NPHS freshman to compete in Junior Olympics

TAKING FLIGHT-Newbury Park's Erik Mueller flies through the air on the NPHS track while practicing for the upcoming Junior Olympics in Virginia. Mueller, 14, will participate in the pentathlon. For 14-year-old Erik Mueller, becoming a freshman at Newbury Park High has always been a dream. This fall Mueller will get to see that dream finally come true, but first he has some errands to run in Virginia.

Mueller competes in the high jump, 1-mile run, shot put, long jump and hurdles-otherwise known as the pentathlon. By winning a gold medal in the regional championship last month, Mueller will now travel to Virginia to try to win another medal in the Junior Olympics.

"I'm really excited and thrilled about competing in the Junior Olympics," Mueller said. "It felt really good to win the gold medal in the pentathlon, as I wasn't really sure of myself and how good I was."

The gold medal almost didn't happen, not because of Mueller's ability, but because of the car getting him to the regional championship in Tulare, Calif. On the way to the meet, Mueller's car broke down a little north of Mojave.

Erik and his father, Gerhard, scrambled but were unable to find another rental car in town. Finally, they found a 26-foot U-Haul truck that got them into town around 9:30 the night before the championships.

"That definitely scared me at the time," Mueller said. "But my dad helped calm me down by saying this was just a warm-up for the competition the next day."

The next day, Mueller won the pentathlon by 100 points.

"He is just a very focused kid and it's always been a dream of his to be a professional athlete," Gerhard Mueller said. "He has a lot of aggression, but in a good way, as he's always hungry for success."

Erik's aggression began to show nine years ago when he started playing his other love, soccer. It's was at that time that his father first noticed how determined and focused his son was when it came to sports.

"He was one of the fastest, but the thing I noticed was how much he was always going after the ball," Gerhard Mueller said. "Where many people will slow down once the ball reaches the sidelines, Erik was never letting up."

Before he runs track and field for Newbury Park, Erik plans to try out for the soccer team. Although he loves both sports, when asked whether he would rather compete in the Olympics for track or the World Cup for soccer, Mueller said soccer, because it's on a bigger stage around the world.

He said soccer helps him in the pentathlon because track and field comes right after the soccer season and therefore helps build muscles

for the many events he participates in during the pentathlon.

Mueller said he is looking forward to turning 15, when he will be at an age where he can compete in the decathlon, which has 10 events.

"I don't really want to focus on just one event," he said. "I want to broaden my horizons, but that will be hard as the decathlon has a couple of events like the javelin and the pole vault which I have never really done."

He's looking forward to trying these events out at Newbury Park in the upcoming fall semester when he will begin his first year.

"I'm a little nervous," he said. "I know there will be a lot of people older than me, but it's always been something I've wanted to do. I grew up just down the street."