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Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette Pitt javelin thrower Tony Bonura. Click photo for larger image. Tony Bonura set the Pitt record in the Javelin throw with a toss of 71.65 meters. How long is that?
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3: Feet longer than a 747 plane (Standard length of 231 ft. 10 in.)Coming out of Plum High School, Tony Bonura's vision down the field was good enough to help get him to Canisius College as a quarterback.
There's no way he could have picked up on this route, though.
Bonura graduated Sunday with a degree in economics, but it wasn't from the school in Buffalo, N.Y. It was from Pitt.
And his sport no longer is football. It's javelin, an event he admits in high school he "used as training for football, to keep my arm in shape."
That right arm has shaped up to be ideal for throwing a javelin.
As a junior at Pitt last year, Bonura was the Big East champion and an NCAA All-American. As a senior, he is ranked fourth in the NCAA this season with a long throw of 71.65 meters, a Pitt record.
Bonura will attempt to defend his conference title Saturday and Sunday at Connecticut. He has qualified for the NCAA championships June 7-10 at Sacramento, Calif., and the USA Track and Field national championships next month in Indianapolis.
"To him, an event he thought was just something to do turned out to be something he's pretty good at -- one of the best in the country," Panthers track and field coach Alonzo Webb said.
If he had continued in football, Bonura's athletic career would be over. For him, football ended when, with three games left in his sophomore season, Canisius announced it would drop the sport after that season.
"I could have tried to transfer somewhere for football, but with the idea of going somewhere, learning a whole new system with a chance of not playing at all, I figured that track was my second-best thing in high school, so I'd try that out," Bonura said.
He wanted to return close to home and was accepted at Pitt as a walk-on, partly because of his credentials at Plum. He set a school record of 203 feet, 4 inches and, as a senior in 2001, finished second in the WPIAL. He also finished ninth at junior nationals.
For someone who dismissed the notion of learning a new offensive system in football, Bonura found out he had a lot to learn about advanced javelin technique.
"When I walked on, I thought, 'Oh, I know how to throw a javelin,' " he said. "It was completely the opposite of what I was thinking."
Under the tutelage of Pitt assistant Curtis Phillips, Bonura revamped his throwing motion, abandoning the over-the-top football motion for one that is more of an upswing.
"I don't know if anyone is a natural at javelin, but he has a very natural throwing motion," Phillips said.
Phillips said if Bonura can better harness his good arm speed while staying true to his new technique, he has great potential.
"If his heart is into it, I think he can go to the Olympic trials," Phillips said.
The next year for that is 2008, and that's exactly what Bonura has in mind.
He hopes to retain Phillips as his personal coach once his senior season is over and has a plan that will allow him to work and train. He has a deal to work for his father, Bill, at Bonura Cabinets and maintain the flexibility to spend quality time with his javelin.
Bonura has time on his side. At 23, he would be young among the international javelin crowd. It's not unusual for Olympians to be 30 or older, so he can look ahead to two or three Olympic cycles.
He wouldn't have that kind of outlook if he had stayed with football.
"You couldn't plan for how it worked out," Bonura said. "Yes, I was bummed about football being over, but to say that now I'm an All-American and a Big East champion, that's something that I'll have forever."
