By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

It was definitely something that he didn’t expect to find when he decided to go out for the cross-country team with his friends. 

Hopedale’s Ari Levine was just looking to have some fun with his friends while possibly shedding a few pounds when he tried out for the Hopedale cross country team as a seventh grader.

“Being in Covid I was eating a little more than I should have been, so I was little chubby,” he said. “In order to get back in shape I thought I’d try cross-country. Coach (Joe) Drugan approached me and told me that he thought that I could have the potential to be a thrower on the track team.”

Levine went on to say that Coach Drugan is someone who sees potential in people that they don’t necessarily see. Having already earned the Coaches respect on the cross-country course the seventh grader decide to take him up on his offer and give the sport a shot.

“I never looked at his weight, but his ability to listen as well as the strength that he possessed,” Drugan said. “I knew that he could throw the shot put if we changed his muscle tone and gave him the knowledge he needed.”

According to the Hopedale Coach, the young thrower was a little hesitant at first and was very intimidated by the older throwers. The Coach told Levine that he needed to relax and get them out of his head, and he’ll do just fine. 

Since that day he has since progressed with his throwing and if Drugan can convince him to continue to run cross-country he will get the muscle tone that he needs to be successful in the circle throwing the shot put for the Blue Raiders.

“That spring, Coach Drugan took me aside with a couple of other kids and began to teach us what he knew about the sport,” Levine said. “He has gone out of his way to learn about the event so that he can teach us.”

The following year, Levin’s father found a throwing coach (Matt Ellis) out of Rhode Island, who would work with the newly found thrower. Ellis had been a thrower not only in high school, but college as well and was instrumental in helping Levine with his form and the improvement of his throwing.

When he first began throwing the shot put, the world was dealing with Covid, so Levine didn’t find himself participating in any Invitational Meets, just dual meets with the high school, but nonetheless he was able to improve. He concluded that inaugural season throwing the shot put 30 feet. 

The following year as an eighth grader he began to find success withing the dual meets and eventually finished fifth in the Conference Championship. At this stage in his throwing, the light bulb went off and he decided that this was something that he was interested in pursuing on a regular basis. 

Now throwing in his fourth year with Hopedale Jr./Sr. High School, the sophomore has started to make a name for himself. In addition to finding himself continually in the top five, with more first place finishes than anything else, he is currently throwing the shot put over 50 feet.

Not only has he found success with the event, as a freshman he etched his name into the Blue Raiders record books breaking the school record and has since re-broken it numerous times. The old shot-put record was 45’ 7” and as of this writing the sophomore currently has tossed 50’ 8 1/2”.

Having two and a half years left to take part in the event for Hopedale, Levine has set a hefty goal for himself – improving his distance by 10 feet each year. Although he realizes that his goal is a tough one to accomplish, he noted that if he doesn’t do it, it wasn’t because of lack of trying.

Drugan noted that if Levin doesn’t allow things to go to his head and he works hard and stays away from injuries, by his senior season he believes he can throw 60 – 65 feet.

“I’m not saying that he can’t do it, because anything is possible when you put your mind to it,” Drugan said. “He is already one of the top throwers in the state and will only get better. He is a blessed individual and if he keeps things under control and runs cross-country I believe that he’ll go places – far places.”

With still a handful of meets left this season Levine has his mind set on qualifying for the New Balance Tournament in Boston. In order to do so, he needs a throw of at least 53 feet. 

“That’s the short-term goal right now,” he said. “Once there I want to go out and just throw as far as I can. I am really not concerned with placement; I just want to get there and have fun while gaining experience. I can then work on improvement for the next year and go for All American status.”

The only thing that the Coach and his disciple disagree on is the type of throw the sophomore should be using in the throwing circle. Levine, who originally began as a glide thrower has since moved over to a rotational thrower.

“I happened to come across some videos on rotational throwing and became intrigued, so I decided to pursue it,” he said. “It’s a little bit more complex than the glide, but it’s what all the professional throwers are using, and I figured that if I want to continue throwing I should learn how to do it and it seems to have clicked when I started working with Coach Ellis on it.”

On the other side, Drugan believes that the athlete is much better inclined in using the glide motion.

“I really think that the spin (or glide) is really where his strength lies,” the coach said. “He is using the rotation, but he has to be very careful that his throws don’t take his foot over the line. In one meet he had a really long thrown, but he touched the line, and it didn’t count.”

Whatever way he decides to go Levine has already made a name for himself and is only a sophomore. In the off-season he plans on working hard on improving his craft. He wants to work on his strength conditioning while incorporating plyometrics, doing box jumps and power cleans (a type of weight lifting) into his routine.

With two plus years he firmly believes that he can continue to throw further with each year and should eventually be able to take his newly found craft to the collegiate level.