Mike Manno - North Rockland 1990
Mike Manno probably had one of the shortest approach runs of any scholastic javelin thrower. But the 6-foot-2, 250-pound strongman also had a cannon for a right arm, which helps explain how he managed to heave the spear 215 feet, 11 inches, fourth best in New York State history and fifth-farthest among U.S. schoolboys in 1990.
“He had good flexibility and just a tremendous, explosive arm,” says Bob Murphy, Mike’s throws coach at North Rockland and a former javelinist himself. “He has shoulders about eight feet wide and hands like a boxer’s. They were like having two sledgehammers.”
Murphy “tailored a technique that worked for me,” says Mike, who was one of three throwing Mannos along with twin brother Anthony and younger brother Mark. “He’s got this big guy whose best asset was not speed; arm strength was. So he took what he had to work with and developed a technique for me that was not traditional.”
Conventional or not, Mike certainly maximized his opportunities with the 1 ¾-pound aluminum shaft. In his senior year, he won the Red Raider (215-11), County, Section 1 Class A, Loucks (213-3) and Dick Wilson (214-6) meets; placed third at Penn Relays (208-0), fourth at Golden West (210-1) and third at the U.S. Junior Nationals.
At Penn, Golden West and Junior Nationals, “That’s when you got to measure up against the rest of the country,” Mike says. “It was an eye-opener. I learned that I did not know how good I was, and I could see how things like technique, not brawn, could win a meet.”
Mike also placed third in the discus at Penn Relays with a throw of 173-6, second all-time in Rockland behind teammate Phil Caraher (189-6), and seventh in the shot put. His personal-best shot put of 57-4 ranks 10th on the Rockland list. In fact, he’s the only male thrower in the Rockland top 10 in all three throws. Murphy called Mike the most versatile and best combined thrower he’s coached.
In the shot outdoors, Mike took home titles in the County, League I-B, Crusader (57-4) and Dick Wilson meets. In the discus, he captured the Section 1, Red Raider (meet-record 169-10), League, Crusader and Dick Wilson meets. Indoors in the shot, he won Sectionals, placed 10th at the National Scholastic meet, posted a Rockland-leading mark of 55- ¾ and was first-team All-County. Mike was WRKL-Bank of New York Spring Male Athlete of the Season, and also made first-team All-State as an offensive lineman for the Red Raiders’ powerful football team (as did his fraternal twin Anthony).
The summer after graduating from North Rockland, Mike received an all-expenses-paid trip to the Junior Elite javelin camp at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. At the final competition of the camp – not an officially sanctioned meet – Mike reportedly launched a 237-foot throw, a distance less than five feet shy of the existing national high school record for the new (post-1986) javelin. “The Olympic Training Center was a phenomenal experience,” Mike says. “When I got there I was just muscling my throws with a six-step approach. I made improvements on my throwing skills just from that training camp.”
Mike earned a full football scholarship to Northeastern University but quickly learned that college football and track did not mix for a thrower, even on the I-AA level. His freshman year he broke a knuckle on his throwing hand during football practice and redshirted both the fall and winter seasons. Spring started auspiciously with javelin victories in some cold early-season meets, but then more misfortune intervened: He broke four bones in his forearms and right wrist in a weight-lifting accident that left his right arm in a cast for five months and his left arm for 10 weeks.
The injury bugaboo eventually took its toll on Mike. After playing as a backup center in his sophomore football season (redshirt freshman in terms of eligibility), he tore the lateral meniscus in his right knee during winter workouts, and the resulting surgery and rehab wiped out the rest of the year. When he tore two knee ligaments the following football season, he knew his collegiate athletic career was essentially over. “I had to think about just having a body and graduating,” he says with a laugh.
After graduating with a degree in sports medicine, Mike worked for a trucking company in Newark, N.J., and later for a construction company with his uncle in northern New Jersey. He then moved to Florida near his brother Anthony and began in interior construction of high-end custom homes and large commercial properties. After performing a renovation of high-rise buildings for a foreign institutional owner, he got into construction management and transitioned to property management.
Mike, who is 36 and recently engaged, now owns a commercial management property company, managing commercial high-rise buildings in Miami.
