Photo from Nadim Elhage Winston Churchill High School senior Nadim Elhage won the Montgomery County indoor shot put championship in January. He has had to overcome a number of injuries to compete in both football and track and field.

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Photo from Nadim Elhage Winston Churchill High School senior Nadim Elhage won the Montgomery County indoor shot put championship in January. He has had to overcome a number of injuries to compete in both football and track and field.
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Photo from Nadim Elhage Winston Churchill High School senior Nadim Elhage won the Montgomery County indoor shot put championship in January. He has had to overcome a number of injuries to compete in both football and track and field.

Photo from Nadim Elhage Winston Churchill High School senior Nadim Elhage won the Montgomery County indoor shot put championship in January. He has had to overcome a number of injuries to compete in both football and track and field.

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Winston Churchill High School senior Nadim Elhage can slam dunk a basketball. Or so he says.

Tenth-year Bulldogs indoor and outdoor track and field coach Scott Silverstein has never seen it with his own two eyes but he also said won't dismiss the notion.

One common misconception is that the best shot put and discus throw athletes have to be big.

Six-foot-2, 250-plus pound Elhage, who won the indoor Montgomery County shot put title last month and will be the defending discus throw champion during the outdoor season this spring, certainly is not a small guy.

But a three-year defensive lineman on Churchill's varsity football team, which made its first postseason appearance since 2004 last fall, he is quite quick and agile.

“Nadim happens to be a big guy but he actually has decent speed and agility which is something you don't often see in guys his size,” Silverstein said. “They were showing me this video the other day of him trying to dunk. He didn't do it in the video but he definitely got above the rim. That ability to run and jump and do things like that separates him from some of these [throwers] that are just about brute strength.”

Since he was a freshman, Silverstein said, Elhage has always imagined big things for himself.

He attracted interest from several Division I-AA programs for both football and track but opted to continue with both sports at Bowdoin College in Maine next year.

But there was a time not too long ago when Elhage feared he might be done with competitive sports altogether.

A rash of serious injuries over the past three years threatened to derail his ambitions.

“[Elhage] is very confident. It's almost to the point of being cocky. I think he just looked at these [injuries] as obstacles in his way,” Silverstein said. “Even though he's got this cocky side and always wants to win, if he sees someone who is better than him, he knows it, he understands it and he tries to learn from it.”

In fall of 2009, Elhage was diagnosed with Pars Defect in the 5th Lumbar vertebra.

Also known as spondylolysis, Pars Defect is a stress fracture in one of the bones that make up the spinal column, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Three months of inactivity in a restrictive back brace was followed by three months of physical therapy. He missed the whole winter season and most of the spring.

He always will have a crack in his vertebra, Elhage said, but only briefly considered sitting out the football season. Representing Churchill, he added, was more important.

This summer Elhage tore a ligament in his thumb during a football training camp. He underwent surgery before the season and played with a cast on his arm.

Then in the fourth game of the season, a 32-6 loss to Seneca Valley, Elhage collided with another player and sustained a fracture in his leg.

“The doctor said I was supposed to be out six to eight weeks but after two weeks I told him it was my senior year and homecoming. He gave me a soft brace to wear,” Elhage said. “Until our last game, [my leg] was still fractured.”

Although each setback was frustrating, Elhage said overcoming the bumps in the road have molded him into a harder worker and better overall athlete.

The exciting part, Silverstein said, is that Elhage still is improving. He is poised to contend for regional and state shot put titles this month.

Although many skills are transferrable between football and shot put and discus, Elhage said he appreciates the intricacies of each sport and the impact they have on his performances.

“I think there is an elegance about throwing the discus. The spin and release, it's something beautiful,' Elhage said. “There are a lot of huge people [in shot put and discus throw] but the skill it takes to get them to go far is more than just being big. You need to be quick on your feet. And you need strength and balance to be able to do everything at once and not fall over.”

jbeekman@gazette.net