Shafter's Anna Jelmini is close to becoming national record holder in discus and shot put
| Thursday, Jun 04 2009 11:21 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Jun 04 2009 11:21 PM
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Jenn Ireland / The Californian Prep track star Anna Jelmini, of Shafter High School, stands at the bottom of the staircase in the house that she has spent her entire life in and will soon be leaving to attend Arizona State University in the fall. This weekend she will compete in her last state track meet of her high school career.
Jenn Ireland / The Californian Prep track star Anna Jelmini, of Shafter High School, will compete in her last state track meet of her high school career this upcoming weekend. Jelmini will be attending Arizona State University in the fall.
Jenn Ireland / The Californian Prep track star Anna Jelmini, of Shafter High School, will compete in her last state track meet of her high school career this upcoming weekend. Jelmini will be attending Arizona State University in the fall.
Jenn Ireland / The Californian Prep track star Anna Jelmini, of Shafter High School, will compete in her last state track meet of her high school career this upcoming weekend. Jelmini will be attending Arizona State University in the fall.
Not all of Rick Jelmini's acres are at his home in far west Bakersfield, but there are enough almond trees next to his house to give the land a true farming feel.
The property has been in Jelmini's family for two generations, though he built a new house on it. Inside, there are photographs everywhere of the Jelmini family: Rick's wife, Michelle, and his three daughters Cecilia, Anna and Paige.
It's the one in the middle of all those pictures people come to ask about. The one that's always got this infectious smile on her face. The one that for years wore a short haircut after getting gum tangled in her hair as a toddler. The one who's sitting on the couch right now.
That's the one who grew up to be perhaps the greatest girls high school track and field athlete of all time.
Anna Jelmini has that smile on her face right now -- the same one that's featured in the pictures on the wall above her -- and tries not to blush.
"I'm trying not to think about everything at once, because I don't want to get overwhelmed," she says, deflecting the latest question about just how magnificently mind-boggling her high school career has been. "I'm just trying to stay level-headed and focus on what I need to do."
That, if you can bottle greatness into two sentences, is Anna Jelmini. She'll take her spot in the discus and shot put rings today in the CIF State Track and Field Championships at Clovis-Buchanan High School, then do it again Saturday. After that, she'll be done representing Shafter High School.
Whatever happens this weekend, though, can only add to the already awe-inspiring high school resume Jelmini has.
-- She owns two state championships, and her best marks are feet upon feet ahead of her nearest competition's this weekend as she tries for two more.
-- Those best marks are 190 feet, 3 inches in the discus, a national high school record, and 54-4.75 in the shot, second all-time to Michelle Carter, a Red Oak (Texas) high schooler who threw six inches farther in 2003.
-- DyeStat, the trusted authority on everything high school track, has proclaimed two of Jelmini's discus-shot combos the best ever and has raised the question on its front page: 'Is Anna Jelmini the greatest high school track and field athlete of all time?'
"Look at her double," says Shafter throwing coach Matt Godbehere, also an unassuming athlete who isn't prone to exaggeration. "It doesn't matter what two events you want to take; you try and put someone in the place she's been. If she was a distance runner, think about the times she'd have to have in two events to match that. So why isn't it fair to look at her as the greatest prep ever in two events? I have no problem with people making that argument."
So then it's impossible for Jelmini to avoid the spotlight. But she's not exactly basking in it, either.
"It's kind of cool sometimes," she says. "But sometimes it's just unbelievable. Just knowing that I have the best high school double ever, it's crazy. I was looking on the internet at DyeStatCal, and they question whether I'm the best ever ..."
Instead of answering that one, Jelmini stops her words and allows the smile to come back.
From across the room, her dad gives his take.
"I've found out that I'm not Richard anymore," he says. "I'm Anna's dad."
He was Anna's dad before she was the greatest ever, too, so he knows where she came from. She started as an all-around athlete at a young age, trying swimming like mom Michelle and big sister Cecilia, basketball, volleyball and even cross country.
"Don't know why I did that," Anna says with a laugh.
She did, Michelle says, because "she was always a very driven child." She also had the benefit of committed athletic supporters at Rio Bravo-Greeley schools, Ed and Lonnie Edgmon.
They were the ones who figured the more sports a kid was involved in, the more she'd excel when she decided on one. It was Lonnie Edgmon, too, who saw that Anna wanted to try track and field.
"That's what made her say, 'How 'bout that shot put?'" Michelle Jelmini says. "She tried the hurdles, too, but her timing was off, and the high jump, she was good but it was hard on her body."
So that left the throwing events. Jelmini still was also focused on basketball -- and remained so through her junior year at Shafter, when she was the South Sequoia League's MVP -- but began to embrace track and field. "There's more to control in track," Jelmini said. "In basketball, if you lose, it's the whole team's fault. In track, it's you alone in the ring."
Starting in the fifth grade, Jelmini's obvious talent was honed by Dawn Dumble, a former Bakersfield High state champion and UCLA national champion in throwing events. Once Anna got to high school, Dumble passed off duties to her husband, Godbehere.
It was at a meet in Arcadia during her sophomore year that throwing hooked Jelmini for good.
"If you won the daytime portion, you got to compete in the evening under the lights," Jelmini said. "I found that really exciting."
So did the rest of the throwing community. Jelmini topped 180 feet in the discus at Salinas early last spring to set a Central Section record, won a state championship in both events in late May, and then won a junior national shot put championship, competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials and made the finals of the shot put at the junior world championships in Poland.
"When you look at any great athlete, there's some driving factor within them," Godbehere said. "They challenge themselves to be the best. To pinpoint that, I don't know what single thing that is. But she's got it. She wants to be the best she can be."
Jelmini will continue her career at Arizona State under the tutelage of David Dumble, Dawn's brother, and then, she hopes, eventually in the Olympics.
First, there's one more high school hurrah. Jelmini could become the first California girl to double in the throwing events two years in a row.
But there could be more. Godbehere had Jelmini taper her weightlifting regimen for the event, which has left Anna feeling fresh.
"I don't feel as sore," she says. "I'm more snappy."
That means, if everything goes well technically, Jelmini could shatter meet records (181-3 in the discus and 52-11.5 in the shot), lengthen her national discus record and climb to the top of the shot put chart.
"I don't know what the magic recipe is," Godbehere says, "but she's very talented, she works hard and with that, you see what has happened."
All this from the girl who was home-grown at that west Bakersfield farm.
"With everything that's happened in her career," Godbehere says, "she's still just Anna, and she's still grounded and she's still a wonderful girl. She hasn't changed at all."
What has changed is the crop list at Rick Jelmini's farm. Almonds, cotton, alfalfa, carrots, wheat -- and one middle daughter that causes Rick to shake his head and flash his own smile.
"It's been an unbelievable ride."
