For Purcell throwing coach Jeff Page, the trip to Southern California this summer was about much more than distances, medals or places on a results sheet.

It was about watching a group of young Oklahoma athletes walk into one of the biggest youth track and field meets in the country and realize they belonged there.

Page, coach of Dragon Throws USATF, took his athletes to the 2026 USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships, held July 27 through Aug. 2 at Falcon Stadium on the campus of Cerritos College in Norwalk, California.

More than 6,300 athletes representing all 50 states competed during the seven-day championship.

For Page, it was the culmination of countless hours spent in throwing rings back home in Oklahoma.

“When you’re practicing in the heat all summer, throwing over and over again, it can sometimes be hard for a young athlete to understand what all that work is leading toward,” Page said. “Then you walk into a place like the Junior Olympics and see thousands of some of the best young athletes in the United States, and suddenly it all makes sense.”

Dragon Throws brought a group that included athletes from several area schools and different age divisions, united under one club and one goal: see how their abilities measured up on the national stage.

They did more than simply show up.

Two Top-Four Finishes

Among the highlights was Washington’s Evan Painter, who turned in one of the best performances of the week for Dragon Throws. Painter placed fourth nationally in the boys 15-16 shot put, throwing 14.24 meters, approximately 46 feet, 8½ inches.

The fourth-place finish put Painter among the top eight in the country and earned him USATF Junior Olympic All-American honors.

He also competed in the discus, finishing 29th nationally.

Purcell’s Kamdyn Stokes added another major performance for the club, placing fourth nationally in the girls 15-16 shot put with a throw of 11.57 meters, or 37 feet, 11½ inches.

She also competed in the discus, finishing 16th nationally with a mark of 32.89 meters. Her fourth-place shot put finish also earned All-American status.

For Page, seeing two Dragon Throws athletes finish fourth in the nation was special, but he said the accomplishments meant even more because he understood the work behind them.

“People see fourth place at nationals, and that’s impressive by itself,” Page said. “But as a coach, you see everything that happened before that throw. You remember the bad practices. You remember the frustration. You remember the technical changes and the days when nothing seemed to work. Then suddenly they’re standing there competing with some of the best kids in America. That’s what makes you proud.”

More Than the Final Result

Other Dragon Throws athletes gained valuable national championship experience.

Purcell eigth grader Karter Stokes finished 10th in the boys 13-14 shot put with a throw of 13.62 meters and also competed in the discus, where he placed 31st nationally.

Addy Pletcher competed in the girls 13-14 shot put and finished 26th nationally with a mark of 9.82 meters.

Purcell freshman Jackson Hines represented Dragon Throws in the boys 15-16 shot put, finishing 28th with a mark of 10.53 meters.

Page said one of the biggest lessons he tries to teach young athletes is that success at an event like the Junior Olympics cannot always be measured by where a name appears in the final standings.

“Somebody has to finish first, and somebody has to finish 30th,” Page said. “But if you qualified to get there, you’ve already accomplished something that most athletes never will. You earned the right to put on that uniform and compete at the national championships.”

Reaching California itself was an accomplishment. Athletes had to advance through USATF Association competition and then the Regional Championships to qualify for the national meet.

USATF’s qualification pathway required athletes to finish among the top five at the Regional level to advance to the national championship.

“That’s something I wanted them to understand,” Page said. “You don’t just sign up for the Junior Olympics. You have to earn your way there.”

A Different Kind of Classroom

Page said the experience extended well beyond the throwing ring.

Traveling from Oklahoma to California, being together as a team, preparing for competition and seeing elite youth athletes from every corner of the country provided lessons that could not be duplicated at a normal track meet.

“You want kids to experience things bigger than their hometown,” Page said. “You want them to see what is out there. You want them to stand next to kids from California, Texas, Florida, New York, Washington, wherever, and understand that they have just as much right to be there as anybody else.”

That realization, Page believes, can change the trajectory of a young athlete.

Instead of viewing a state championship as the ultimate goal, athletes begin thinking regionally and nationally. Instead of wondering whether they are capable of competing at the next level, they have already experienced national-level competition firsthand.

And for younger Dragon Throws athletes, the trip provided a glimpse into what may be possible with several more years of development.

