversee the Grizzlies' throwing program.

"I'm really, really excited to have Ryan here," May said. "The knowledge he brings to us is immense, but more than that, he's full of energy."

Weidman was referred to May by former Montana coach Brian Schweyen. The two had crossed paths multiple times over the years, and was always on Schweyen's radar. Once May began talking with Weidman, it became abundantly clear there was a match.

"Ryan is driven, he's knowledgeable and he knows how to build relationships," May said. "I know how important energy is in a coach-athlete relationship, and he has that in a tremendous way."

Weidman's resume speaks for itself, but so does his vast knowledge of the Pacific Northwest footprint. In addition to spending the majority of his life in the area, Weidman estimates that around 30 of his former throwers are now active high school coaches. Having people he can trust will come in handy when Weidman begins recruiting for the Grizzlies.

One of the biggest things about coaching at the junior-college ranks is that your focus is on developing student-athletes to the next level.

In two decades, Weidman has lost count of the number of throwers who have transitioned from Spokane Falls to the Division-I level, but notes that it's in the hundreds. Included in that mix are several Grizzlies, including Jason Flemmer, a two-time Big Sky Conference champion in the javelin.

Developing student-athletes for the next level was Weidman's favorite part about coaching at the junior-college level, but also the hardest part.

"At a two-year school, you have to accelerate so fast so you can get them a scholarship," Weidman said.

His approach at Montana, despite being a higher level, is no different, but does allow for more time.

"Now, I have three, four, five years to develop them, but the goal is still the same," Weidman said. "I'm still trying to take these athletes to the next level. We're trying to win conference championships, reach NCAA All-America status, get to the Olympic trails.

"I want to take kids and put them up against the highest level of competition possible. I always have."

Weidman will have plenty of opportunities to do so. Montana's throws group has historically been its deepest position.

In the last decade, Montana's throwers have produced 11 conference championships. Six of those have been in the javelin, Weidman's specialty. On the men's side, Montana's throwers set two school records a season ago, including Brent Yeakey in the shot put, who is back for his senior season (junior in outdoor). A year prior, Hana Feilzer reached nationals.

While javelin is what Weidman knows best – it's the event he won a national championship in, and one he still competes in at the masters level to this day – Weidman is well versed in all throwing events, including winning a conference title in the hammer throw back in college.

"Excitement is the first thing that comes to mind," Weidman said when asked about Montana's group of throwers. "The guys who have been the throws coaches here are all buddies of mine. I want to continue what they've started, and keep making it better. That's always the goal."

Weidman is a native of Spokane, Washington, and graduated from Texas A&M-Kingsville in 2000, with a degree in kinesiology. Weidman and his wife have two children, Kyler and Cyisa, and two grandchildren.

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Weidman brings wealth of experience to Griz throwers

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