On the final javelin throw of his high school career, Simms senior Josey Hinderager uncorked a toss of 167-feet, 4-inches to set a PR by four feet and more importantly, clinch a State C title.
In the winter of his junior year, Josey Hinderager started to feel chest pain following a bout with COVID.
“My chest started to really hurt, so I went in, and figured out this is kind of a serious deal, I found out in the spring that I had pericarditis,” he said. “And this fall I learned that my doctors didn’t really want me to do anything with contact.”
Josey Hinderager, who claims football as his favorite sport, is a 6-3 tight end and defensive linemen who was being recruited by several Montana colleges. But his contact sports career was forced to a premature end.
Josey was also forced to skip basketball season. But doctors cleared him for track if he avoided contact. Track and Field was never his strong suit, but he won a district javelin title as a junior in only his second time ever throwing, but finished 11th at Northern C.
“This year I was kind of deciding whether to do track or not,” he said. “But then I told myself it’s my last sport probably that I’ll ever get to do. So, give it your best and you got nothing to lose, so why not?”
Josey Hinderager increased his distance by nearly 30-feet from the start of the season to his final throw at State C in Laurel. He ends his athletic career as a state champion, with a shiny medal and a brand-new outlook.
“I do think I have become more grateful over this past year, and I really hope that I can continue to see this way through the rest of my life,” he said.
Winning a state title is hard, especially in a sport like track where hundreds of individuals try to push their bodies to the limit for top times and distances. But Josey Hinderager’s road to a championship required an extra degree of difficulty.