Ready To Rumble

The following year, Juliana accompanied two friends to the 1993 Amateur Worlds in Huntsville, Alabama, where she watched the action from the sidelines. “I hate to say it, but I felt like such a girl,” she comments, then raises the pitch in her voice. “I’ll just keep the scores, I’ll take some pictures. It was awful. I couldn’t stand not being in the competition. Everyday during lunch I would grab my discs and go throw.”

Then, during the finals, she saw the women golfers for the first time. “It was Beth Tanner, Elaine King, Becky Powell and Chris O’Cleary. They were practice putting before the start of the round, and I was enthralled, staring at them in amazement while they sank every 20-foot putt. Then I thought ‘Why can’t I do that?’”

“There was a huge gallery of 200 people, and everyone was focused on those four women and appreciating their skill and ability. I promised myself that someday I would be good enough to be in that final four. I didn’t know how long it would take, but that was the instant that I set the goal.”

Back home, her boyfriend was about to get the heave-ho. “I don’t know if I came out and said I wanted to win Am Worlds or not, but he laughed at me and said ‘You’re never going to win a world championship, are you crazy?’ We still keep in touch, and let’s just say he gets full and complete emails of all my successes,” Juliana says. She would eventually meet Randy Bower in graduate school at Iowa State University, fall in love, and get married.

By 1995, Juliana was winning amateur tournaments on a regular basis, and entered her first tourney as a pro. To her horror, she was matched up against World Champ Elaine King in the first round. “I finished dead last. I almost cried. My biggest obstacle was my own perception of myself and my game. I didn’t have much confidence.”

“By this time I’m so into this sport, I’m consumed by it. People around me didn’t know much about it, and almost thought it was unhealthy. I don’t get any of that anymore.”

Later that year, Juliana competed in her first (and last) Amateur World Championships, which were held in Cincinnati. “I was with Anita Jackson and her husband Kim,” she says. “We were practicing on the first day when J-bird -- who I had never met -- comes up and says ‘I think that, someday, you’re going to be a world class player. I’d like to sponsor you.’ I’m trying to be cool, saying ‘Yeah, that’d be great.’ I turned around to Anita and Kim and opened my mouth like ‘Oh wow! Can you believe this?’ I turned back to him all cool again like ‘Hmm, what did you have in mind?’”

The tournament went very well for the unsure upstart. “I was always in the lead, but never by more than four strokes. What I really remember about that tournament was the camaraderie among the players. We had 23 or 24 women at the tournament. That one of the first times that I really felt the frisbee family on an extended level. It was very nice. It’s that feeling that pulls me to other tournaments.”

After winning the Am Worlds, there was only one option in 1996: to compete at the Pro Worlds in South Bend, Indiana. “I finished 8th, and made it to the semi-finals, which was my goal. Plus I got an ace! It was the first ace by a woman in a world championship.”

Discraft owner Jim Kenner heard Juliana had thrown a Discraft Hawk on the ace run, and presented her with a box of fifty discs, a first move which would eventually lead to a sponsorship agreement between the two.

Taking Down The Champ

When the 1997 season rolled around, her game had improved greatly. “At the In Flight Open I played solid all four rounds. Elaine King and I were going back and forth for the lead, and we ended up tied. I had never come close to her before this. I was just about jumping out of my skin, I was so excited.”

“We started the playoff on hole one. We both parred, so we went to the next hole with about 30 people watching. Birdies on two, now there are 50 people in the gallery. By the time we pushed to the fourth hole, the entire right side of the fairway was lined with spectators. I had so much adrenaline running through me. I pulled out my 150 class Cyclone, threw it and knew it was a good shot. Missed an ace by about a foot, and the crowd erupted. It was the best feeling!”

“Elaine’s drive fell short. She threw a long putt and missed, and I stepped up and made the birdie. It was the first time I beat Elaine King, while about 100 people lined the fairway.”

Anytime the world champ gets beaten, people take notice. One of those people was Discraft’s Jim Kenner. Encouraged by Scott Stokely, Juliana had sent Kenner a sponsorship query letter earlier in the year. After the 97 In Flight, he was convinced she was a winner. “Sponsorship has been fabulous for me,” she says. “It really helps to legitimize my status as a professional athlete with people who are outside of the game and don’t understand how big it’s getting.”

Cover Story, continued...