"It's a Good Day to be an Adult and an Eagle."
Note: In the spring of 2020, many students celebrated getting to stay home for spring trimester because of Covid, yet one of my sophomores bemoaned missing his second high school track season. Last week you got to read about one of my first students, this week you’ll get to meet one from my last year in the old building, a gentle giant named Ethan Fischer.
For Fischer, high school life isn’t a distant memory, and he characterized himself as a leader as a three-sport athlete. He also enjoyed his time being involved with Eaglevision and FFA. While Fischer left the state for college, he didn’t travel too far away. “I think it really helps being here at SDSU. There are a lot of kids with ag backgrounds. It’s a very ‘home town’ feeling.” It also helps that Fischer rooms with some of his former Maple River classmates: Will Trio, Ethan Evenson, and Brock Hansen. “We’ve all made a lot of new friends, so we always hang out with different friend groups.”
While Fischer has found a lot of familiarity in his new life, he’s also experienced a lot of change as a collegiate athlete. “I’m usually taking about 15 credits a week with two in-person and one online. For track, it’s about 12-15 hours a week of work. Coach is really good about getting practice time around our class schedule.” While Fischer appreciates the efforts of his high school coaches, Brian Schoneck and Bryant Stiernagle, he found the coaching to be much different at college. “At college, Coach does it for a full-time job, so he’s got a good understanding of how the throw is supposed to work. So looking back at high school film of me throwing, my technique has changed a lot.” Fischer believes working at his craft throughout the school year has also helped him achieve great success. “Coach always says the scary part is December ‘cause you can continue to lift and continue to train for the month or you can just take the whole month off.” Fischer worked hard and credit’s SDSU’s indoor facility for greatly benefiting his development.
Recently, Fischer made headlines when he broke SDSU’s discus record. Fischer first explained that the implement size gets bigger when going from high school to college, which is why his distances have actually gone down compared to his appearances at the MSHSL State tournaments. At the recent Pacific Coast Invitational, Fischer entered as the 18th ranked athlete. In a college meet, he is able to make three throws, and the top nine advance to finals. His first throw of 56.84 meters broke the previous Jackrabbit record. “Going in, I was a little bit nervous, but it was a great day to throw discus. It was 73 degrees in Long Beach California.” After his record setting throw, he went on to have a solid day by placing 5th.
Fischer still has several big meets this spring. He hopes that his big throw will be enough to get him into regionals in Arkansas. Another local track star, Ethan Weber from St. Clair, expressed his envy of Fischer’s development. “I can’t believe you’re only a sophomore,” Weber told Fischer at a recent competition. Since his freshman year, he’s already improved by 12 feet.
Having lost 1 of his 4 track seasons to Covid in the Spring of 2020, Fisher performs at each meet like it could be his last. He also has advice for former teammates that are still in high school competing in sports. “For me, it would’ve been to try a lot harder your freshman and sophomore years in high school because you don’t understand how much your GPA counts toward scholarship.” Having just missed out on some scholarship opportunities, Fischer admits “any amount helps in college.”
Life in 2022
Oscar Winner: Coda
Top-selling artist: Bad Bunny
President: Joe Biden
Viking Season: 13-4
Twins Season: 78-84
Price of gas: $4.36
(Originally Published in the Maple River Messenger)
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