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BISBEE — After a whirlwind throwing career with the Arizona State University track and field team, 2002 Bisbee High School graduate Sara Shisslak is making an immediate impact as a new throws coach.
Since December, Shisslak has been quite active on the coaching staff at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix. The 23-year-old was hired less than six months after she graduated from ASU with degrees in anthropology and Italian.
Sara the new assistant coach at Paradise Valley Community College
On Jan. 26 at the Puma Indoor Invitational at Paradise Valley CC, sophomore Kevin Potter was only 47 centimeters from qualifying for the National Junior College Athletic Association Indoor Nationals in the men’s weight throw.
 Sara Shisslak, graduate of Bisbee High School in 2002, recently took a position of assistant coach of throws at Paradise Valley Community College this month. (Suzanne Cronn-Herald/Review) |
Thanks in part to Shisslak’s help, Potter had a throw of 14.43 meters.
“He was about 32 inches away from qualifying for Nationals,” Shisslak said. “I think Kevin has a really good technique. He’s making leaps and bounds.”
The weight has the same technique as the hammer, where one throws a heavy metal ball that’s attached to a wire and handle.
The weight event consists of throwing a 35-pound ball attached to a D-ring or triangle handle that is shorter and heavier than the hammer.
Shisslak got the job after former Sun Devils teammate and PVCC coach Sandy Sampson had to leave her post.
“She’s getting her teacher’s certificate and she just had a baby,” Shisslak said. “She asked me if I wanted to do it. She talked to the head coach. Todd said ‘We’d be more than happy to have you.’ ”
Shisslak can freelance a bit on head coach Todd Lehman’s staff. “My coach at ASU, there were certain ways we did things. I coach the way I was coached. I don’t want them to think about this too much, just pick a couple things to focus on.”
Due in part to the fact she has scar tissue damage in her neck and shoulders from years of throwing the hammer at ASU and the discus at Bisbee, Shisslak tries to keep her throwers healthy for the long haul.
Most will likely not go on to throw beyond their college years, so she doesn’t want to break them down too hard too fast. She has them do lots of repetitions of heavy weights, sprint to 400 meters, and they do 15 squats of various weights.
“I have my own weightlifting program,” Shisslak said. “I’m trying to keep my throwers healthy. It’s kind of like, do you want to be able to lift your kids when you’re older? They bust their butts in there.”
Already involved in recruiting, Shisslak has helped sign some current throwers. Tyson Rigby is a javelin thrower who could transfer from Southern Utah University. He threw it 180 feet, which is considered an impressive distance.
“We hit up Arizona pretty often, Shisslak said. “My goal is to find those athletes. I have a special tie to Cochise County. I feel they often get overlooked. PVCC has never really had a good recruit from out of the country. Mesa Community College and Central Arizona College recruit from outside the U.S. all the time. I’d like to knock them down a peg or two.”
Unlike at the NCAA level, where there are a lot of dead periods where communication with recruits is not allowed, community colleges can send text messages, call recruits, communicate with them online, etc., just about any time they want.
Sara the firefighting hopeful, younger sister
While Shisslak would like to coach for as long as she can, she is studying at Mesa CC to become an emergency medical technician. She is trying to get her firefighters’ license.
“Eventually I’d like to become a paramedic,” Shisslak said. “I’m trying to get hired into the Phoenix area. It’s considered one of the best in the United States to work as a firefighter. They take 160 out of 4,000 to 6,000 people who apply, so it’s pretty competitive. It’s a pretty long process.”
Older brother Erik Shisslak, who plays defensive end for the Cochise County Cavaliers football team that plays its home games on Saturdays at Apache Middle School in Sierra Vista, works as a firefighter for Fry Fire District. “He said I’m following in his footsteps. I just told him there’s been plenty of firefighters before you started working.”
Shisslak’s mother is Superior Court Division IV judge Ann Littrell, a family court judge in Bisbee.
Sara the All-Academic Sun Devils thrower
Shisslak was a 5-foot-9 star of sorts at ASU. In 2005 in the Northern Arizona University Invitational, she heaved a hammer throw of 162 feet, 9 inches.
That mark still stands as seventh all-time in Sun Devils’ women’s team history. Shisslak also has a personal-best 125-3 mark in the discus and 48 1/2 in the weight toss.
“It was huge,” Shisslak said. “The first time I got it was amazing. I was probably outweighed by 40 to 50 pounds or more by most throwers. I used speed and technique in the competitions.”
Shisslak was offered a partial scholarship, but first she had to make the team as a walk-on freshman javelin thrower. She made the team, but first she decided to redshirt in 2003.
“At first I thought, I don’t need to do sports at ASU,” Shisslak said. “I had the opportunity to try out for coach Greg Kraft. He saw a lot of potential in me. I messed up my elbow during the fall when I was a freshman. Later on my hammer throwing started to pick up, so I did that instead.”
Shisslak also participated in a Pac-10 meet in 2006 in Eugene, Ore., otherwise known as “Tracktown, USA” at a sold-out stadium.
She was part of Sun Devils teams that won the NCAA national indoor, outdoor, Pac-10 and regional championships. In the classroom. With a 3.84 grade-point average, she was named to the Pac-10 Women’s Track and Field All-Academic team.
Sara the state runner-up for Bisbee High School
As a Bisbee Puma, Shisslak was one of the best throwers in the state at the 2A level but she wasn’t always the top thrower on her own team.
But in 2002, she finished second at the Arizona Interscholastic Association Class 2A Conference Girls Track and Field State Meet.
“I always finished second behind Jackie Drake,” Shisslak said. “She was a great thrower. I don’t mind finishing second to her. She had major back problems, she tried out for the Summer Olympic trials. She got pregnant.”
Bisbee High School athletic director Walt Edge was the track and field head coach at the time.
“She was a very hard worker,” Edge said. “She worked a lot on her technique. If the way she works is an indication, I think she’ll be a fine coach. She has a lot of knowledge.”
Shisslak and Drake both had some fun with Ed Shisslak, Sara’s father and then- Bisbee High throws coach.
“We made our bet that if we finished first and second, that our dad would have to wear Bisbee gear to his work. He taught at Douglas High School. We also dyed his hair green,” she said.
As far as mascots go, Shisslak is in familiar territory. Paradise Valley’s is the Pumas.
Angela Gonzales wrote on Feb 5, 2008 11:13 PM: