If things had worked out differently, Justin St. Clair may be doing something completely different than he is now.
St. Clair joined the Nebraska track and field coach staff last summer to coach the throwing events and serve as the program's associate head coach.
In just one year, St. Clair has overseen significant improvement by Husker throwers — a result of wins on the transfer market, and developing athletes already in the program. Six of Nebraska’s 11 entries in the NCAA Outdoor Championships are in throwing events.Â
The meet begins Wednesday in Eugene, Oregon.Â
St. Clair hopes the Husker throwers are just getting started. He thinks the current athletes will start to improve after they’ve been together for more than one year, and he’s adding more transfers and top high school recruits.
People are also reading…
Twenty years ago, St. Clair was on another path in law enforcement. He was a state trooper in his home state of Washington for about one year. Then he was in the process of joining the Drug Enforcement Agency, a job that could have sent him anywhere in the world.
But then the DEA funding was cut and the agency had a hiring freeze. So St. Clair got back into coaching. Later, a DEA official showed up at a track practice and said they could get him back into the academy. By then, St. Clair had a family and that job was no longer a good fit.
Now St. Clair is in his 20th year as a college track coach, either as a volunteer or full-time assistant. Nebraska hired him away from North Dakota State last year.
Nebraska head coach Gary Pepin tried to hire St. Clair once before. But St. Clair had a lot of respect for Pepin and didn’t think he was ready for a job at Nebraska.
“My level of expectation for myself is extremely high, and I don’t want to do the job to be OK,†St. Clair said. “I want to be exceptional. I want to be the best. And at that time I didn’t feel like I had seen enough training cycles over time to know, ‘Hey, what we’re doing is really working.’â€
St. Clair was a college athlete — a four-time All-American in the javelin while at Washington and Boise State. His best NCAA finish was fifth.
He started coaching after college while still doing some professional track, and liked it.
Last summer, St. Clair got the Nebraska Athletic Department some exposure when he was seen on TV wearing a Nebraska hat while coaching at the Olympics. He was there for Payton Otterdahl — one of his athletes from North Dakota State in shot put.
Otterdahl, under St. Clair's tutelage, won the NCAA titles in indoor shot put and weight throw in 2019, making him just the second man ever to sweep the NCAA's indoor throwing titles. St. Clair has coached three athletes at the Olympics.
This time, St. Clair said the choice to come to Nebraska was easy one. Nebraska has good resources and name recognition. And it’s in a good area to recruit throwers — including those who grew up on a farm throwing hay bales.
“Usually the Midwest is a place for a lot of great field event athletes,†St. Clair said.
St. Clair travels a lot for meets and recruiting, and last fall he was on the road even longer than planned. He tested positive for COVID-19 before a return flight and had to quarantine in Finland for 15 days. Telling his two young children he wasn’t coming home soon was one of the most difficult things he’s ever had to do.
St. Clair will continue to recruit internationally, but also hopes he can convince good athletes in Nebraska to join the fold.
Nebraska’s athletes in the throwing events are already rewriting the program’s all-time top-10 charts. During the indoor season, two men and four women moved on to the all-time board.
During the outdoor season — shot put, discus, hammer throw and javelin — four men and one female moved onto the chart, and another improved on their previous mark.
Nebraska thrower Axelina Johansson, who ranks No. 3 all-time in the shot put, said the chance to work with St. Clair made the decision to come to Nebraska an easy one.
“He had a lot of good throwers,†Johansson said. “He’s got a lot of statistics that show that he’s good. And I like him as a person. We connected.â€
St. Clair isn’t boasting that many of Nebraska’s entries at the NCAA Championship came in the throwing events. He said they should have done better, with two more athletes coming up just short of making it out of regionals.
Nebraska had 21 athletes in the throws this season, and they all got to work with St. Clair a lot. He also gets help from volunteer assistant coach Maddie Nilles.
St. Clair breaks practices into small groups during different parts of the day, which means most days St. Clair is at the track from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Then there is recruiting, and just like in other sports, the NCAA transfer portal database for track is “crazy.â€
“Every day you got on there and just click, click, click,†St. Clair said.
Nebraska has already signed a transfer who St. Clair says is the No. 2-ranked javelin thrower in college — Arthur Petersen from Denmark, who will compete for Texas-Arlington this week.
With both transfers and high school recruits, St. Clair will have about 10 new throwers next season.