The path to being a state champion can have different routes.

For some, the road is clear from childhood. An athlete starts young in a sport, works hard over time and completes their dream with a gold medal.

For others, the trek is quite different. It contains a windy trail with twists and turns that eventually result in success.

Suffice it to say, Palmerton’s Ryan Burkett falls into the latter category.

A one-time soccer player during his youth, the Blue Bomber senior only entered the track and field scene when his mother signed him up in middle school.

Once he was old enough to be on the varsity squad, throwing was the farthest thing from his mind. But after recognizing that he wasn’t going to be a sprinter — Burkett originally attempted the 100 and 400 — he asked his head coach what to do.

The answer: “Go join the throwers.”

The rest, as they say, is history.

“My mom signed me up in seventh or eighth grade,”said Burkett. “She signed me up and I was kind of like OK, it’s something I can do after school ... I found a bunch of friends to hang out with during track, and I loved the coaches and everything. That’s how I fell in love with track.”

But how did he end up in the circle?

“My freshman year I did the 400. There was a junior or senior (Bryce Marino) on our team in the same exact race in the same meet and he just smoked me. He did it in like 50-some seconds and I did a minute something. I was like, ‘I can’t do this.’ I was out of breath. I knew I needed to find something else. I talked to (Coach Mike) Gombert and asked him if I could try something else. He was like, ‘Go practice with the throwers,’ and I was like, ‘OK.’ I did it, and I was good at it.”

Indeed he was.

In fact, Palmerton throwing coach Kris Hoffner recognized his potential right from the start.

“We found out very early, already in his freshman year, that discus was going to be his premier event,” said Gombert. “Coach Hoffner, I remember him coming to practice and telling me, ‘Mike, he’s going to be a good discus thrower.’ So he already saw that when Ryan was a freshman.”

Burkett, who admits he didn’t take things seriously right away and was a bit mischievous, threw a personal best of 114 feet as a ninth grader. Slowly but surely, his interest grew. And as his interest grew, so did his throws.

During his sophomore year, he was reaching the 140s, but it was still just the beginning stages of better things to come. As a junior, he upped his game by consistently throwing in the 160s and 170s. That increase allowed him to take first at leagues and districts, and capture third at states. His PR was now 171, and he was threatening the school record of 180-0 which was set in 1974 by Mike Dakan.

“The first big throw for Ryan, it was at Jim Thorpe,” said Gombert. “He threw 142. It was early in his sophomore year ... That really put him on the map. Junior year, he really took it to another level and he became a much more consistent thrower. And then this year rolled around.

“I think that he was feeling some pressure early and didn’t have a great first meet, but the second meet he was off and running ... Once he hit 180-plus, you just hoped that he’s going to build on it. The big throws, the 181, the 186 at the district meet, his 187 PR. It just wasn’t one lucky throw he had. He was establishing himself as a premier discus thrower in the state.”

Burkett, who also competed in shot put and placed fifth at leagues and third at districts in that event, earned gold again in the discus at leagues and districts. His throw of 186-0 broke a district meet record, which had been held by Bethlehem Catholic’s Joe Kovacs — a world champ and Olympic medalist. At states, he was the No. 1 seed and felt some pressure but managed to win with a top throw of 177-10.

That capped a tremendous senior season and resulted in him being named the Times News/Lehigh Valley Health Network Male Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

“Over his four years, Ryan became a student of the game, a student of the sport if you will,” said Gombert. “It just wasn’t the physical part of coming here and throwing, but it was the mental part — watching his own film, and asking what can I improve on? Ryan, if he ever decides to pursue this, he would be a great coach.

“Watching a kid stay the course with a sport, not get frustrated early on, not get bored with an event ... a throwing event like that takes time to develop your form, your technique. And if you don’t have patience, it’s pretty quick for a kid to walk away and look for something else to do. It’s very rewarding. It’s a testament to Ryan’s hard work, the time he put into it. I don’t know if he ever thought of throwing discus that first day of practice (as a freshman). But to see him build and grow and turn from a freshman into a man by his senior year, and one that could win a state title — the ultimate goal — it was really, really exciting.”

Burkett will take his talents to East Stroudsburg University, where he plans to major in either engineering, finance or business.

“(Winning states) has sunk in,” said Burkett, who actually admits his favorite throwing event is javelin. “I got my medal and took it home, looked at it for 10 minutes and thought this is cool. I look at it like, yeah I won states, but what do I have next? What can I improve on now? Now I’m looking at college.”