Gentle giant Brady Mider throws himself into conversation for Berks’ all-time best

By Julie Pelchar Cohen — MikeDragoSports.com senior correspondent

SHIPPENSBURG – Brady Mider was approached at the county championships by a kid who wanted his autograph.

Mider did better than that; he suggested they take a picture together.

Did Mider’s young fan receive a keepsake from the best shot putter in Berks County history?

Let’s start the debate.

The Berks Catholic senior finished his high school career Saturday at the PIAA Track and Field Championships. He earned a second straight state gold in the Class 3A shot put. He took fourth in the discus.

He leaves high school track and field with a bucket full of hardware.

Mider displays his most precious medals in his bedroom. Surely, that includes his pair of PIAA shot put gold in outdoor track and another pair of state gold from the indoor season. 

Some throwers get lucky and benefit from a weak field. They win titles with marks that barely earned medals in previous years.

Not Mider. He won a state title by more than four feet as a junior. His repeat title eclipsed the competition by more than three feet Friday. 

This season, he’s hit 60-plus foot throws consistently. The marks are long enough that he’s earned a scholarship to throw in the Big Ten for Iowa.

So how does Mider compare to previous Berks greats?

Only two county throwers have heaved a shot put farther than Mider’s personal best of 63-1 ¼, when he won the silver medal at the Nike Indoor Nationals in March. His outdoor PR is 62-4 ¾; that came several weeks ago at the county-championship Firing Meet.

Wyomissing’s J’ven Williams unleashed the throw for the ages at the 2022 PIAA Championships.

Mider enjoyed a front row seat to that piece of Berks track and field history. He was a budding throwing star who earned a silver to the gold snagged by a football giant.

Williams skipped his senior track season to enroll early at Penn State. He’ll be playing on the Nittany Lions offensive line this fall.

Goosebumps might appear when considering how much Williams could have added to his record-smashing 66-7 ¾ with another year of throwing. That mark broke the county record set by Schuylkill Valley’s Dane Miller in 2002. It also ranked ninth in the nation that spring. 

“I tried to talk J’ven into not leaving and having fun his senior year,” said longtime Wilson head and throws coach Doug Dahms. “He could’ve put some numbers out there like Ryan Whiting.” 

Whiting won a state championship for Central Dauphin. He was an NCAA champion at Arizona State and eventual world champion and Olympian.

Miller’s career became the measuring stick for every Berks shot putter for two decades. In addition to breaking a county record that had been held by Reading High’s Ron Turpin since the 1960s, Miller enjoyed state glory and won PIAA gold. Williams broke Miller’s 20-year-old record of 62-6 ¼.

It’s safe to say that Miller threw in a different era, making a comparison to Mider and others difficult.

The former Penn State thrower never benefited from the advanced year-round training that he has turned into a career. Miller guides high school stars, even Olympians, at Garage Strength, a Berks County training facility and throws factory.

“There’s so much individual attention given to athletes now,” Dahms said. “The coaching is so much more advanced. Dane didn’t have that. He was just an early beast.”

Another Schuylkill Valley thrower ranks as one of the county’s all-time greats. Joey Mundell won his second state shot put title as a senior in 2016. He also won PIAA discus gold as a junior. He cracked 60 feet twice his final high school season, tossing a personal best of 61-3 ¾ at the Shaner Meet and finding the big mark again at the state championships.

Former Fleetwood thrower Jeff Kline deserves a mention under the category of what could have been. Kline and Williams are the only Berks County boys to have thrown farther than Mider.

After a promising junior season Kline blossomed into a different thrower just months later. He threw in the 60s consistently during a senior indoor campaign that culminated with a gold medal-winning heave of 64-7½ at the state championships.

The pandemic erased what likely would’ve been a spring for the Berks throwing history books.

Kline is a throws star at the University of Maryland. He finished eighth at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships last year.

Mider has carved a much different trajectory than Williams or Kline. Those giants burst onto the scene. Their track and field stock exploded with flashy throws and rapid improvement.

Mider’s path has been slower and oh-so steady. But it’s also been a war path.

Mider has destroyed the competition the past two years. Not a single Pennsylvania thrower has beaten him during his junior and senior seasons.

Not during indoor competition. Not during the outdoor season. Not in meets outside of PIAA competition, such as national championships and the Penn Relays.

The only two throwers who beat Mider his sophomore year were Williams and Cumberland Valley’s Wade Shomper. Shomper is a Bucknell thrower who won 2022 3A state gold in the shot put and discus.

Think about that. Dozens and dozens of competitions and Mider remained untouchable every time he exited the shot put circle.

“It’s been pretty cool to watch,” said Exeter junior Logan Wegman, who took silver to Mider’s shot put gold Friday. “Any meet where I see Brady it’s like, ‘Crap, Brady is here. I’m probably not going to win.’ It’s pretty cool to see how far he throws. It’s exciting to watch him throw.”

Saints throws coach Tiger Lea has enjoyed his front-row seat immensely.

“It’s really easy for someone to get lazy when they win and when they win all the time,” Lea said. “But to work hard all the time and to want more all the time? That’s Brady.

“He won (the state shot put) with a 61 and he wasn’t satisfied. You’ve got to love that he always wants more. Always, always, always. I’ve enjoyed watching him throw so much.”

It’s that unrelenting work ethic and knowing that throwers were always hot on his heels that fueled Mider’s four seasons of statewide perfection.  He approached his workouts with humility, knowing a win was never guaranteed.

“I work hard every day for this,” Mider said. “I go into any meet thinking anyone can beat anyone. As long as I do what I know I can do, I can get it done and hopefully not lose.”

His tireless work has made Mider so very technically sound. It’s the base for his consistency. It’s why a Pennsylvania thrower hasn’t taken him down the last two years.

“He is technically proficient as hell,” Lea said. “When Brady gets a sector foul or any type of foul, it’s miniscule. It’s just a hair outside the circle.

“He hits it every time, every time, every time. There’s nobody who throws as smoothly as Brady. He’s like a machine. He’s so smooth. That’s why Brady wins.”

Mider’s story in Berks history wouldn’t be complete without considering his kindness, sportsmanship and humility. On the Berks track and field scene, those qualities seem to be mentioned just as often as Mider’s wins.

“He’s really nice for a guy that’s No. 1 in the state,” Wegman said. “He’s really humble. He goes in and does what he does and wins.”

Mider is clearly grounded. After each of his wins, he’ll be found near his parents, Mike and Sara, and his high school sweetheart, Taryn Yourkavitch. They never miss a big meet. Yourkavitch, a Wyomissing senior, will attend Iowa with Mider.

Mider is like a teddy bear. He’s a gentle giant who quite literally worked his way into local track and field lore.

Throwers such as Williams and Kline had more raw talent.

But no one hit 60 as routinely as Mider.

Nobody was the boy to beat for as long as Mider held that title.

This giant stands above all of the Berks County shot putters who have come before him.