PHARR — Diego Treviño was just sitting around during his school’s sixth-grade track meet when the track coach walked over to him.
“You’re our biggest kid,” he said. “Go throw.”
Those six words had an impact nobody could comprehend. Now, six years later not only is the PSJA Southwest senior still throwing both the shot put and the discus, but he’s going be throwing for at least another four years after this season.
Treviño signed his National Letter of Intent to continue his athletic career at the University of Oklahoma while also pursuing a Petroleum Engineer degree.
The 6-foot-4, 280-pound thrower has become a phenom and one of the favorites to win the state championship in the shot put. His personal best (PR) in the event is 60 feet, 3.5 inches. The top thrower in the state comes in at just about 62 feet.
Treviño’s throw coach since eighth grade, Eloy Garza, said it’s easy to look at his size and just assume he is a great athlete. There’s a lot more to it though.
“Size is just half of it,” Garza said. “It’s an incredibly technical sport and the amount of dedication he has put into it to become a student of the sport is just impressive. We would start working at 6 a.m. during the season to make sure he’s getting his strength training. In the summer we’re throwing, after football season is over, we’re throwing. This is a young man who is committed to being the best he can possibly be.”
Garza emphasized again that Treviño’s physical stature may be large, but so is every other part of who he is including morally and educationally.
“Greatness has no zip code,” Garza said. “You put in the time like he has done and have the right mentality, great things are going to happen. That’s just the way it is.”
Treviño may be intimidating by his size, but he brings with him a sense of calm, led by his soft-spoken demeanor. He said that when he started throwing, he wasn’t very good at it — even after the first two years.
“I started working with coach Garza in my eighth-grade year and he just kept telling me to keep throwing, until it all came together,” Treviño said. “He took me to the state summer track meet and I won first.”
His goal isn’t just to work toward a state championship this year or a national championship at Oklahoma. Garza said the goal is for him to represent the region on a global scale.
“He’s going to throw in the Olympics one day, that’s the goal,” Garza said. “Reaching that greatness is attainable if you have the right mentality, if you have the right work ethic and the passion to improve yourself. It’s not going to happen overnight — but it will happen early in the morning when you are busting tail in the weight room or after school when you’re doing your homework. That’s what it takes — that’s what he’s done and will continue to do.”