FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Longtime Northern Arizona track and field throws coach Mohamad Saatara was featured in an article on www.collegehammer.com Thursday morning. The article written by Martin Bingisser highlights Saatara's success in a city where distance running is king.

Saatara Makes Home for Throwers in Runners Mecca

By Martin Bingisser

In the world of track and field, Flagstaff, Arizona is known as a distance running mecca. Runners from across the country and around the world flock to the city to train at the city's 7,000 foot elevation. Mohamad Saatara moved to Flagstaff for a different reason; he is trying to put throwers on the map since arriving in town eight years ago. The Northern Arizona University throwing coach has been slowly building a quality throws program and last year opened up the NAU Throws Field which features multiple rings for the hammer, shot put, and discus.

Saatara has long been developing under the radar. He got into coaching at California State University, Los Angeles after up and coming coach Don Babbitt left to accept his current position at the University of Georgia in 1996. Babbitt had been Saatara's coach in college and led him to a second place finish at the Division II national championships in 1995. After graduating, he originally planned on starting medical school, but Babbitt and Citrus Community College Coach Lloyd Higgins both inspired him to go into coaching instead.

Almost immediately Saatara applied his scientific aspirations to researching the throwing events by travelling around the world to learn from the best coaches. "I feel that every coach has to find their own methods and training systems which work best for their situation and athletes," Saatara says. "It's not good to just blindly follow other peoples training." His search led him to training camps in places like Germany and Hungary, studying the best coaches and sports scientists. He also learned from coaches in American like Babbitt and Tennessee throws coach John Frazier. More recently, he has travelled to Canada to work with legendary hammer coach Anatoly Bondarchuk.

On each trip, Saatara learns a little more information and uses that to develop his own unique approach to training. In the end, his throwers train differently than most others with a high volume of throws and specific strength work. For instance, his throwers will take up to forty throws on a day of training. His approach has produced great results so far. Saatara had three throwers compete at the 2008 Olympic Games: hammer thrower Georgina Toth and shot putters Zara Northover and Amin Nikfar, a graduate of California. This year he has a strong throws crew lead by Curtis Durocher (63.57m hammer thrower), Javier Villarreal (18.59m shot putter), and Andres Rossini (56.28m discus thrower).

Being at a mid-major, Saatara rarely gets a blue chip recruit. Instead he prides himself on his ability to turn good high school throwers into great collegiate throwers. For instance, Villarreal was only a 55-foot shot putter in high school and has developed into an qualified for both the NCAA indoor and outdoor championships. Developing Villarreal has been a great project, but Saatara said Villarreal's progress outside the ring has been even more exciting to watch. Villarreal grew up in a rough neighborhood in southern Arizona. "He went from being an at risk student with a GPA of 2.0 to a 3.8 GPA and representing NAU several times at nationals," Saatara said. And Villarreal is just one of many stories Saatara has from his fifteen years of coaching. Whether or not the next Olympian from Flagstaff is a thrower instead of a miler, Saatara is sure his program will continue to grow and develop both great throwers and individuals.