A few weeks ago, Michigan State quarterback Rocky Lombardi picked up a discus.
He hurled it, learned he was pretty good at it. And today he’ll be competing in the discus event at the 108th Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.
A few weeks from now, he will enroll at Michigan State as the scholarship quarterback for the Spartans’ 2017 recruiting class, and settle in as an incoming freshman for the fall.
In the meantime, he’s still wowing them at West Des Moines Valley High School.
“He wasn’t a discus thrower,” said Gary Swenson, Lombardi’s football coach at West Des Moines Valley. “He just picked it up this spring and is helping out the track team and doing what Rocky does.”
Lombardi led Valley to a 10-1 record and the Division 4 quarterfinals on the football field.
In March, he narrowly lost a state wrestling championship in the 220-pound division, in controversial fashion to a guy who will be on scholarship at the University of Nebraska next year. He’s a scratch golfer and a terrific baseball player. And now the discus.
“He just likes to compete at everything,” Swenson said. “Most kids like him in his situation would never go out for track in the spring of his senior year, but he just likes to compete. So he’s out there and he picked up a discus and wants to help the team, and he’s pretty good, like he is at everything else.”
As for football, that’s still the primary focus for Lombardi.
“I just stood there and watched him do a two-hour lifting workout in the weight room this afternoon,” Swenson said. “He’s working extremely hard. He’s got goals and he knows what he wants to accomplish. He’s just a great kid. He’s a competitor, he’s tough.”
Don’t expect miracles out of him in the discus.
“He probably won’t place at The Drake Relays,” Swenson said of the prestigious event. “But that’s a big deal down here. You have to qualify to get into that thing. And he threw far enough to qualify.
“His best throw is about 155, which won’t place, and he doesn’t care about that. But he can help his team in other meets. And they (his coaches) feel he can qualify for the state meet in the discus. The coaches are thrilled with it.
“He was running in the hurdle shuttle relay, earlier in the year. He’s their fifth guy in the 110 high hurdles, so he runs the relay and has run it in several meets this year. At 220 pounds, he’s not your typical hurdler, but he can do it."
The other four guys on his team have combined to set meet records with their clockings. So being the No. 5 high hurdler at West Des Moines Valley is no small achievement.
“I don’t know how much hurdling he is going to do now because when he found out he could help in the discus and he was pretty good at it, that’s what he’s trying to do for them," Swenson said. “He goes out for every sport and excels. He is an unusual kid.”
His sportsmanship in the state wrestling finals pushed the Lombardi story to legendary status.
“It was very controversial, unbelievably controversial,” Swenson said. “Rocky was up by one point against that guy who is going to Nebraska. There were :10 seconds left, and I mean he was going to be a state champion, which if you know anything about Iowa wrestling, that’s a huge deal around here.
“And the other kid shot for a takedown and Rocky did what every wrestler is taught to do. Rocky sprawled when the other kid shot. And the official called stalling.”
This resulted in Lombardi’s opponent being awarded a point.
“That put it in overtime,” Swenson said. “And then the other kid got a takedown and Rocky lost.”
What happened next earned more respect for Lombardi than a state title would have.
“Most kids would have just flipped out about the stalling call,” Swenson said. “But he just handled it like a man, like he does everything else. He finished second, which is pretty damn good here, and he didn’t pout, didn’t whine, didn’t complain. He just shook the kid’s hand and walked off the mat.
“He was extremely disappointed. I mean he was so disappointed, but he never complained about the call. He just took it.
“And everybody in the state was like, ‘I can’t believe how well he handled that.’ That’s what we heard from everybody. I mean everybody was impressed with the way Rocky handled that call and that situation.”
Including the most respected person in American wrestling history.
“I mean Dan Gable called him personally to tell him how impressed he was at how Rocky handled the result,” Swenson said.
Gable, a former Olympic champion and legendary Iowa head coach, was serving as color commentator for the state championship television broadcast when witnessing Lombardi's state title match.
“Other than Dan Gable, I don’t know who else you could find to give a better compliment,” Swenson said.
And it would be hard to find a more well-rounded prospect to fill the quarterback slot in Michigan State’s incoming recruiting class.
One he arrives in East Lansing, Lombardi will focus on one sport for the first time in his life. His ceiling of potential could be greater than his current three-star recruiting status would suggest.
The brief interview below attracted 13,000 views from state of Iowa wrestling fans: