The pace and style in which the junior finished made Ciarelli believe Whiteside might have wanted to be at prom that evening.
The two drove together to Clovis for Friday’s preliminaries at Buchanan High. The following day, they left in separate cars after Whiteside placed third with a mark of 183 feet, 11 inches.
“He would’ve stuck around if he won, but he didn’t,” Ciarelli said of Whiteside, who came up 8 feet, 1 inch short of Bakersfield Frontier junior Matt Darr’s winning throw.
“He might have come back for the prom.”
Parting with friends was the last thing Whiteside planned to do Saturday.
Whiteside’s real prom, the state meet, ended not the way he planned it. The second state appearance for Whiteside turned out to be an improvement from the first one last year.
Four feet, four inches better, three spots better, yet not good enough to reach the top of the podium.
“It’s always good to place at state, but we were going to win,” Ciarelli said. “We don’t go there to place third.
“Just like the Lakers, they aren’t happy they made it to the finals again.”
Whiteside said he felt the same way as his coach, disappointed in the outcome. Athlete and coach expected to make history.
Whiteside aimed to become Newport Harbor’s first state champion in the discus throw. The confidence was high after he defended his CIF Southern Section Masters title, earning him the second-best qualifying mark to state.
Ciarelli sought to see all the hard work the past two years lead to a third state title for a discus thrower under his watch in the last 12 years.
When Ciarelli coached at Huntington Beach, he guided Scott Moser to discus titles in 1996 and 1997. Whiteside has not come close to Moser-type throws, but Ciarelli had Whiteside on the verge of becoming the No. 1 discus thrower in the state.
