Arizona junior discus thrower Adam Kuehl disconnects himself from an insulin pump before beginning a practice session Tuesday afternoon at Drachman Stadium.

Photos by David Sanders / Arizona Daily Star

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On his 13th birthday, expecting the worst, Adam Kuehl went to see a doctor in Charleston, S.C.

"You have diabetes," the doctor said. "No more football."

No more a lot of stuff.

It was similar to the conversation Gonzaga basketball All-American Adam Morrison must have had with his childhood doctor. You know, the you-can-have-a-good-life-but-you-won't-be-setting-any-records speech.

Five days ago, Kuehl threw the discus 209 feet 7 inches, the longest throw in UA history, and the leading throw in college track and field this year.

"I don't think it was much of a surprise to Adam," said UA associate head track coach John Frazier. "When he was a freshman, he asked, 'Do you think I can make the Olympic team?' At the time, he didn't have a throw that would even put him in the Olympic trials. He's consumed with doing the best he can."

You watch Kuehl step into the thrower's cage at Drachman Stadium, and you do not get the feeling he is limited in any way. He is 6 feet 2 inches, 260 pounds, explosive and agile, and as light on his feet as studio dancer.

He is not the retiring type.

He treats Type 1 diabetes the same way Olympic gold medal swimmer Gary Hall Jr. and PGA Tour golfer Scott Verplank do: with full respect and daily care, but with the notion that everything in sports is possible.

Frazier said: "Adam's about the hardest working kid I've ever coached. He's got a great personality. You don't recruit people like him very often."

A redshirt junior from Monmouth, N.J., Kuehl was discovered by Frazier at an all-star track meet in Southern California. Frazier is a former UCLA shot putter who has been on the Arizona staff for six seasons. It was a natural union, inasmuch as Kuehl still remembers a high school track meet held while snowing.

Here is a little back story:

Kuehl was recruited a few years after Arizona finished No. 4 nationally, much of it built around discus and shot put All-Americans Chima Ugwu and Doug Reynolds. The Wildcats again are a legitimate threat to contend for the NCAA men's championship, and much of it is based on Kuehl and his fellow shot-and-discus partner Sean Shields, currently ranked No. 3 collegiately in the shot put.

It was Reynolds, in 1998, who established the UA discus record at 207-3. By pure coincidence, Reynolds, now an assistant coach at Kentucky, happened to be at last week's competition in Mesa.

"Doug came up to me before the meet and said, 'The record goes down today,'" Kuehl recollects. "I thought, 'yes, that would be good.'"

Kuehl was given the customary six throws. The first was a weak 189 feet. Then came a foul. Then there were two throws of about 199 feet. But his fifth throw was sweet. It was measured at 207 feet 1/2 inch. Is that crazy or what? It was 2 1/2 inches shy of Reynolds' Arizona record.

Gathering himself before his final throw, Kuehl came to this decision: "I wasn't going to leave there without the record; I couldn't let that opportunity get away."

The final throw was perfection. And in the space of maybe five seconds, Kuehl evolved from just another guy throwing the discus to someone to be feared.

Both Frazier and UA head track coach Fred Harvey share the opinion that Kuehl is just scratching the surface. This was not a freak; it was a preview.

"I studied my throw on the video," said Kuehl. "There are still things I need to improve in my technique. There's a lot more there."

Kuehl is 22. World class discus throwers hit their peaks about 28 or 30. In that regard, and with a full season left at Arizona, it is not inconceivable to think that Kuehl could challenge the hallowed Pac-10 record of 216-2 by Oregon's Dean Crouser 23 years ago.

"It's not like Adam doesn't have any competition," Frazier said. "Until last week, his best throw was just (2 inches) more than Shields had thrown. They motivate each other, day to day. And there are two outstanding throwers — Niklas Arrhenius at BYU and Vikas Gowda at North Carolina — waiting for them at the NCAAs. You've got to keep getting better, and being driven is part of Adam's personality."

Type 1 diabetes — previously known as juvenile diabetes — means the body does not produce insulin, which is necessary to be able to use sugar. Insulin transfers sugar from blood into cells. Much like Morrison at Gonzaga, Kuehl monitors himself during training and at competitions (with Frazier watching) and has avoided problems.

"It won't keep me from achieving in sports," he said. In fact, Kuehl sounds more concerned about the pollen counts at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., for next month's Pac-10 championships.

"I might even wear one of those pollen masks," he said with a laugh. "If you win the Pac-10 title, it doesn't matter how you look."