Pennsylvania Standout Throwing For State And National Titles

By Mary Albl of DyeStat

Depending on her mood, the hour drive Maria Deaviz takes from Souderton to Fleetwood, Pa., can go a few different ways. She’s known to crank up her music to max volume in order to get herself amped up. Other times, she just needs the time to think things through and quietly get herself mentally in the zone. 

“A lot of visualization in the specific location of competition,” she said.

Four to five times a week, Deaviz makes the two-hour round trip to train at Garage Strength – a place that’s become her second home – and where she spends two hours working out, sometimes more, perfecting her shot put technique and strength. After her workout, she’ll then make the hour drive home, crack open her Physics or Calculus textbook, eat, shower and then prepare to do it all over again.

“The grind” as she calls it, is where she thrives the most.

“I’ve learned if you want to be the best, you have to make sacrifices and know that it’s going to be worth it in the end,” Deaviz said. 

Right now, she is the best high school girls shot putter in the country. The senior from Souderton Area High, Deaviz boasts a mark of 51-10.75. She’s the only female to currently throw over 50 feet. This Sunday, she’ll compete for her first state title at the Pennsylvania PTFCA Indoor State Championships in State College.

WHO'S COMING TO NEW BALANCE NATIONALS - THROWS

“She’s the most intense person I’ve ever met,” Souderton coach Mike Feliciani said. “She’s either all in or all out.”

Making Deaviz a committed thrower took some time and work on Feliciani’s end. Deaviz threw in junior high, but stuck with her main sports of basketball and soccer when she entered high school. 

“Here’s some guy in the hall trying to get her to come out for the track team and it wasn’t going so well,” Feliciani said with a laugh. 

Deaviz eventually agreed to join the track team but wasn’t 100 percent committed at the beginning. Feliciani ended up writing her a letter, noting in detail the potential he saw in her. By the end of Deaviz’s sophomore year, she went from a 35-foot thrower to a 40-footer. At the 2018 outdoor AAA state meet she finished fifth, throwing 40-3. That was the same meet Berwick Area’s Payden Montana won with a throw of 51 feet. And at that point, Deaviz decided she was going all in on the sport of throwing. 

“I wanted to be as good as her,” Deaviz said. “I dropped everything. From there, (throwing) became my life. I thought, ‘This is my ticket to college.’”

Deaviz said it was a big deal to give up her loves for basketball and soccer. But the appeal of an individualized sport seemed suited to her competitive, passionate self-drive for excellence. 

“I love having everything on you, the way you train, the way you slack off, the way you perform. It’s like ‘How can I get better? What can I improve on?’  I love that aspect of it,” she said. “It’s just me. It’s me, and the grind, and the hustle. I just love the hustle, and it got me here.”

Deaviz said her intense desire to succeed comes from her background. She and her sister were raised in Northeast Philadelphia by a single mom, Rosane Rodrigues, an immigrant from Curitiba, Brazil. She married James Turner when Maria was 10 and the family moved to Souderton, a small suburb north of the city.

Deaviz grew up watching strong examples of hard work.

"They are hustling every day trying to put food on the table and I just want to provide for them when I get older,” she said. “I get it from my parents. I see how hard they work. It’s just that."

The summer going into her junior year is when Deaviz joined Garage Strength (where Montana trained) – a facility where the focus is training for high school athletes for their specific sport in the technical and strength aspect. Deaviz vividly remembers the first time she walked into the place.

“I’ll never forget the (feeling), ‘Holy crap, what have I gotten myself into?’ All the weightlifters, I was taken back. That first day I also puked,” she said, laughing at the memory. 

But Deaviz committed herself to coming back, making the long commute and eventually shedding the nickname “Puke.” 

“She’s made incredible progress over the last two years,” said Trevor Stutzman, her coach at Garage Strength.

“She’s one of those athletes that was pretty naturally explosive, but didn’t really have the strength component developed yet when she came to us. Basically as soon as she got to the weight room, she was really developing ridiculously fast and her numbers started to go off the charts.”

Part of what sets Deaviz apart from her peers is her maturity. She acknowledged her junior year was hard for her. A gym rat, she spent her time honing in on learning the spin and other technical aspects of her throw, along with getting stronger each day. 

“The spin in the shot put and discus is just something that takes a long time to develop and a lot of high schoolers don’t understand what all goes in technically, how long it takes, and the perspective,” Stutzman said. “But I think Maria is pretty special in that she understands that everything she does is one more point into the bucket that helps progress your technique. She doesn’t get upset if she has bad days, she understands long-term progression.”

This indoor season Deaviz’s hard work has come to fruition. She’s consistently thrown in the upper 40-foot range and Feb. 7 at the Delaware Valley Girls Track Coaches Association Meet at Lehigh, she broke the 50-foot mark, throwing a massive 51-10.75.

“That was insanity,” Feliciani said. “Because in the warm up, all of us saw the warm-up throw, and we’re like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I was getting nervous that I was going to have to walk out and measure that warm-up throw. But that was a huge number. It was pretty exciting.”

Her throw also ranks 16th all-time indoors. Since then, there’s been no letdown. On Feb. 16 at the Philadelphia Public League Invitational, she won with a mark of 50-6.25. On Feb. 21, she won the DVGTCA Meet of Champions at Lehigh with a throw of 48-11.50. Still new to the sport, there’s a lot more to come.

“Technically she’s so raw,” Feliciani said. “She literally throws on emotion. She thrives on competition.”

Deaviz recently signed with the University of Virginia, where she will be coached by Martin Maric

She also has her sights on a national crown March 14 at New Balance Nationals Indoor in New York. 

“I don't train for one title, I train to get them all,” Deaviz said. “A national title would be awesome. I’m happy with the way I’m working right now, and I know I can work even harder.”

Added Stutzman: “She’s wired like the best of the best. I really do think she could go the whole way and be an Olympic-level athlete.”