Hayden Gorovitz

Desert Vista HS, Chandler, AZ, c/o 2024
AthleticNET Bio

Hayden Gorovitz started sports off when he was very  young. But it wasn’t track and field that caught his primary attention. It was football and it was the marquee quarterback position. 

“I started throwing the football when I was three, four or five and was quarterback,” says Gorovitz.
He picked up baseball at 11 years of age.

Hayden was introduced to javelin at an early age by his high school club’s feeder program coach and by coincidence, happened to get experienced coaching early on. One day they were off to throw the javelin at a track meet, they ran into their  neighbor who asked  what they were doing. Hayden’s father,Jeff, thinking she  would not understand, explained the javelin to her. It just so happened that the neighbor was married to Mike Rivers, the 1998 Oregon State Champ who threw 209-04 with an old javelin and competed for Mesa Community College and Arizona State University. From then on , Rivers worked with Hayden and his brother to learn the basics and kept his interest high though Hayden continued to focus primarily on football.

Football took a turn for the worse his freshman year. He started for the first six weeks, but then suffered a concussion ending his football career. His sophomore year, he dropped baseball and turned his attention to the javelin. With his aspirations now turned towards javelin, Hayden and his family decided to install a runway in his backyard in a deal where his mom got a gazebo in return.

“It was like $5 per foot and we put in like I want to say over 100 feet,” he says of the project. “ It was quite a lot but definitely a lot of work went into our backyard last summer. Putting up the 20 foot net and our  own makeshift wooden wall in our backyard was definitely some of the tougher parts.”

Metal discs that go on the tip of the javelin were ordered from Germany to prevent them from going through the net.

Hayden upped his training throwing regularly in the fall. Coach Rivers had been great in getting him connected with the javelin community over the years so Hayden had great foundation in the fundamentals of the javelin. He got help from Jeff Gorski who he met at a USATF javelin throw clinic at LSU. He’s also attended other camps and gotten to work with USA Champ Curtis Thompson and another top US thrower, Ethan Shalaway at camps in Arizona and around the nation. Coach Rivers also invited interested javelin throwers from other schools to participate in their training sessions.

“It was definitely fun,” says Gorovitz of the javelin training and camps. “ I mean, we have a lot of connections throughout Arizona and throughout the nation. It's very cool.”

The increased throwing paid off this year. Hayden kept upping the Arizona state record and at the Willie Williams Classic on March 25, he uncorked a monster 221-07.75 to win the event over a collegiate field. He followed that with a win at his state meet in a meet record throw of 209-06,  a fifth place at the NIKE Outdoor Championships with a 205-05, fifth place at USATF U20s with a throw of 200-0, and second place in the HS Championship division with a mark of 211-10 at the American JavFest.

The goal for next year is to go over 230 feet, but he will take what he learned this year to improve.

“Getting the runway in our backyard, I was definitely eager to throw. I was throwing throughout the fall. It was not the smartest idea,” he says. “I was getting physical therapy and going to see the chiropractor because of all the stress on my body. It took a toll. This year I’m going to pick up the javelin in January or February.”