Derek McGuire has been a master of improvisation throughout his athletic career.

A track and field athlete with no team and no track achieved what no one else could. He performed his greatest feats without a net, and the results were fantastic.

The Watertown native attended Immaculate Heart Central, which doesn’t have a track and field team. So McGuire performed as an independent, and in no time, no one could keep up with him.

He won his first state title as a sophomore in the boys Class C-D category in the discus, then captured his first Empire State Games title with a gold medal in the discus in Cicero.

As a junior, McGuire took the state indoor title in the shot put, then enjoyed an outdoor season that made everyone take notice. He set a Section 3 record in the discus with a throw of 188 feet, 1 inch at the Frontier League championships in 2003, surpassing a mark set by former Olympian Tony Washington. He also set a league record in the same meet with a put of 60-33⁄4.

At the state meet, McGuire won the Division II title in the shot and the Federation titles in both the shot and the discus. His throw of 183-6 was more than 18 feet better than the second-place finisher in the discus.

McGuire then established the scholastic shot record in the Empire Games with a distance of 181-7.

More marks fell in his senior season. He repeated his state indoor title, putting the shot 64-111⁄2 to break a 22-year-old state mark. He took second in the shot in the Nike Indoor Championships. He then won the Division II state title in the shot once again and was overall state champion in the discus. He also picked up gold in the discus in the Empire Games.

McGuire moved on to the University of Mississippi, an NCAA Division I school in the Southeastern Conference. After redshirting because if injuries, he has made his mark with the Rebels. As a freshman, he broke the Mississippi indoor shot mark twice and the outdoor shot mark three times. He was second in the shot in the SEC championships in 2006, 17th in the NCAA meet, and took silver in the discus and shot at Empires that year.

McGuire recently completed his junior season with Mississippi. He placed sixth in the shot to win All-MidEast Region honors as the Rebels took eighth in the NCAA MidEast Regionals.