Denham Patricelli knew he could hit his goal with the right throw at the 4A state championships even though he hurled the javelin far enough on his third try to win the crown.

But, little more than a year after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his right elbow, Patricelli had something to prove to himself.

“I was feeling it, I wanted to throw 200 (feet), that was my goal and the very next throw I threw 205 and that was my (personal record) and that was the throw I won state on,” Patricelli said.

It was also a good 25 feet farther than the boy who took second place.

Patricelli finished in ninth as a freshman as he finished his first season of throwing the javelin. He said he evaluated his field event options and decided to try the javelin. Throwing far was a skill he developed early in his foray into athletics so it seemed like it could be a good fit.

By the time the first South Puget Sound League North meet rolled around Patricelli had picked up on how to throw the javelin straight, which takes practice and understanding of technique.

“I figured it out by the first track meet and I threw it farthest in the meet,” Patricelli said. “As the season went on I kept throwing farther and farther and farther.”

At state his freshman year, Patricelli threw 172 feet then continued working on technique then put up a mark of 189 feet at the Junior Olympics that summer.

Patricelli did not know going into track season he would find this talent which would lead him to training and competing in the summer, but, thanks to Tahoma throwing coach Keith Eager he spent his break doing just that.

When Patricelli won his age group at the Junior Olympics by 20 feet on the first throw, he knew there was something different about what he could do with a javelin in his hand.

But, Patricelli is a self-described football fanatic with talent to match on the gridiron. He started on offense and defense as a sophomore, something Tahoma head coach Tony Davis explained in an email interview is virtually unheard of in the 19 years he’s coached there.

“He is an outstanding receiver and linebacker,” Davis wrote. “Very instinctive player. He missed all of last season due to the elbow surgery and his return will have a big impact on our team.”

Davis described Patricelli as competitive and the football coach supports his players who choose to participate in multiple sports. But Davis was particularly impressed with how Patricelli handled running sprints this past spring while waiting to be cleared to throw again.

“He’s elite in the javelin, and can compete with any javelin thrower in the country, but running the sprints brought out the competitor in him as well,” Davis wrote. “Many kids who are strong in an area or event, don’t show the desire Denham has demonstrated in the running events. Some refuse to do events beyond their specialty.”

In fact, Davis recalled two specific races of Patricelli’s which further demonstrated the athlete’s level of competitiveness. Patricelli ran the 400-meter sprint as well as legs on the Bears 400 and 1,600 relays.

“In one of the 1,600 relays he had the lead, and you could see the other runner planning his charge coming out of the last turn,” Davis wrote. “When Denham felt him coming, he dug down and fought off the charge to hold the lead. In the other example, he was behind and he battled to close a gap of roughly 15 yards. He caught and passed the other runner in the back stretch with yards to spare.”

All that in something Patricelli admitted he didn’t enjoy much: running sprints.

But, he did it and excelled at it, as Davis pointed out.

Those anecdotes about Patricelli describe meets in the final weeks before he could throw again.

On the first throw of the first meet of the 2012 season, Patricelli tore the ligaments in his elbow, an injury comparable to when football or basketball players shred the ACL in their knees trying to cut or plant on the field or the court.

“My elbow just popped,” Patricelli said. “I was very mad. I was pacing around the throwing area and my parents were telling me to calm down. We didn’t know how serious it was. I threw again after that and I set my own PR while my elbow was torn. It hurt like crazy, so, we decided to stop.”

Patricelli saw a number of doctors. The first diagnosed a partial tear. The second diagnosed a complete tear.

“I was in denial about it, we all were, so we went to a bunch of other people,” Patricelli said. “There’s three (treatments), you could try to let it heal naturally. I feel like that’s pointless because it’s a big thing. Or, you can get a PRP injection. That’s supposed to help it heal properly and faster. Or you can get Tommy John surgery which is proven. It has a 90 percent success rate, but it’s like a yearlong recovery.”

Due to that, he missed the rest of his sophomore track season and his junior season of football, but Patricelli felt like it was the best course of action because he wanted to heal up and get back to throwing so he could pursue a college scholarship.

In his first league meet back throwing the javelin, about a month before the postseason this spring, Patricelli hit a mark of about 160 feet but his elbow hurt a little bit. He decided to go to physical therapy to work on the issue three times a week.

“Part of my thought process for when I was throwing javelin, when you’re going out you don’t know what it looks like, what your future holds when you suffer the injury,” Patricelli said. “I wanted to win state, I was hoping to win state if I was healthy.”

Then Patricelli had a disappointing training session with his throwing coach Duncan Atwood, who competed three times in the Olympics in javelin, and it caused him to step back to reflect.

“It was one day a month before, like the post-season, I told myself after a Sunday morning practice with Duncan, it wasn’t good at all, it was frustrating,” Patricelli said. “I’m not used to this, so, this is the time where I’m going to strive from here on out, this is when I set my goal, I’m going to win state. It was really that last month of the season where it all kicked in.”

Then he worked hard and won state while nailing his goal of hitting a throw of 200 feet.

Patricelli followed that up with a win in his age group in the 700 gram javelin at the Youth World Trials near St. Louis, tossing it 67 meters or just over 219 feet, winning the event by three meters or about 10 feet.

That win is getting him some attention from colleges as he recently got a message on Facebook from a Pac-12 throwing coach. Add to that his grades — typically a high B average bolstered by a 3.8 GPA second semester thanks to a push to get better a math — and Patricelli has a shot of achieving his goal of earning a throwing scholarship at a Division I school.

In the meantime, he’s planning for his senior year of football and track at Tahoma.

“I missed my junior year (of football),” he said. “So, this is my senior year and I have a chip on my shoulder and I’m really looking forward to it. For javelin I set my standards pretty high. Right now going into next year … I want to repeat as state champ and go for the state record and also the national record because they’re pretty close.”

Patricelli loves the competition and it would come as no surprise that even if he didn’t need to throw the javelin more than 227 feet, 11 inches — the current state record — to win his second straight 4A title, he probably would if he believed he could do it.

“Denham is a special kid,” Davis wrote in an email. “Strong academically, great physical tools, motivated. Winner. Add to that, his accomplishments in the javelin are after Tommy John surgery. He’s going to have a great senior year.”