Former ASU guard

earns games honors
From staff reports

GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN — Larry Brock, 30, former Appalachain State offensive guard and now the offensive coordinator and line coach at Myers Park High School in Charlotte, won the 2009 Grandfather Mountain Highland Games “Scottish Athlete of the Games” award.

Brock topped a field that included five of the top twelve ranked Highland Games athletes in the country in a spirited competition comprised of seven events.

Brock, the fourth ranked Scottish athlete in the country, grabbed victories in the 56-pound weight throw (for distance), the 28-pound weight throw, and the 56-pound weight toss (for height). He also was the runner-up in the Clachneart (putting the stone) and 22-pound hammer throw enabled him to edge Michael Pockoski from Las Vegas, the seventh-ranked athlete.

Brock sprained his ankle during the hammer throw, the fourth of the seven events that comprise the Games. He did not place in the next two, which allowed Pockoski, to closed to within one point of Brock by winning the Caber toss.

They went into the final event, the 56-pound weight toss (for height), with the winner taking the title Scottish Athlete of the Games.

Each broke the Grandfather Games field record for the event, tossing the weight over a bar raised to 17-feet 6-inches. Brock accomplished the feat his first try compared to Pockoski's two tries so the record went to Brock and his victory was sealed.

Brock, who stands 6-foot-3 and weights 285 pounds, credited his football experiences for enabling him to compete through the pain of a sprained ankle.

“I learned to play through pain at ASU,” Brock said. “I once played with a broken leg,” Brock said.
The overall Games victory, his second at Grandfather, was especially meaningful because the venue is where he got his start as a Scottish athlete.

Brock was a freshman football player and track team member at Appalachian State at the time. His track coach encouraged him to try the Scottish athletic events and he won his very first event, tossing the Clachneart (stone).

He got beat in the other six events but he practiced and came back to Grandfather a second time, and then a third. At that point, he felt he could complete with the professionals and he was hooked.

Today, Brock competes all over the world in Scottish events. He averages around 35 events a year but this year he is scaling down to 25.

He leaves this Wednesday for the Canadian Scottish Team Championship, which will have six two-man teams - two teams from the U.S., two from Canada and two from Europe. The following Sunday he leaves for Edinburgh, Scotland for the official World Championship of Scottish athletics.

“I train for my events by competing in a lot of other events, lifting weights, throwing a lot of rocks and eating,” he said.

The competition provided additional excitement. Eric Frasure from Greenville, S.C., the third ranked Scottish athlete in America and the current world record holder in tossing the sheaf (a 20-pound sack of hay), broke the Grandfather Games field record with a toss over a bar 33 feet high. He then tried to best his own world record of 36 feet but fell just short.