He looks back on his high school career, and the people who guided him, with fond memories. “Those were carefree days. I was injury-free and competing healthy. It makes you appreciate things a lot more now. I looked to my coaches as father figures; they were superb role models. The kind of support I got from Murph and Coach [Gene] Dall and the others was great.”
“He had good flexibility and just a tremendous, explosive arm,” says Bob Murphy, Mike’s throws coach at North Rockland and a former javelinist himself. “He has shoulders about eight feet wide and hands like a boxer’s. They were like having two sledgehammers.”
Murphy “tailored a technique that worked for me,” says Mike, who was one of three throwing Mannos along with twin brother Anthony and younger brother Mark. “He’s got this big guy whose best asset was not speed; arm strength was. So he took what he had to work with and developed a technique for me that was not traditional.”
Conventional or not, Mike certainly maximized his opportunities with the 1 ¾-pound aluminum shaft. In his senior year, he won the Red Raider (215-11), County, Section 1 Class A, Loucks (213-3) and Dick Wilson (214-6) meets; placed third at Penn Relays (208-0), fourth at Golden West (210-1) and third at the U.S. Junior Nationals.
At Penn, Golden West and Junior Nationals, “That’s when you got to measure up against the rest of the country,” Mike says. “It was an eye-opener. I learned that I did not know how good I was, and I could see how things like technique, not brawn, could win a meet.”
Mike also placed third in the discus at Penn Relays with a throw of 173-6, second all-time in Rockland behind teammate Phil Caraher (189-6), and seventh in the shot put. His personal-best shot put of 57-4 ranks 10th on the Rockland list. In fact, he’s the only male thrower in the Rockland top 10 in all three throws. Murphy called Mike the most versatile and best combined thrower he’s coached.
In the shot outdoors, Mike took home titles in the County, League I-B, Crusader (57-4) and Dick Wilson meets. In the discus, he captured the Section 1, Red Raider (meet-record 169-10), League, Crusader and Dick Wilson meets. Indoors in the shot, he won Sectionals, placed 10th at the National Scholastic meet, posted a Rockland-leading mark of 55- ¾ and was first-team All-County. Mike was WRKL-Bank of New York Spring Male Athlete of the Season, and also made first-team All-State as an offensive lineman for the Red Raiders’ powerful football team (as did his fraternal twin Anthony).
The summer after graduating from North Rockland, Mike received an all-expenses-paid trip to the Junior Elite javelin camp at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. At the final competition of the camp – not an officially sanctioned meet – Mike reportedly launched a 237-foot throw, a distance less than five feet shy of the existing national high school record for the new (post-1986) javelin. “The Olympic Training Center was a phenomenal experience,” Mike says. “When I got there I was just muscling my throws with a six-step approach. I made improvements on my throwing skills just from that training camp.”
Mike earned a full football scholarship to Northeastern University but quickly learned that college football and track did not mix for a thrower, even on the I-AA level. His freshman year he broke a knuckle on his throwing hand during football practice and redshirted both the fall and winter seasons. Spring started auspiciously with javelin victories in some cold early-season meets, but then more misfortune intervened: He broke four bones in his forearms and right wrist in a weight-lifting accident that left his right arm in a cast for five months and his left arm for 10 weeks.
The injury bugaboo eventually took its toll on Mike. After playing as a backup center in his sophomore football season (redshirt freshman in terms of eligibility), he tore the lateral meniscus in his right knee during winter workouts, and the resulting surgery and rehab wiped out the rest of the year. When he tore two knee ligaments the following football season, he knew his collegiate athletic career was essentially over. “I had to think about just having a body and graduating,” he says with a laugh.
After graduating with a degree in sports medicine, Mike worked for a trucking company in Newark, N.J., and later for a construction company with his uncle in northern New Jersey. He then moved to Florida near his brother Anthony and began in interior construction of high-end custom homes and large commercial properties. After performing a renovation of high-rise buildings for a foreign institutional owner, he got into construction management and transitioned to property management.
Mike, who is 36 and recently engaged, now owns a commercial management property company, managing commercial high-rise buildings in Miami.
He looks back on his high school career, and the people who guided him, with fond memories. “Those were carefree days. I was injury-free and competing healthy. It makes you appreciate things a lot more now. I looked to my coaches as father figures; they were superb role models. The kind of support I got from Murph and Coach [Gene] Dall and the others was great.”