June 17-18, 2005

Philip Adam (St. Joseph, Santa Maria)
Super All-Arounder Serious Injury before Championship meets

Jeff Zimmerman photo of Phil Adam with Athlete of Meet
Award from Paso Robles McKiel Rotary Relays

One of the great things about the end of the season with meets such as the huge Southern Section Divisional meet is the presence of athletes from all over, a number of whom you may not have had a chance to see during the regular season because of one circumstance or another. It is especially frustrating when a top athlete's season is cut short due to injury or some other reason and they are not able to compete at the end of season championship level.

One such athelte is St. Joseph of Santa Maria star, Philip Adam, with the great all-around eleventh grader seriously breaking an arm that ended his spring athletic season before the championship portion. We marveled at his results during the spring, where he typically would run right at 15 seconds and 40 seconds in the two hurdle events, and add a 54 foot shot put!! His power and body control have to be very amazing!

We asked his Coach, Greg Sarkisian, to write up something about Phil's season and career, and it follows. Fortunately he is an eleventh grader and we look for him to come back with a vengeance in 2006!

Philip is a 6’0, 195 lb junior here at Saint Joseph High School in Santa Maria. He has been our most valuable athlete for three straight seasons. His best shot put mark this year was 54’11.75 but he never had a mark less than 53’5. He was undefeated this season, including the Easter Relays in Santa Barbara. His best discus (an event that he only started this season) was 147’4. He has consistently long jumped in the 20-21 foot range with a Personal Best on 21’2 as a sophomore. He runs the 110 hurdles usually in the 15.1-15.3 range but has a record on 14.9. His best 300 hurdle time is 39.82. This year his marks have all been right around that time. The race in which he was injured, it appeared that he was going to run about 38.5. He has pole vaulted in practice 11’0. He has thrown the javelin 174’ with little practice. We have not yet worked on the high jump. His best 400 meter time came a leg of a 4X400 relay at 50.8. You can see he is truly a potential decathlon star.

As a sophomore, Philip earned three CIF Division 4 medals: 4th in the shot put, 3rd in the 110 hurdles, and 6th in the 300 hurdles. He also competed in three CIF finals as a freshmen, medaling in the 300 hurdles. We noticed his marks this year would have made him the favorite to win three CIF Division 4 titles and be second in a fourth event.

His injury (a broken radius and ulna in his right forearm) devastated our team, but such is life. I thought you should know about him. He is a straight ‘A’ honor student in our most rigorous academic classes. He is enrolled in three AP courses and will ultimately take five or six before he graduates. After his injury, Philip has continued to attend practice and has acted as a de facto assistant coach, aiding our other throwers and hurdlers into our league CIF finals.

Greg Sarkisian