Life is full of struggles and senior thrower Justin Washington knows that all too well.

When he was younger his parents split up and his family bounced around.

“I did not grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth,” Washington said. “There was a whole lot of moving around. I bounced around from place to place. Pretty much at the start of every school year I was in a different school and a different town. It wasn’t until the end of junior high and start of high school that I actually had somewhere steady to stay.”

Washington said he was a troublemaker growing up and didn’t always fit in. He also had authority issues.

Washington has a twin sister and a brother who used to star in football at Northern Illinois University.

“My older brother was everything you could ask for in a brother and so much more,” Washington said. “A lot of who I am is from my brother. We took a lot of the same paths academically and athletically. He is a good person to model yourself after and I think I did that.”

He said he and his twin sister have a special bond and no matter the issues between them, the bond will never break.

Washington started out at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville before transferring to Eastern.

“I transferred because I didn’t fit in the way I wanted to be fitting in there,” Washington said. “It was quite different culturally from what I am used to in northeastern Illinois. I come from the suburbs of Chicago. The way people operate and think; their views and opinions differed greatly from mine.”

His mother was battling cancer at the time so that caused a distraction for him since he wanted to be back home with her.

While at UW-P he tried some different things to become more “Zen” and centered to be a better overall person.

Poetry and yoga has been used by Washington to safely vent and to become more level headed.

“I like to experiment with my body,” Washington said. “I like to do new age exercises and new styles of lifting. I did do yoga religiously my freshman and sophomore year of college. I am all about being Zen. A level head and a clear mind. That is the way I compete. A chaotic mind equals a chaotic performance.

“I used to be really mean and violent and aggressive and all that did was got me nowhere or in trouble constantly. It wasn’t until I mellowed out and became more Zen, things got better for me.”

After he decided to transfer, he was going to Illinois State University before coming to Eastern at the last second.

“I had everything lined up to go to Illinois State, I had the schedule completed,” Washington said. “ISU was probably going to be the school, but the problem was I was going to be just a regular student. I was like two seconds away from going to ISU, but I ended up here, so I guess it is fate.”

At Eastern, Washington has been a solid thrower.

Throwing coach Jessica Sommerfeld is confident in Washington’s ability and thinks he can win an OVC Championship medal.

However, Sommerfeld said he has to still improve.

“Justin can be very challenging to coach,” Sommerfeld said. “He has worked very hard and has come a long way from the first day I met him. Justin needs to find a way to connect his mind and his body. When this happens he will be an excellent thrower.”

Justin has now been at Eastern for a few years and admits it has been rough at times.

“I want to say I finished the way I wanted to finish upon graduation,” Washington said. “I don’t want to have any regrets academically. I mean, that is the worst feeling you can have, regretting things. You are a student first and an athlete second. I am not going to be throwing a discus or hammer for the rest of my life.”

Dion Martorano can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected].