The addition of a collegiate level pole-vaulting pit adds new
dimension to track and field
It’s a sport that most of us see only when we watch the summer
Olympic games on TV. But this year it was also an option for Gilroy
High School athletes for the first time since 2000.
The addition of a collegiate level pole-vaulting pit adds new dimension to track and field
It’s a sport that most of us see only when we watch the summer Olympic games on TV. But this year it was also an option for Gilroy High School athletes for the first time since 2000.
The sport is pole vaulting.
And when it comes to running with an 8-pound, 15-foot-long fiberglass pole and planting it in a boxed area in order to spring up and over a bar that seems like it’s light years away, no team in the league is greener at doing it than the Mustangs.
Sure, Sobrato High is a young school with a young team, and Live Oak doesn’t have a coach, which forces the two Morgan Hill schools to practice together, but Gilroy’s track and field athletes didn’t even have the option to vault at all the past six years.
That all changed last fall with the opening of the school’s Garcia-Elder Sports Complex, which was built to include a new football field as well as an expanded track and field facility that now has one of the best high-school pole vaulting areas in the Central Coast Section.
The Mustangs might be green now, but in the years to come, other schools might be green with envy as the Gilroy program is sure to grow.
“A lot of the kids didn’t know anything about pole vaulting when we first started the season,” said Gilroy High Pole Vaulting Coach Mark Carrick. “When they learned about it, everyone wanted to pole vault so about 18 kids signed up. Since then, we’ve dropped down to 10. I think they realized it’s a lot harder and a lot more work than they thought.”
It’s also tough getting fired up to compete each week with the understanding that all of the other teams in the league – particularly San Benito High and North Salinas – have far more depth and established programs than anyone wearing a Gilroy uniform.
This year, the Mustangs top male vaulter is junior Jeff Garcia. What makes him good, Carrick said, is that he’s a two-sport athlete.
“He’s a linebacker on the junior-varsity football team so he’s athletic,” Carrick said. “He’s also been on the track team longer than anyone else.”
So far, Garcia’s highest successful attempt with the pole vault has been 9 feet – a far cry from the 15-foot marks that some of the best pole-vaulters in the CCS put up, but that doesn’t discourage Carrick.
“We’re not breaking any records out there. That’s for sure,” he said. “We have a long ways to go but they’re out there doing it.”
And they’re doing it at one of the best facilities around.
“We use a college pole vault pit (landing area) that is about two-to-four-feet longer and wider than typical high school pits,” said Carrick. “Everything is brand new.”
Since all of the vaulters at Gilroy High have no more than a handful of weeks of experience in the sport, coaching has been very challenging this year.
“The hardest thing right now is when you tell them to concentrate on one thing, everything else goes to hell in a hand basket,” Carrick said. “I want them to get them to the point where they have some muscle memory – do it automatically.”
To get to that point involves a great deal of practice time, which can be difficult to get, especially if a vaulter is better at another event.
That’s been the problem in the development of Carly Kennedy, the top female pole-vaulter at Gilroy High.
“She’s so good at the shot put and discus that I rarely get her during the week,” said Carrick. “I probably only see her two days a week.”
Even with limited practice time, Kennedy has still been able to pole vault over the 7-foot mark.
“We’re still learning how to get over the bar,” said Gilroy Head Track and Field Coach Jeff Myers. “It’s good though because in the past we had to start every meet down 9-0 because we didn’t have a pole-vaulting team. We’re still not winning any pole vaulting events, but we might get third here and there or a second if there’s only two people competing (which adds to the team’s overall point totals).”
Both coaches understand that to be as good as San Benito High or any of the other top programs in the CCS is going to take a lot of hard work and dedication because of all of the precision that’s involved in a successful vault.
“A lot of work goes into it,” said Carrick, who pole-vaulted when he was in high school in Southern California. “It’s not easy. A lot of kids go up and come straight down. They don’t even make it into the pit area and they get a lot of bruises.”
All pole vaulting poles are made of lightweight fiberglass. They range in length from 10- to 15-feet long. Pole-vaulters start roughly 70 feet away from the planting box where they run down a path as fast as they can while holding onto the end of the pole.
“It’s amazing how awfully heavy that 8-pound pole gets when you hold onto the end of it as you run,” said Carrick.
Getting enough speed up is critical for a successful jump.
“I tell them that this is a sprinter’s event. The higher you grab onto the pole the faster you have to go. Once you plant the pole you’ve got to get your right arm (if right-handed) as high as you can over your head. If you don’t get enough momentum, you’ll go vertical and not into the pit. I’ve seen a lot of hurt knees from landing before the pit. (If you do it right) the pole takes the energy from going horizontal, absorbs it, bends and then shoots you up at an angle instead of straight up and down. It’s a lot of work but they’re getting there.”
