Clearing hurdles
Mars’ Rinaman finishes strong high school career
Ori Rinaman knew early on that, no matter what happened while playing football his senior year and no matter what kind of interest he received, he was steadfast that he would only run track collegiately at Shippensburg University.
That does not mean, though, that there might not be a pang or two of regret in retrospect for this recent Mars Area High School graduate.
“I’d say I’m glad I made the decision to run track because, now that it’s summer and I’m starting to see football starting up again, it would have been harder to make that choice,” Rinaman said. “I’m starting to miss it right now, being with my friends on the field, but I’m glad I made the decision to run track [only].”
Considering the success he had at both sports during his senior year, it would be easy to question the Post-Gazette North Xtra Male High School Athlete of the Year’s decision to eschew playing football in college.
Rinaman was pressed into duty as the fullback in the Planets’ Delaware Wing-T offensive system and promptly carried 210 times for 1,245 yards and scored 23 total touchdowns to lead the Planets to the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs and an upset win against Montour in the first round of the tournament.
If that weren’t enough, he gave the Shippensburg coaches something to smile about at the state track finals on his new home turf at Seth Grove Stadium when he became the first Mars athlete to win a Class AAA individual state title. He took first in the 110-meter high hurdles.
“That feeling was just unreal,” Rinaman said. “I’ve had that goal in mind since I was in middle school when I started watching it on TV every year and I always thought it would be cool to be that kid there and I had that set in my mind that I was going to do it.”
And doing it on what will be his home field next season made it even more special.
Rinaman, who was second to Kornelius Klah of Pennsbury in the preliminary heats, shaved 0.10 second off his time in the finals with a 14.39-second finish to eke past Jermichael Bunch of Wyoming Valley and become the first boys track athlete from Mars to win a Class AAA title and the first from the school to win a state championship since Brad Mueller took the 100-meter dash in Class AA in 2003.
“They are very different runners because there weren’t a lot of people that had speed like Brad and Ori worked very hard in a lot of winter meets to get ready for track,” Mars football coach Scott Heinauer said. “Ori winning the 110 hurdles is a tremendous feat and it was a pretty awesome feat to be the school’s first Triple-A champion.”
Now, though, Rinaman is all about preparing for his freshman year running track at Shippensburg. He’s already on a mandated workout regimen and plans on lengthening his distances in college so that he’ll not only compete
in the 110-meter hurdles and the 400-meter relay, but will add the 400 hurdles — an event not competed for at the PIAA level — to his repertoire.
In high school, runners can only compete in the 300- meter intermediate hurdles, which only gives him another goal to strive for when he moves on to the next level.
“People I talk to say that it’s the hardest event ever invented and, basically, it’s terrible,” Rinaman said. “But if you have the drive and guts to do that last 100, then you just have to want it bad enough.”
“He could have probably gone somewhere and played football and gotten some scholarship money to play,” Mars football coach Scott
Heinauer said.