Jelmini among sports legends with Gatorade honor

SHAFTER — With each name, Anna Jelmini's smile got a bit wider, the crowds' cheers a bit louder.

Kobe Bryant. Peyton Manning. Candace Parker. Alex Rodriguez. Allyson Felix. Lebron James. Cat Osterman. Emmitt Smith.


A veritable who's who of modern athletes, all winners of the Gatorade National Athlete of the Year award in their various high school sports.

Add Jelmini's name to the list.

Jelmini was publically given the 2009 girls track and field honor Thursday in the gym at Shafter High, her alma mater, in front of an adoring crowd that included her sheepish father.

"I knew this was a big deal," Rick Jelmini said afterwards. "I didn't know it was this big of a deal."

It's a big enough deal that Jelmini is now eligible for Gatorade's National Girls Athlete of the Year across all sports. She and the national winners from five other girls sports -- volleyball, cross country (Jordan Hasay from San Luis Obispo-Mission Prep), basketball, soccer and softball -- will go to Hollywood next month for ESPN's ESPY Awards, where one of them will win the overall award.

"It means a lot," Jelmini said. "There are some really fantastic athletes around the country."

Jelmini figures to have a good chance at the overall honor for the same reasons she won the track and field award. She set a national discus record at 190 feet, 3 inches last month at the Central Section Sierra/Sequoia meet in Oakhurst. The same day, she launched the shot put 54-4.75, the second-best throw ever. No other athlete is even top 10 in both disciplines.

Jelmini also became the first girl ever to win back-to-back double state championships in the throwing events June 6 at the CIF state championships in Clovis. Last year, she won the junior national title in the discus and competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials.

But she said this award ranks right up there with any of those honors.

"It's really high up there," Jelmini said. "It's so exciting to get this. To know that all these other great athletes have got this, it's so nice. I really want to become a great athlete."

As if she's not already. Shafter mayor Cathy Prout was on hand to deliver Jelmini another honor -- a proclamation declaring June 18 "Anna Jelmini Day" in the city.

This all started late last week, when Shafter throwing coach Matt Godbehere received a call about the award. As he, Gatorade, the school and the Shafter community scrambled to set up the ceremony, they kept it a secret from Jelmini until Wednesday night.

That's when her parents drove her up to Shafter's city hall for a private ceremony announcing the award.

"My mom kind of gave it away when we turned the corner and she pulled out the video camera," Jelmini said. "She was claiming to be filming this flag, and I was like, 'Yeah, right mom, if this is a surprise, that's a bad cover.'

"But I thought it was just going to be a celebration. Then (during the ceremony) I heard "national," and I was like, 'What did she just say?"

Jelmini becomes the second Kern County athlete to win any of the Gatorade awards, which started in 1985. Bakersfield High's Melisa Weis took home the track and field hardware in 1990.

And so, head spinning all the way, Jelmini will join the Kobes, LeBrons and Melisas of the world.

"It's too crazy," she said. "It's like, no, you don't really rank yourself with them, but then it's like, 'Wow, I could actually be with them,'" Jelmini said. "I mean, I get to go the ESPYs. It's so crazy."