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OLYMPICS: Jburg’s Shuey Throws Over 85 Meters in Olympic Tune-up; Punxsy Grad’s Wife Asst. Women’s Soccer Coach

EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. – On Saturday, Olympic qualifier Michael Shuey from Johnsonburg won the American Javfest at East Stroudsburg with a throw of 85.6 meters (280-feet, 10-inches).

That throw would have been good for the bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (shout to New Castle News reporter and Kane graduate Pete Siriani for the heads up on that). It is ranked 18th in the world this year according to World Athletics.

The throw was a personal record for Shuey and actually allowed him to reach the Olympic qualifying mark of 85 meters ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Games slated to start this week (Shuey had qualified for the games by virtue of his world ranking. He was ranked 23rds in the latest rankings released July 13).

According to Joyce Maletto of the Johnsonburg Press he is only the fourth US Javelin thrower to throw over the Olympic qualifying standard.

The javelin competition is slated for Aug. 3.

Watch the throw

Watch Shuey’s reaction

ANOTHER LOCAL CONNECTION AT THE TOKYO GAMES

While Shuey is the lone District 9 competitor at the Olympic games, he is not the only person in Tokyo with District 9 ties.

Penn State women’s head coach Erica Dambach, the wife of Punxsutawney graduate Jason Dambach, is an assistant coach on the US Women’s Olympic team, which beings action at 4:30 a.m. July 21 against Sweden.

This is Dambach’s second stint as an assistant coach for Team USA, as she was an assistant on the 2008 squad in Beijing that won a gold medal.

Dambach guided the Nittany Lions to a 12-3-1 record last season winning the 20th regulate-season Big Ten Championship for Penn State while the Nittany Lions made the NCAA Tournament for the 26th straight year.

In 14 seasons at Penn State, Dambach has led the Nittany Lions to a 231-76-21 record, 14 straight NCAA Tournament appearances, the 2015 NCAA national championship, 11 Big Ten regular-season titles, four Big Ten Tournament Titles, and to a pair of College Cup and national title match appearances (2012/2015). She was named the 2012 and 2015 NSCAA Coach of the Year, the 2012 Soccer America National Coach of the Year, and the 2009, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2020-21 Big Ten Coach of the Year.

In 18 years as a head coach, she has 271 career victories and a .709 winning percentage.

A 1994 graduate of Punxsutawney High School, Jason Dambach graduated from Clarion University in 1999 (while at Clarion he was the play-by-play voice for Golden Eagle basketball and actually worked games on TV 5 with Sheffield graduate and current Laurel Media Group radio personality and play-by-play announcer Chuck Demko, who goes by JJ Michaels on air).

Following graduation, Jason Dambach was the Director of Communication/Radio broadcaster for the Altoona Curve from May 1999 to December 2008. He then served as Senior VP/General Manager of the State College Spikes from Jan. 2009 through Jan. 2015 before taking over as President of the State College Spikes and Frisco (Texas) Rough Riders in Jan. 2015, a position he held through Aug. 2018. In June 2019, he founded SportStart, a company that helps aspiring sports business professionals get started on the path to their dream career.

                       

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