Princeton’s Grant Foes keeps it in the family

Grant Foes comes by it naturally throwing his weights around.

His mother, the former Bridget Byers, was a standout thrower at Princeton High School (class of ’94) and All-American at Grace College in Winona, Ind.

His father, PHS track coach Dan Foes, was a weight man for the old Western Rams (class of ’92).

Grant picked up the family trade in junior high and never looked back.

“Once I got to the seventh grade, we really hit it hard because mom threw, dad threw. Mom was the really good thrower,” Grant said. “They never forced anything upon us, but they really advertised throwing and both me and my sister took it up.”

Foes really took off it with this year. He was the double weights championship at conference and added the sectional crown in the discus and was runner-up in shot.

He went on to claim the highest place of any local competitor and scoring the most points at state, finishing fourth in the discus.

He is now the 2021 BCR Male Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

Getting started

Foes started throwing in the seventh grade and had some fairly good success, crediting former BV standout Adam Weidner, former PHS thrower Colton Youngren and coach Curtis Odell for their tutelage.

“They had the biggest impact on my throwing and really kept me in it. I’ve loved it ever since,” he said.

The more Foes got into throwing, the more he learned it’s as much brains as it is brawn.

“I just like to being able to chuck things far,” he said. “As I grew up, the technique and form started to come. When I was young I just thought you won by muscling it and chucking it.

“I like everything about it. I think it’s one of the most technical sports in the world, because there’s so many little things that you need to focus on and it takes practice, practice and practice getting use to it.

“Got to be dedicated to it if you want to be good at it. We’ve done a lot of studying and watched a lot of videos of throwers.”

He said it was an advantage to have his coach sitting across from him at the dinner table.

“When I worked out with those three he was there taking it all in. When I didn’t have them this year, he took over the reigns and had the same roles they had,” he said.

Coach Foes said they’ve had discussions about the science of throwing.

“Especially with the throws, it made it easy honestly to coach him because a lot of times when we’d go back and forth as he got older, he knew exactly what he needed to do,” Dan said. “We’d talked it out. We probably butted heads when he was a little bit younger, but it was learning experiences for both of us.

“When he got older, especially this year, they were just good, intelligent conversations back and forth. Just talking it out and finding the best thing to do. I always appreciated it when there’s athletes who study their events and certainly are students of their events.”

Happy state

After a year out of the ring due to COVID, Foes was happy to be back throwing thus year, even if it came a little later than normal in a condensed season.

“I’m really proud of my year this year, because of the year off with COVID,” he said. “I had some bigger plans if we would have had that year, so I’m very proud of where I ended up in both.”

Foes was seeded third in the discus going into state and 11th in the shot. He moved up to second in the discus heading into his final throw, but was passed up by two throwers, settling for fourth.

“Hats off to the kids that got some marks out there. (I) had a really tough field,” he said.

He had hopes in shot to maybe get a medal, but fell short, placing 14th.

“It would have taken pretty big PR from me. I’m satisfied how I threw,” he said.

Bragging rights

Foes passed up his dad’s bests in the discus in his sophomore year and got him in the shot put, though they are fairly close.

His mother, however, is a different story. She still holds family bragging rights.

“I think mom will own it forever since she was an All-American in college,” Grant said.

Mama Foes still holds the PHS indoor F/S record in the shot put (36-0 1/2) and is ranked sixth all-time. She also held the record at Grace College for several years and was the only competitor from the state of Indiana to score a point at Nationals.

Morgan, Grant’s sister who is an incoming sophomore at PHS, is next in line to carry the family torch. She just attended a weights camp in Des Moines.

“She’s got good potential,” Grant said, noting they’ve practiced together and had conversations around the dinner table about it.

“When it’s all said and done, with Morgan coming through, I hope I’m the fourth best thrower in the family,” Dan said.

Grant has done his last throwing weights and will concentrate next on throwing bodies around playing football for Indiana Wesleyan this fall.

“Doing a lot of preparing my body for the next level, because it’s a different animal,” he said.