Brett Millar never really intended to run track. Much less throw the javelin.
It just kind of happened.
“I was a baseball player my whole life,” the Central Bucks East senior said. “I never thought I’d be in track. I always thought track was kind of weird. Why would you just want to run around a track?
“My friend asked me to come out for the team, so my eighth grade year I went out. I was always a sprinter.”
Millar also tried his hand at the discus.
“I liked that, and that’s how I ended up throwing,” he said.
At practice one day during his sophomore year, Millar observed a teammate from the football team throwing the javelin.
“I said ‘Let me see that,’ and he showed me the basics of how to throw it,” Millar said.
From the outset, he was a natural, and the following day, Coach Gerry Stemplewicz decided to let Millar try his hand at the javelin at a dual meet against Hatboro-Horsham.
All he did was win first place with a throw of 158 feet.
“There was a good thrower on our team, and he was supposedly pretty good compared to the rest of the league, and I beat him, so he was a little upset,” Millar said. “He was a senior thrower, and he thought he was going to be a big man on campus.”
Millar, instead, assumed that role by winning every single dual meet of the season.
“Everyone was like, ‘Where did this come from?’ because it was so random,” he said.
Stemplewicz knew he had inherited a special talent.
“Just like pretty much any other event – people have a natural ability for it,” the Patriots’ coach said. “Sprinters have speed, distance runners have endurance and jumpers can leap.
“Of course, you train and work to improve. Some people have a natural ability and never pursue it. He just had a natural ability to throw the javelin.”
In April of his sophomore year, Millar took first place at the Neshaminy Invitational, establishing a new meet record with a throw of 164 feet.
“In this case, the coaching was not real hard,” Stemplewicz said. “There’s a really important part of throwing the javelin called throwing it through the point. Some people can pick it up pretty quickly, and other people have to work much harder to get at it.”
Millar picked it up quickly, and he possesses other traits that make him a natural for throwing the javelin, most notably quickness. This year, Millar is East’s top 100 meter sprinter.
“Even as a sophomore, he was running on our 4x100 relay that went to districts,” Stemplewicz said. “If you’re a fast runner, you probably have a fast arm.
“Arm speed is very important in all the throws, and quickness really helps in the run up.”
Millar has lost only one dual meet in three years and that came at the hands of Council Rock South’s Brett Gilson.
Despite his success in track, Millar – a candidate to play quarterback for the football team last fall - has not invested too much time in the sport during the off-season.
“I wanted to spend the offseason lifting for football,” said Millar, a wide receiver with blazing speed. “I knew that would get me in shape for track as well.
“Every once in a while, I’d ask the coach to let me borrow the javelin, so every now and then, I would take it out to stay on top and things. Other than that, I really don’t focus on it too much in the offseason. It just kind of comes natural to me.”
Last year, Millar finished second in the district with a throw of 196 feet and just missed the finals in the state meet, finishing 10th.
This year, he’s been on an incredible run.
After throwing 203 feet at the Central Bucks West Invitational – 15 feet better than his previous personal best, Millar dazzled the crowd at the Penn Relays with a throw of 209 feet, good enough for second place in the prestigious meet.
“He’s a competitor,” Stemplewicz said. “He loves to compete”
Millar’s throw of 209 feet represented the second best throw in the state, and he also was the highest individual performer from East at the Penn Relays.
“Usually you start to peak towards the end of the season,” he said. “I was wondering why I was peaking so early. I just have to keep it going.”
Last weekend, Millar took home the gold in the javelin in the Continental Conference championships, erasing the disappointment of the conference championships past.
“Leagues my sophomore year and junior year – I came out and threw real bad at those two meets,” he said. “They were really my only two bad meets that I ever had in the last two years.”
Millar, who also throws the discus, intends to continue his track career at the collegiate level. He is still weighing his options but Penn State is his first choice.
“I don’t know where it (track) is going to take me,” he said.
For now, Millar is focused on this weekend’s district meet.
“I have been working all week at keeping the point down,” he said. “That usually the biggest problem people have – throwing it through the point.
“I’ve been working my butt off every day. Right now I’m in it for the states.”
And for this standout athlete, the best is undoubtedly yet to come.
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