Former Poplar Bluff javelin thrower earns NCAA Regional spot

When injuries caused him to shift focus during track in high school, former Poplar Bluff Mule Josiah Kilgore decided to use tools he’s acquired throughout his athletic career to focus on a new venture.

Javelin.

Kilgore starting throwing for the Mules during his junior season and now several years later, he’s a two-time NCAA Regional Qualifier and a two-time OVC representative as he took his talents to Southeast Missouri State after graduating from Poplar Bluff.

“I picked up the javelin my junior year of high school and I got a couple marks out there and then my senior year, I lost all my scholarships for football and started reaching out for track scholarships,” he said. “That’s how I got to SEMO. That’s how my story went.”

For Kilgore, an accomplished athlete on multiple levels, he admitted it was difficult at first trying to learn a new sport but he used tools from his past to figure it out.

“When I first started, it was a struggle but I looked back to my history,” he said. “I played baseball my whole life, football my whole life. My freshman year and junior year, I was a quarterback on the football team and my sophomore year I played on the baseball team. I had the mechanics for it, I just didn’t know how to use them at the time.

“Once everything clicked, it just started working out for me.”

Now two years into his career at SEMO, there are a few things Kilgore said were differences he had to get used to at the next level.

All of them rely on what he does and him adapting to the situation.

“In high school, you could be a little more inconsistent,” he said. “You can have high numbers, low numbers but usually coaches look at the higher numbers. On the next level, where I’m at now, it’s all about being consistent. You can’t go out here and throw however many meters under your personal best and think you’re going to make it throughout the whole season or make it to the next level.

“Being consistent, waking up at certain times, making sure you’re going to workouts, getting your classes done. It’s a full-time job. That’s really what it is. At high school, you can treat it as just a season but at the next level, you’ve got to treat it like it’s your life. It’s really your life.”

Another thing Kilgore had to get used to was the weight room. He said he’s always enjoyed working out but in college, it’s another level.

“I know lifting weights will help your performance but when I got to college, the amount of lifting that we do, we lift two days a week, but it feels like we lift every day,” he said. “Lifting weights and med ball throws. I was expecting to lift and med ball throws but the way we do it, I wasn’t ready for it. It took me a bit to adjust then when I adjusted, I just live for it now.”

Kilgore wasn’t the only Redhawk to advance to NCAA Regionals this season as fellow javelin thrower Justin Breault also competed.

With he and Breault, along with the other SEMO throwers, Kilgore said the throwing room is on another level in Cape Girardeau.

“Every day at practice we push each other,” he said. “It’s kind of fun because we’re all wanting to be the best at the end of the day so we’re going to push each other whether that be in the weight room or in class, even throwing, no matter what, our practices are loaded.”

He said it doesn’t matter if it’s javelin, hammer throw or another event, they all come to compete every single day.

“At SEMO, we have one of the better throwing groups in the nation,” he said. “As a whole, our hammer throwers will go out and push the javelin throwers, our javelin throwers will push everybody else. It doesn’t matter. Our throwers, they all push each other. It helps the environment and training because at meets, it’s just like practice.”

Kilgore is now looking to rest his body for next season along with getting Josiah Kilgore Javelin Training off the ground.

With his venture in its second season, Kilgore wants to help javelin throwers from around southeast Missouri be the best athlete they can be.

It also sets up Kilgore for what he wants to do later in life, which is to become a track & field coach.

For those interested in javelin, Kilgore said it one can’t now if they enjoy it without giving it a shot.

“Go out there and just try it,” he said. “You’ll never know. Whenever I first started javelin, I was like I don’t know about this but about two or three weeks, I started picking it up and then started relating it to other things I’ve done before.

“You’ve got to try new stuff sometimes to see if you like it or not.”