Freshman Edward Fan had his first taste of track and field in seventh grade after being encouraged by both his PE teacher Larry Blair and Track and Field Throwing Coach Ryan Mendez to try out throwing events for the Kennedy Middle School’s team. As part of the Valley Junior High School Athletic League, KMS only sanctions two of the four standard throwing events: shot put and discus. Ready to embrace the challenge, Edward decided to participate in both events.
Edward recorded the third farthest distances ever recorded at KMS, throwing 37 feet 2 inches with a 6-pound shot put and 102 feet 7 inches with a 1-kilogram discus. Soon after his initial success, he decided to join the USA Track and Field club under the guidance of his sister, junior Clara Fan. She says her participation in track and field since sixth grade gave Edward continuous exposure to the sport which ultimately bolstered Edward’s decision to compete at both KMS and USATF. Whether it was helping their dad film her meets or simply cheering her on, Clara says Edward has been a consistent supporter throughout her track journey. So, when it came to Edward embarking on his own journey, Clara returned the favor and became his biggest supporter.
“I think he wanted to do [track and field] because he saw how many close friends I’ve made through track and also how much fun I had with it,” Clara said. “He would come to all of my meets to cheer me on whether it was rain or shine. I would [also] practice with him and we talked about it a lot at home.”
Edward began his competitive career in track and field in the summer of 2023, competing in his first USATF Outdoor Season, a series of five progressively competitive meets that require athletes to qualify to be eligible for competition in the next meet as it expands from the county to the nation. Despite feeling happy about placing 25th in both of his events at the National Junior Olympic Championships held at the Hayward Field in the University of Oregon, Edward highlights other reasons as to why he considers this meet to be the most memorable meet of the entire season.
“There [were] just so many people and the stadium was really big,” Edward said. “[Where] most tracks have a football or soccer field in the middle, this track was only meant for track and field: [everything] inside was all equipment for shot put, discus and jump events.”
Beyond the competition venue, Edward also appreciates being around athletes who share his passions and interests. Having built strong relationships with qualifiers from previous meets, he discovered a sense of kinship and mutual encouragement that was special to track and field during the final meet of the season.
“The nation came together and I got to make new friends and meet some old friends from previous meets that I competed with,” Edward said. “Ever since the first meet, we’ve had five meets to compete against one another, and [with] each meet, we all got better and better; it was so fun to see the improvement [from] what we started off with. For me, it was the perfect ending to that season.”
According to Clara, Edward’s participation in competitions that Clara also competed in contributed to strengthening their sibling bond. She expresses how this helps them stay focused and allows them to uplift one another. Her fondest memory was during the Junior Olympics when both of them made it onto the top 10 leaderboard for brief periods of time and they would snap pictures of the other’s name to show their support from the sideline.
“It was just funny,” Clara said. “Even though we didn’t do our best at the Junior Olympics, it was a good experience for both of us because it was a huge stadium and [there were many] people [who we] haven’t competed against because they’re from a whole bunch of different states doing well there.”
Besides track and field, Edward is currently a running back and a linebacker for the JV Football team and plans to try out for basketball during the winter season. To him, each sport he plays demands a unique set of skills.
“In basketball, I like being with friends and communicating [with them],” Edward said. “It’s a better way to communicate with your friends because in school you just talk and hang out, but in sports you can compete with others [and] there is more of a connection. And in football, there is more trust needed because if you don’t trust your teammates, then the whole meaning of the football game wouldn’t connect. But in track, it’s a friendly battle [on] a competitive level: you have to have friends that are friendly but also want to compete with you and can always [make you] want to do better than them.”
Edward’s father, David Fan, says having a strong supporting community played a role in Edward’s enjoyment of each sport. He credits Mendez, KMS basketball coaches Viet Nguyen and Wade Nakamura, and all the friends Edward made joining each sport as the main reasons why Edward continues these sports.
“[Where] some coaches want you to play [to win], these coaches in particular focused [on] building his character to make him a better person first and foremost [before] having to be great at sports,” David said. “Besides having great coaches, he also has these different friend groups, like his football friends and his basketball friends. Even though track isn’t a team [sport], he made a lot of friends from all over California and even some other states.”
In the future, Edward aspires to improve his results in all three sports. In both football and basketball, he anticipates being able to win and grow with his teammates; however, he expresses concern with setting new personal records in track and field. Edward explains that the weight of the discus and shot put change with grade: the discus increases from 1 to 1.6-kilograms in ninth grade and the shot put increases from 8 to 10-pounds in 10th grade and again from 10 to 12-pounds in 11th grade. He says these changes will pose a challenge to making new personal records not only because of the increase in weight, but also because of the increase in size.
Despite Edward’s concerns, David is not worried about Edward’s performance in shot put and discus. He says he has witnessed Edward’s unwavering commitment in training for the Junior Olympics in the past year and considers his journey of improvement to be the true measure of success regardless of the outcome.
“Before some of the regional meets, it would be so hot [because] it was the middle of summer, [but] we really had to train hard,” David said. “We would go out there a week or two before we knew the track meet would go on. I would drag him out to Monta Vista or various parks around Cupertino and we would go out there and he would just be out there sweating, [practicing] shotput and discus — just going at it. It’s not about [whether he gets] second, third or whatever place, it’s more [about] the effort and all the — I don’t want to sound cliche, but the — blood, sweat and tears he puts in.”
