Elizabeth Forward grad Daniel Jacobs earns All-American honors in javelin for Point Park

A little pizza goes a long way. Two hundred feet, 2 inches to be exact.

To wit: Point Park’s Daniel Jacobs earned All-American status at the recent NAIA track and field national championships. The Elizabeth Forward grad placed fifth in the javelin with a throw of 200-2, becoming just the third male — and first male thrower — in the program’s eight-year history to make All-American.

Jacobs’ journey to that honor began with the promise of pizza.

Flash back to when Jacobs was in eighth grade: At the end of each school year, Elizabeth Forward track coach John Walsh had a tradition of offering pizza to the eighth-grade boy and girl who could throw a softball the farthest. Jacobs recalled sitting in the auditorium with a friend when Walsh came around with his annual challenge.

“So me and my buddy looked at each other, ‘Who doesn’t love a free pizza?’ ” Jacobs joked.

Jacobs won the pizza. By a longshot. Literally.

“He actually threw the softball out of the field and into the street,” Walsh said.

Immediately, Walsh proclaimed Jacobs would throw javelin the following season, but Jacobs took a while to warm up to the idea. It was through a family connection — Walsh went to Elizabeth Forward with Jacobs’ aunt — that Jacobs finally was swayed to join the team as a sophomore.

“The second I started, I just loved it,” he said. “I like to think I’ve always had a strong arm. Whenever I played football, I played quarterback. And in baseball I was a pitcher or catcher.”

Walsh could see Jacobs’ enormous potential. He also saw many technical flaws. Walsh said the first time Jacobs threw the javelin, he threw it 150 feet — side-arm style.

Jacobs quickly realized there was more to throwing a javelin, especially watching Walsh’s son, also named John. Though Jacobs had 6 inches and some 60 pounds on him, the younger Walsh could throw just as far — and sometimes farther — because of his technique.

Coach Walsh was convinced once Jacobs perfected his mechanics, those, combined with his natural strength, would enable him to throw “Olympic-Trial distances.”

“The javelin is thrown from the ground up, so your legs, your core, everything has to work before the arm,” Walsh said. “We knew he had an arm, so we knew if we could get him understanding the technique, the sky would be the limit for him.”

Said Jacobs: “Whenever I first started off, I came in thinking, ‘I have a strong arm. I’m going to do this.’ But the throwing motion is completely different. It definitely took like a year just to change my throwing motion in order to make it compatible with throwing the javelin.”

Jacobs went on to place third in the WPIAL (183-1) and second in the PIAA (195-4) Class AAA meets as a senior. That drew attention from colleges such as Pitt, UConn and Louisville.

He committed to Louisville, but Jacobs had a change of heart and decided to stay home and attend CCAC.

His throwing ambitions were on hold until a fortuitous hiring by Point Park. Walsh became the Pioneers’ throwing coach, and the first person he called was Jacobs.

“I said, ‘Remember that time I told you I thought you could make the Olympic Trials if you had a good coach in college?’ ” Walsh said. “He said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘You want to go to Point Park?’ And he goes, ‘I’m thinking I want to say yeah, but I don’t know why.’ I said, ‘OK. I’m the coach.’

“He said, ‘I’m definitely going.’ ”

Added Jacobs: “I just really like (Walsh). He’s a family friend. He’s super knowledgeable about the javelin. He can teach it in multiple different ways so you end up understanding what it is.”

In his first year at Point Park, Jacobs qualified for nationals and finished 14th. With last season’s competition wiped out by the covid-19 pandemic, he was eager to get back this season.

He won the javelin at every meet he competed in, including against NCAA Division I competition. And during a March meet at Lock Haven, he set the school record with a throw of 205-2. At the time, it was the third-longest throw in the NAIA.

At nationals, Jacobs was well short of the winning throw of 217-9 — a distance Walsh said Jacobs had thrown in practices. Still, he was ecstatic with his performance and his All-American honor.

“It was really exciting being able to compete again,” he said. “I trained all last year to have the season taken away. This year, actually being able to throw was amazing. It’s nice to be able to walk around knowing in the back of my head, ‘Hey, I got that (All-American).’ ”

Jacobs has two more years to refine his technique and, perhaps, reach that Olympic Trials bar Walsh set for him.

But Jacobs isn’t looking at any specific numbers. He said he just goes out, focuses on his routine and lets the javelin fly where it may.

“National champion is the goal,” he said. “I always hold back on saying numbers just because then I get hyper-focused on hitting the number. If I think about the number too much, then I try throwing too hard. And when you try to throw the javelin hard, it doesn’t go far. … You tense up, and it doesn’t work out. Mental weight gets taken off if I remove the number.”