Player of the Week: Turner Overcomes Several Obstacles

Nathan Turner, "physically challenged?" Are we talking about the same EMU shot putter who recently ranked 11th in the nation for his winning throw at the Vince Brown Invitational last weekend?

Head track coach Seth McGuffin qualified the oddness of his remark, explaining that, "if you put [Nate] up against every other shot putter, you would think that he was not a shot putter, or a thrower! It's kind of weird to say, but he is physically challenged because he's not as big as the rest of them! But he overcomes that by working hard." In fact, McGuffin calls Turner a "miracle...to be the size that he is and to do what he does."

It could be that some of this sophomore athlete's genes meant to pre-dispose him for a different event, since, as Turner said, he was born into a family that had "always been runners. [But] I started throwing in sixth grade because I didn't want to run. I just liked it and kind of stuck with it ever since. I was state champion in the shot put my senior year, and in my junior or senior year, I decided I wanted to throw in college."

Though it had been his plan to come and throw for EMU "from the beginning," a Division I school, Radford University, offered him a track scholarship, which "was just one of those things that I didn't want to not try." However, deciding after one semester "money's not everything," he arrived at EMU last spring and has been competing for the Royals ever since.

This past summer brought a bump in the road for Nate Turner: hernia surgery and the inability to do much lifting with his legs-a serious setback for a thrower. Even after coming back from Christmas break, Turner said, "I had 3 or 4 straight weeks that were just awful. Finally last week I had a really good week of practice. I went in Saturday to the competition, finally deciding that this was going to be a good meet." And indeed, it was: Turner finished third in the weight throw and first in the shot put with a throw of just over 52 feet, a new personal record and the 11th farthest throw in Division III in the nation.

His next goal? To improve that record by one or two feet and make All-American, which requires finishing in the top eight at indoor nationals in three weeks.

Since nothing, not even a hernia or a comparative disadvantage in size, has stopped him from accomplishing his goals so far, Turner's future prospects look bright.