Former Bald Eagle javelin thrower elected to Pennsylvania Track & Field Hall of Fame
Angela Hoover had a storied career at Bald Eagle Area as a javelin thrower and now she’s being honored for her accomplishments.
The 2004 BEA graduate was elected to the Pennsylvania High School Track & Field Hall of Fame on Friday and is set to be inducted during a ceremony on Saturday, May 28. It will take place during the PIAA Track & Field Championship Meet at Shippensburg University.
Hoover said she’s looking forward to both the ceremony and the chance to return to where she competed.
“I’m incredibly honored for this induction and proud to represent Bald Eagle again, especially at the state level. Being a part of PA track and field history means a lot to me,” Hoover said. “The fact that they honor you for the ceremony in Shippensburg, it’s going to be awesome. You get to go to your induction and it’s at the same location that you competed at and you have all of those memories. I’m really looking forward to going back there in May.”
Hoover won four PIAA AA Javelin gold medals from 2001-2004 and had a meet record of 154 feet, 5 inches in 2003. She is also a four-time District 6 AA javelin champion (2001-2004), holding a meet record of 152 feet, 0 inches in 2003. She set the Pennsylvania record in the javelin throw with a 159-foot, 7-inch toss in the West Central Coaches Meet in Altoona (2003) and was named as a Track & Field News Third Team All-American the same year.
Going into track and field almost didn’t happen for Hoover. She loved basketball, but her siblings all participated in track and field, which was coached at BEA by Ron Hoover, their father. While her siblings encouraged her to follow their lead, her father told her to blaze her own path.
Luckily for Angela Hoover, it worked in her favor.
“I maybe put a little bit of pressure to try it (track and field) because her four older brothers and sisters all did track and field,” Ron Hoover said. “She wanted to play basketball and I just said, ‘You know what, I’m going to drive you all over the place. Let’s give track and field a month. Let’s do a meet or so, see if you enjoy it or not. If not, that’s OK. You can focus on basketball.’ Her first meet of the year was at Lock Haven, it was an invite and she broke the school record on her first throw. So, it was a pretty good start for her.”
BEA athletic director Doug Dyke has known Angela Hoover for many years — he used to babysit the future track star and was close with her entire family. Her father still continues as BEA’s throws coach for the track and field team and her younger sister, Abigail, currently competes on the team and is a senior. The two are continuing to push for their family member’s legacy as a thrower, Dyke said.
“We have her (Angela Hoover’s) picture and her jersey hanging in our lobby,” he said. “Kids will pay attention to that. So, that will all still be there and right now both of them (Ron and Abigail Hoover) here and Ron still coaches the track team, that helps.”
Angela Hoover went on to continue her throwing career in college at Pittsburgh. She won a Big East Conference indoor track and field title with the Panthers in 2005, but had surgery during the season to repair a damaged ulnar collateral ligament in her throwing elbow. It was “a painful couple of years of throwing” post-surgery, said Hoover, who still continues to have pain to this day. It hasn’t stopped her from pursuing a career in law enforcement.
Angela Hoover is the warden of the Clinton County Correctional Facility, making her schedule tight. Dyke is attempting to carve out some time when she’s available to be honored on campus at BEA before she’s honored at Shippensburg.
“I don’t know if she’s been able to make it to any track meets in the last couple of years, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she’s made it to some, just not here,” Dyke said. “She supports her brother and sister and she even has a nephew that plays sports at Central Mountain. Hopefully she’ll be around sometime to be recognized this spring if we can pull it off.”
