GREENVILLE – Greenville’s Harley West is on summer break from Tiffin University where she excels in shot put and discus for the Lady Dragons and serves as a Student Ambassador. The Greenville graduate from the class of 2021 volunteered to help the Greenville coaching staff with its annual track and field camp.
“I want to be able to help kids learn the sport of shotput and track,” West said. “Not all kids know about shot put and discus. They think track is all about running. I want to teach them there is so much more than running. There are a lot of field events like shot put, discus, long jump, triple jump and events like that. I want to teach them there’s more to it than just running.”
“College kids usually are busy but when Harley got home the first thing this summer she texted me about working track camp so I love to have her,” said veteran Greenville track and field coach, Bill Plessinger. “It’s good experience for the kids. Everybody helping here is either a coach or an athlete and that is good for the kids to see.”
West is studying Exercise Science at Tiffin University with hopes of becoming a Clinical Exercise Physiologist with intentions of earning a Master’s Degree.
The Lady Wave alum owns the GHS shot put record with a throw of 43’3-3/4” and come up just one-inch short in the school discus record with a throw of 126’1”.
“It is definitely a bit of a change,” West said of competing at one of the country’s premier NCAA DII throwing schools. “They changed my technique. I used to be a glider but now I am a rotational thrower. College is more of repetition rather than just throwing and that has really helped me a lot becoming the thrower I am today.”
Having completed her second college season, West heads into her junior year with a shot put best of 13.61 meters (44’6”) and a little over 40 meters (132’) in the discus.
West enjoys traveling with the Tiffin Lady Dragons track and field team including trips to Georgia Tech, Myrtle Beach, Kentucky, Tennessee and more.
Time is a major difference for Harley going from high school to the college level.
“Practice every day, lifting pretty much every day,” she said. “I’ll go into practice around 2 p.m. and get out about 6:30 p.m. after lifting so it’s a lot longer process. Sometimes we’re inside, sometimes we’re outside, depending on the weather.”
“The coldest I’ve ever been is 30 degrees, raining, things like that and hottest 80-90 degrees in the summer,” West continued. “We go out in every element because we have to be prepared for every kind of meet we’re going to.”
Coach Plessinger is not at all surprised at the success West is having at Tiffin University.
“When she came in as a freshman she had never done track and she had never thrown,” Plessinger noted. “She worked so hard her four years that it did not surprise me. She was recruited by several schools but she picked Tiffin because they offered her some good money.”
