Durands are a discus-throwing family

Wave a discus in front of the Durands and they get all weak in the knees. It's like leading birds with bread crumbs. Wave it and they'll follow you anywhere. They'd probably follow you even if you were carrying a pie plate, as long as they knew they could throw it at least 100 feet.

Just about every Sunday, from February to June, four of them get together. Over at Maria Carrillo High School. It's a family outing unlike any other.

Mom and dad, Alicia and Joel Durand, head out with their two throwers, daughter Kathleen and son Christopher. Kathleen competes as a Maria freshman. Christopher competes as a Carrillo junior. Alicia threw for Rancho Cotate. Joel threw for Cardinal Newman. Interesting, huh? That ain't even the half of it, Bucky.

To be exact, that's just 44.4 percent of it.

Joel's father, Marc, threw the discus. Marc's brother, Paul, threw the discus. Joel's sister, Joy, threw the discus. Joel's other sister, Christa, threw the discus. Joel's brother, Ross, threw the discus. Durands yet to be born will be throwing the discus if only for the reason that it's the only thing in the sandbox.

That's what is so weird about Joel's third kid, Jonathan. He's a Carrillo sophomore. He went off the reservation. He went way off the reservation. He pole vaults, the radical.

"I just wanted to be different," said Jonathan, holding fast to the contrarian adolescent creed.

It takes quite a spine to make that statement, considering his lineage. The Durand name is liberally sprinkled through Empire record books. It's like a baby Rockefeller not wanting to be a Rockefeller.

Ross (Newman) is the 1988 NBL discus champion. Joel (SRJC) was the conference discus champion in 1993. Alicia (nee Yacoboski) was the NBL discus champion in 1990 and 1991 and is still the school record holder at the Ranch. Christa (Ursuline) was the 2003 NBL discus champion and school record holder. Joy (Ursuline) has the fourth-best discus mark in school history. Kathleen has the Rincon Valley Middle School record. As much as research could find, Marc and Paul won medals as high school discus throwers in McLean, Va.

"It's a relaxed sport," said Christopher, who might as well be speaking for the family. "I play football and wrestle and the intensity and stress can really get to you. This is a lot different."

So, is there such a thing as a discus gene and do the Durands have it?

"I've heard of Discus Sue and I've heard of Discus Patty but I have never heard of Discus Gene," said Santa Rosa's Marc Durand, a distributor of skylights and out-of-the-box humor. Yes, the Durands want to have fun doing this and that's the common thread behind it all.

"You didn't have to train as hard as the track athletes," Marc Durand said. "You compete for three seconds, then sit down and eat a sandwich and talk with the cheerleaders."

The social aspect is strong in the throwing sports and provides a provocative link in the Durand Discus history. In 1991, Rancho and Newman had a track meet in which Alicia, then a Rancho junior, noticed Joel, a Newman senior.

"Who is that guy?" Alicia asked Paul Troppy, Rancho's throws coach. "He's hot. I want to go out with him."

Troppy told Alicia Yacoboski that if she threw 120 feet, he'd arrange the date.

"I didn't tell Alicia that Joel was my cousin," said Troppy, now Santa Rosa's coach.

It was about this time I told Troppy and all the Durands that you usually have to go to Kentucky to hear a story like this.

Alicia did throw 120 feet and it was a year before the date was set. A year later, Alicia proposed to Joel, not the other way around.

"It was in front of the SRJC football team," said Joel, now a Newman graduate and an offensive lineman for the Bear Cubs. "So I got down on one knee. In fact, the whole team got down on one knee, and Alicia proposed in front of everyone."

Just to Joel, to clarify.

Yes, as one might guess, the Durands are not slaves to convention. Teenagers make it a strong point not to copy their parents but Joel, Ross, Joy and Christa did; and Kathleen and Christopher did, as well. They travel to the beat of a different drummer and it's interesting that they all hear the same different drummer.

"You know that television commercial about knowing where your children are?" said Alicia, a legal processor in the Sonoma County District Attorney's office. "That makes me laugh. I always know where my children are."

With her. Throwing the discus. Like any good Durand should.

For more on North Bay sports, go to Bob Padecky's blog at padecky.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5223 or bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com.