He's Dedicated To The Discus -- Huskies' Setliff Making Most Of Second Chance

Told to study, Adam Setliff would sleep. Told to stay in school, he would skip. Told to apply himself, he would spend his evenings with a six-pack.

"I'm sure there were people that thought I was incorrigible in high school," Setliff said. "I would do all kinds of things that were self-destructive."

Setliff, a junior on the University of Washington track team, gave himself a second chance at throwing the discus, at being what everybody expected him to be. Only this time, the expectations are all Setliff's.

Setliff was named the Pacific-10 Conference's athlete of the week after throwing the discus 201 feet, 11 inches last weekend at a four-way meet at Husky Stadium. It was the second-longest throw in school history, 12 feet, 8 inches short of the record set by Borys Chambul in 1976.

His event is one of the few Washington is favored to win tomorrow in the Huskies' dual meet against Washington State in Pullman.

Halfway through the season, Setliff met the NCAA qualifying standard for the Olympic Trials in June. He is still the only Husky to qualify for the national meet (several others have reached provisional standards).

This is where everybody expected Setliff to be.

"It's about time," Setliff said. "I have no problem saying I've paid my dues. But I don't like people telling me what to do. I had to do this for myself."

Setliff's story started in Wyoming. He first threw the discus in sixth grade. It was something he was good at right away. He would eventually stop playing his other sports, basketball and tennis, because he became obsessed with the discus.

"I've always been an obsessive person," he said.

When Setliff was a high-school sophomore, his father, a physician, moved the family to North Platte, Neb., the second of four high schools Setliff would attend . When Setliff's lifestyle worsened, his mother moved with her son to Fort Worth, Texas. Setliff finished his senior year at L.D. Bell High in Hurst, Texas.

"She needed to get me away," said Setliff, who attributed his unruly attitude to adolesence and his predisposition to rebel.

"I went through a lot changes. But the one thing that stayed the same was the discus."

At L.D. Bell, Setliff met the first of two people who would profoundly affect his life - track coach Steve Stewart, a former All-America discus thrower at Texas A&M. Setliff went from being rated No. 17 in the state as a junior to being the No. 1 prep thrower in the nation as a senior in 1988.

His marks got him a full scholarship at Rice University. Setliff seemed to be on his way. Then nothing happened.

"At Rice, I was constantly looking for that automatic fixer, some mystical thing that could make me achieve my potential," Setliff said. "But I never threw as well as I was expected to. All the pressure snowballed. It got worse and worse, and after two years I just dropped out of school."

Setliff moved to Houston. Not knowing what to do, he walked into a dilapidated old gym where he met mentor No. 2, Michael Huszka.

"Could you teach me how to do that?" Setliff asked Huszka, then just a stranger. Setliff said Huszka taught him the discipline of weight lifting, the way Stewart had done with the discus.

Huszka, 59, was an Olympic power lifter for Hungary in 1960 and 1964. He is the national and world masters power-lifting champion. In the six months he trained with Huszka, Setliff went from being able to snatch 155 pounds to snatching 310 pounds. And the discus started to fly.

Setliff found UW track Coach Ken Shannon's name in the Track and Field News.

"Washington was the only school to have two discus throwers in the (nation's) top 20," Setliff said. "I figured he (Shannon) must know what he's doing."

Setliff called Shannon and told him he had thrown 190 feet, and that he would "stay in touch." Setliff left Rice in January, 1991. During the next eight months, he trained more relentlessly than ever. The discus became a matter of self-respect, of pride.

Setliff called Shannon a few weeks later, saying he had thrown 194-10. Shannon offered Setliff a scholarship. Setliff got Huszka a job managing his father's gym in Nebraska.

"My sister told me `you've put a lot of effort into this, why don't you give that effort credibility and go for it,' " Setliff said. "For the first time, I equated athletic ambition with academic ambition.

"I never lost the desire or ability to throw. When I took it seriously, I became a loner. My identity was wrapped up in the discus. I don't think of it as a game. I think of it as the one constant in my life."

Setliff is aloof, unconcerned about meeting the obvious challenges in front of him - a Pac-10 championship, an NCAA championship, a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. The winner of the Trials goes to Barcelona, as do the second- and third-place finishers, if they meet the Olympic standard of 207 feet.

Setliff has thrown 205 in practice. He isn't concerned about winning any meets. He just wants to throw 210 feet.

"I've never looked at a distance, and said `I can't throw that.' "