At Penn Relays, Central Bucks East's Millar succeeds in switch from baseball to the javelin

HOW MANY other Brett Millars are out there somewhere?

As in: Kids who are somewhat successful in one sporting endeavor but could be downright spectacular in another, if they'd only give it a chance.

Millar is a 5-10, 185-pound senior at Central Bucks East High and his spring sport of choice was always baseball. Two years ago, he switched to track with the idea of having success as a sprinter.

Funny how things work out.

Now he's a whiz at throwing that long, pointy stick, whatever it's called . . . Oh, yeah, the javelin.

"Because I played baseball my whole life, I figured I had an arm," Millar said. "I was goofing off in practice and one of my friends from the football team had a javelin. Just messing around, I said, 'Gimme that.'

"I did a standing throw and it went farther than everyone else's full throw. The coach said, 'We're going to stick you in the javelin from now on.' "

Millar told that little story yesterday on a chunk of real estate about a 10-minute walk - with treks over two foot bridges included - from Franklin Field. On one side were railroad tracks. On the other was the Schuylkill Expressway.

On Millar's face? A rather joyous expression.

OK, so he would have preferred claiming first place in the Penn Relays championship for high school boys. But he definitely could live with finishing second, especially since his best effort of 209 feet, 5 inches, bettered his personal record by about 6 feet.

On a day when it was hard to find events dominated by locals, the javelin was a refreshing contrast.

Four of the top seven seeds represented schools from the Pennsylvania portion of the Philly suburbs, while seven of the 22 competitors, in all, were from Montgomery, Bucks or Delaware counties.

Third place went to Matt McMurdo, of Central Bucks West, who managed 206-1. Springfield Delco's Vincent DuVernois claimed fourth at 191-4 while Pennsbury's Steve Marck (180-10) and Holy Ghost Prep's James Budzinski (180-6) were seventh and eighth, respectively.

The preliminaries were split into two flights, based on qualifying efforts. Millar rubbed elbows with all the luminaries and fared extremely well, posting not only the best throw at 202-4, but three of the top four overall.

The whole time he tracked the progress of top seed Justin Shirk, of Central Dauphin (Harrisburg).