Thursday, April 28, 2011
Posted: 3:11 p.m.
By Reuben Frank
CSNPhilly.com
He was there when Ray Rhodes took the Rich Kotite disaster and almost overnight transformed the Eagles into a playoff team. He was on the field for that historic 58-point playoff outburst against the Lions in 1995. He played alongside some of the biggest names in Eagles history.
And yet, Marc Woodard gets way more nervous these days watching his daughter throw the shot put than he ever did playing in the NFL.
“I do a pretty good job hiding it,” Woodard said with a laugh. “But inside, I’m going crazy. I just don’t let it show.”
Woodard sat in the metal bleachers on a remote field south of Franklin Field Thursday and watched his daughter Jessica, a sophomore at Cherokee High School in Marlton, N.J., continue to blossom as one of the nation’s top young track athletes.
Woodard, who spent the 1994 through 1996 seasons playing special teams and linebacker for the Eagles, settled in South Jersey after he retired from football 15 years ago, and now his daughter is taking over where he left off.
At the 117th annual Penn Relays, the world’s largest and oldest annual track meet, Jessica Woodard threw the shot put 42 feet, 7 inches – the best throw of her life and the third-best throw this year by a United States sophomore.
Competing against some of the top girls in the country, Woodard was one of just eight competitors – and the only sophomore – to reach the final. She placed eighth, missing a medal by less than a foot.
“I never dreamed in a million years I’d be in this position,” Marc Woodard said. “You just don’t think about it before you have kids or when they’re younger, think about them competing at such a high level. But she started with track when she was about 8 and she’s just continually progressed. We always thought she had a chance to be successful, but competing on this level? You don’t expect that.
“And she has two more years to go. The sky’s the limit for her. She’s such a hard worker. When she sets a goal and goes after something, she usually gets it.”
The Steelers drafted Woodard out of Mississippi State in 1993, but they were stocked with linebackers back then, and he wound up with the Eagles in the fall of 1994. He played in all 51 games during that three-year span from 1994 through 1996, starting three games at left outside linebacker in 1996, including the 14-0 playoff loss to the 49ers at Candlestick Park.
“Reggie White had just left when I got here, but I just feel very fortunate to have had a chance to play with guys like Randall Cunningham, Freddie Barnett and Seth Joyner,” Woodard said. “It was a great experience. That was a great coaching job by Ray [Rhodes] in 1995. We had lost our last seven games in 1994, and he came in and the very next year we got to the playoffs and had that great win over the Lions (58-37 wild-card game at the Vet).
“It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed my time with the Eagles. There were a lot of great personalities on that team.”
When Woodard’s football days were over, he and his wife decided they had no reason to leave. Both are Mississippi natives, and they had been dating since freshman year at MSU, but Marlton became their new home.
“We liked the area, we liked Philadelphia, we had built a lot of good relationships, and we really liked the Marlton community,” Woodard said. “We just decided to stay. It’s tough sometimes, because both our families are down in Mississippi, but we’ve been here since I joined the Eagles in 1994. This is home now.”
Woodard entered the business world after football and has worked the past decade and a half in insurance and banking.
His part-time job is supporting his kids in all their various athletic pursuits. Jess also plays field hockey and basketball for Cherokee, but track is where she’s making her name and adding to the family legacy.
“He’s taught me a lot,” Woodard said after she finished competing in her first Penn Relays. “To never give up. Ever. And to always work hard. He tells me to stay focused, which I try to do, but sometimes it’s really hard. But I’ve learned a lot from him. He’s just always really encouraging.”
Woodard carved out a nice NFL career despite standing just 6-foot, 225 pounds and getting drafted in the late rounds.
The mental toughness that helped him reach the NFL is something he constantly preaches to all his kids.
“The big thing I try to emphasize to her is just to be focused and to approach whatever she’s doing as a professional,” Woodard said. “The mental aspect of it is just as important as the physical aspect, and that’s something I talk about with her a lot. But she’s actually very focused, and she doesn’t need me to say a whole lot to her.”
Woodard is already one of the most accomplished weight throwers in South Jersey track history. She broke the Burlington County discus record by throwing 138-9 at a meet in West Deptford earlier this month, and her shot put mark Thursday moved her just 6 1/2 inches from another county record.
Woodard, coached by Cherokee throws coach John McMichael, generates her power with speed and balance as opposed to sheer bulk and is built more like a powerful runner than a typical weight thrower. She’s now ranked third in the U.S. among 10th-graders in the shot put and fourth in the discus. She’s already one of only seven girls in South Jersey history to throw as far as 42 feet in the shot and 138 feet in the discus.
Despite yet another personal-best throw on Thursday, Woodard was in no mood to celebrate as she packed up her gear.
Her sixth and final throw slipped out of her hand and landed well short of her best mark of the day. She knows she has two more years, but she wanted to leave Franklin with a medal.
“I’m happy,” she said. “Any time you [personal record] you’re going to be happy, but I was hoping to do a little better. But I’m not disappointed. It just makes me hungry.”
She glanced at a group of older girls who had beaten her and were getting their pictures taken and said, “I want to come back next year and beat them.”
E-mail Reuben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com