“Once you’ve been there, the mystery is gone,” Page said. “Now you know what the national level looks like. You know how good those kids are, but you also know they’re human. They’re kids just like you who have worked hard at their craft. That can be incredibly motivating.”

Building Throwers and People

Page said Dragon Throws was created with a philosophy that goes beyond simply producing bigger numbers in the shot put and discus.

Technique matters. Strength matters. Competition matters.

But so does discipline, confidence, accountability and learning how to respond when things do not go according to plan.

Throwing can be an unforgiving sport. Months of preparation can come down to six attempts. A foul by an inch can erase the best throw of an athlete’s life. One technical mistake can mean the difference between advancing and watching the finals from outside the ring.

Page believes learning to deal with those realities helps prepare athletes for more than track and field.

“Throwing teaches you patience,” Page said. “You can’t fake your way through it. You have to keep working at something that can be incredibly frustrating, and you have to learn how to fail without quitting.”

That philosophy was put to the test in California.

Some throws traveled farther than expected. Others did not. There were celebrations, disappointments and lessons that Page believes will show up long after the athletes have forgotten the exact distances they threw.

“Of course I want them to win,” Page said. “I’m competitive. They’re competitive. We didn’t travel all the way to California because we didn’t care where we finished. But winning can’t be the only thing you take from an experience like this.”

The People Behind the Athletes

Page is also quick to point out that youth athletics does not happen without families.

Parents rearrange schedules, pay travel expenses, drive athletes to practices and meets, sit through long days at tracks and make countless sacrifices that often go unnoticed.

The trip to California was no exception.

“The parents deserve a tremendous amount of credit,” Page said. “People see the athlete standing in the ring, but behind that athlete there’s usually a mom, dad, grandparent or somebody else who has sacrificed time and money to help them get there.”

He said one of his goals is making sure athletes understand and appreciate those sacrifices.

“No athlete gets anywhere completely by themselves,” Page said.

Representing Oklahoma

There was also a certain pride, Page said, in watching Dragon Throws athletes from small Oklahoma communities compete successfully against athletes from some of the largest and most established track clubs in the country.

USATF reported that more than 6,308 athletes from all 50 states competed at the 2026 championship.

Yet when the shot puts began landing, the size of the town printed beside an athlete’s name did not matter.

“That was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole experience,” Page said. “We’re not some giant program from Los Angeles or Dallas or Houston. We’re a group of Oklahoma kids who work hard. Then you look up and we have two kids finishing fourth in the United States. That tells our athletes something.”

It tells them, he said, that geography does not determine potential.

“Talent can come from anywhere,” Page said. “Work ethic can come from anywhere. Good coaching can happen anywhere. If you’re willing to put in the work, you can compete with anybody.”

Coming Home Different

By the time the Dragon Throws group headed home from California, Page said the athletes were different from the ones who had arrived.

Some returned as All-Americans.

Others returned hungry to improve.

All of them returned knowing what it feels like to compete on one of youth track and field’s biggest stages.

And almost immediately, Page’s thoughts began moving toward what comes next.

“You enjoy it, and you should enjoy it,” Page said. “But eventually the question becomes, ‘What did we learn, and what are we going to do with it?’”

For Dragon Throws, California was not intended to be the finish line.

Page hopes it was the beginning of something much bigger.

He wants younger throwers in the area to see what Painter, Stokes, Pletcher, Hines and the rest of the group accomplished and realize that national competition is not something reserved for athletes from somewhere else.

It is attainable.

“I want a seventh- or eighth-grade kid around here to see these athletes and think, ‘Why not me?’” Page said. “That’s how you build something.”

There will be more practices. More weights lifted. More drills. More frustrating afternoons spent searching for one small technical correction.

And, Page hopes, more trips to the Junior Olympics.

But when he looks back at the summer of 2026, the coach says the memory he will carry is not simply a fourth-place finish or a measurement on a tape.

It will be seeing a group of Oklahoma athletes standing on a national stage and realizing that they belonged.

“The medals and the All-American honors are something those kids should always be proud of,” Page said. “But what makes me proudest is that they were willing to work for the opportunity. They earned their way there. They represented their families, their schools, our club and Oklahoma extremely well.”

“And when it was over,” Page added, “they came home wanting to get better.

“As a coach, you really can’t ask for much more than that.”