Being named a First-Team All-American as a redshirt sophomore brings its own uniqueness.
Taking classes at rival school Toledo, training by herself and breaking her own records multiple times a season takes unique to a whole new level.
That is where track and field thrower and nursing major Brook Pleger is at this point in her career. Her improvement since she started throwing hammer her senior year of high school has been described as “abnormal,” by throwing coach Matt Conly.
For Pleger, a redshirt junior, hammer throwing has never gotten boring.
“There is always stuff for me to learn and improve on,” Pleger said. “I feel like I’m just cracking the surface for what there is to discover.”
With two full outdoor seasons left, Pleger has already left her mark in Falcon history. She was the first Falcon to score at the NCAA Championships since 2001 where she placed seventh and earned her All-American honors.
“That was off of not having a lot of experience,” head coach Lou Snelling said. “She had never been to an NCAA Championship before. She handled all of that really, really well, I think that says a lot about her as a person.”
This year Pleger’s goal is to become a national champion along with retaining her MAC Championship title. The coaching staff has not set a number goal for her yet but she wants to hit the 70 meter mark this year.
“Her improvement has been abnormal,” Conly said. “She is less than a one percenter out of thousands who pick up a hammer. To go from never touching a hammer to 67 meters is certainly not normal.”
Pleger did not always plan on throwing hammer or even being on a track and field team. For 13 years, she was a gymnast and that experience is what has helped her become the athlete she is now.
She left the gymnastics scene in high school and took the time to dabble in some other sports. She began throwing shot put and discus for Saline High School.
Like many other high schools, hers did not sponsor hammer as a competition, so the first time she picked up a hammer was in a track club ran by former BG coach Justin Carvalho.
“I fell in love the minute I started throwing hammer,” Pleger said. “I’ve always been someone who likes a challenge and hammer gave that to me as soon as I started.”
Her training coach at the time, Carvalho, was big into the hammer and steered her towards that event. She threw discus and shot put in high school, but she was mainly recruited in the hammer event.
By the time she started getting recruited pretty heavily, she already knew that she would be attending BG. The University had the coach she had been training with in high school and was a good distance from her Ann Arbor home.
In 2011, Pleger’s sophomore year coach Snelling became head coach and brought coach Conly over as his throwing coach. Every time a new coach comes in there is a transition period, but this was even more difficult for Pleger as it would be her first year without Carvalho training her.
Adjusting to coach Conly’s ways took some time especially because he used to call her a cry baby when he first came in.
“It took her some time to mature as a thrower and a person,” Conly said.
Their relationship has now expanded to where Pleger sets her own training regime. Although Conly has the final say he gives Pleger a lot of freedom to do what feels right to her.
“I wanted to throw far, I wanted to do good so I knew I needed to let that attitude go and kind of just give myself to what he thought would work then,” Pleger said.
This year, Pleger is taking nursing classes at the University of Toledo in the afternoon, which makes it difficult for her training time. She has started to train at different times by herself.
“It’s hard this year being a captain because I don’t get to be there as much for them as I would like,” Pleger said.
Pleger is a unique athlete being an All-American but her training schedule and class schedule makes her situation even more unique.
“Throwing is my escape,” Pleger said. “It’s like my escape from everything … I don’t think I ever need an escape from throwing.”
