Notre Dame grad will throw discus, hammer, javelin at university in Louisiana

By Bernd Franke, Regional Sports Editor

For Callan Saldutto, cancellations of all but essential services due to COVID-19 couldn't have come at a worse time for the most part.

Not only was he unable to receive one-on-one training from his coaches, but the 18-year-old was also denied the opportunity to wrap up his high school track and field career on a strong note.

When the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) championships, originally set for June 4-6 at Varsity Stadium in Toronto, were cancelled, his hopes for making up for disappointing finishes at provincials last year were dashed.

"It definitely sucks. I was looking forward to it," the Notre Dame College School graduate said. "Last year wasn't the best for me.

"I really wanted to make up for it this year."

At OFSAA 2019, he placed ninth in discus, just missing out on qualifying for the final. In javelin, he faulted on a throw that would have launched him into the final. He did "surprisingly well" in shot put placing fifth overall.

Saldutto was a triple medallist competing as a junior the year before. He followed up a silver in discus with bronze medals in the shot put and javelin over the next two days.

Timing hasn't been all bad this year for the son of Tony and Kelly Saldutto of Welland. Saldutto was able to make a campus visit to University of Louisiana-Monroe (ULM) in mid-February. The triple threat in throwing disciplines - discus, hammer, javelin - was in the right place at the right time when he accepted a combination of academic and athletic scholarship about a month later.

"I'm just happy that I visited the university when I could, and I got that filled before all of this," he recalled in a recent interview, heaving a sigh of relief. "If I didn't know where I was going to university yet and this happened, I don't even know what I would do."

What Saldutto does now at this point is that he will move to Monroe, La., a city of nearly 50,000 about 430 kilometres northwest of New Orleans, in mid-August, should regular classes be up and running by then. He is studying accounting in hopes of becoming a chartered accountant.

The member of the York University Track and Field Club in Toronto also knows that for the first year at least, he will train with the javelin throwers as well as the rotational throwers at ULM.

"They want me to do all of them in the first year, then we'll see where I'm at and go from there."

Saldutto conceded while discus and hammer go hand-to-hand, they're part of an "odd combination" when javelin is thrown into the mix.

"It's definitely challenging to do the training for the different events. Usually, people are either javelin throwers or rotational throwers," he said. "It's rare that someone does both because the training is so much different."

Athletes want to get bigger and stronger for the heavier field events, such as discus, hammer and shot put.

"In javelin you still want to get stronger, but you don't necessarily want to be as big. You need to be more agile."

Finesse, not brute strength, is the key to succeeding in the javelin.

"Whipping a javelin as hard as you can is not going to work. It's not going to go far," he said. "You need to have the right technique, the right mobility and everything."

Over the years people have tried to dissuade him from continuing in all three throwing disciplines.

"I've come across people who have said, 'You're going to have to choose one,'" Saldutto said. "Even I think once I get into university, maybe I'll do a year continuing to do both. After that, I'm going to have to decide what direction I want to go in.

"It's going to be too hard to keep with the training for both."

A combination of partial academic and partial athletic scholarships totalled the equivalent of a four-year full-ride for Saldutto, who is averaging 98 per cent in his final year of high school.

"It worked out to a full scholarship," he said.

He accepted the offer from the Division 1 program after also making campus visits to University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

"But neither of those were really a good fit for me," Saldutto said. "It just seemed when I went there, they wouldn't really fit my personality, with my training style and everything."

He recalled that as soon as he got to ULM, "I knew this is the place for me."

Another factor tipping the scales in the school's favour is that he is being accepted into the honours program. At Monroe, honours students work closely with faculty and have a 100 per cent admission rate into graduate and professional schools.

COVID-19 has only slammed the brakes on sessions training one-and-one with a coach.

"I'm always training and throwing. I had a practice yesterday," he said last Monday.

While Saldutto hasn't been able to throw with his coaches, he is keeping in touch with them, either by sending videos or in FaceTime calls when he is practising.

"Since they're such individual sports, I can just go by myself and throw."

He isn't overly worried about developing bad habits while not under the watchful eyes of coaches Nathan Stern, for discus and hammer; and Jason Spalding for javelin.

"It could potentially happen. There are some things that I have been struggling with, but I still had my coaches help me through videos," Saldutto said. "It's not perfect but it's definitely still manageable."

He conceded maintaining a disciplined training regimen in a world that is anything but normal isn't always easy.

"It can be hard sometimes because I have the opportunity to sit around and do nothing. I really don't have too many responsibilities right now," he said. "School is online and I just get that done quickly.

"There's no, like, set practice so it's basically up to me to get myself up, try to get down to my basement to work out or get to the track."

Saldutto's ace in the hole? A love for field events that has been growing ever since he joined a track and field club at age 10.

"It can be difficult, but I've been doing this so long I'm so passionate about it that I actually enjoy working out. I enjoy getting to the track," he said with a chuckle. "That definitely helps me get there and get it done."

Saldutto hopes that one-on-training with his coaches will soon be able to resume. He is looking forward to the two-hour sessions three times per week, even it means a round-trip to Toronto each time.

"One of the best things about throwing is that the athletes are very friendly with each other," he said. "In throwing, everyone is just cheering each other on. It's just like this whole community of throwers.

"It's just an amazing experience."

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