Busy Season

This is a “Sunday Story”, even though it’s Monday.  No politics here, just stories about one of my favorite topics – Pole Vault.

Track Official

If you’re a high school track and field official, this is the busy season.  It’s “championship season” as I told my teams for forty years:  the moments when all the work, the training, the sacrifice and the competitions come to a peak.  It’s the conference championship, then onto the two meets that lead the elite few to the State Championship.  As a coach it could be (as Dicken’s said) the best of times and the worst of times.  In championship season the successes are the sweetest, and the failure are the hardest.  Either way, it’s all over in a few short weeks.

As a track coach, I taught every event.  I worked with sprints, hurdles and relays; distance, long and high jump; shot and discus, and, of course, pole vault.  It was in that last event that I made a “professional” reputation, working to make the event safer.  I still teach coaches how to coach pole vault safely, something I’ve done for thirty years here in Ohio (Ohio Pole Vault Safety).  And while I was a “licensed” official for most of my career, I didn’t start “full time” officiating until 2019, two years after I retired from coaching.  In the last five years, I’ve scheduled more track meets (forty-three this year).  Championship season is my “busy season” too:  five meets last week, five meets this week, four meets the week after.

Not surprisingly, I officiate the pole vault in most of those meets. 

X Games

Back in the 1990’s, one of my vaulters said to me: “Pole vault should be separate from the rest of track and field.  They just put it in there, because there aren’t high school ‘X Games’!”  There is a whole different feel around the pole vault from the much of the rest of track competitions.  It’s a small enough “ecosphere” that most vaulters from different teams still know each other.  Coaches often share the expensive poles (more than $500 per) with other schools. Many of the better vaulters train together outside of the regular track season.  The competition in pole vaulting is more often “with the bar” than with each other, and it’s not unusual to see fierce competitors cheering each other on.

I was an “old school” pole vault coach, really two generations from the current crop of “modern” coaches (in technical terms – more Tarasov than Mondo).  But my decades of coaching help me to better officiate competition.  It’s not just knowing the rules, the nuances of “makes and misses”.   It’s also managing the “flow”, keeping the competition rolling along, giving each athlete a fair shot at the bar, and creating the best atmosphere for the final vaulters as they attempt to soar higher than ever before.

Altius

Saturday was a good example.  The small, six-man conference championship competition was radically divided.   The lower three vaulters were young, first or second year competitors.  We started the bar at 8’, and when one cleared 10’, his teammates ran over and cheered his personal best.  He was “pumped”, and while he failed at 10’6”,  he was still proud of his progress.

Then we “skipped” to three of the best vaulters in the state, all seniors and from the same school. They entered the competition at 13’.  At 14’ they all soared over the bar, including the “third man”.  In most competitions, only two are allowed from each school, including the state qualifying meets. This particular conference decided to test a track team’s depth by allowing three in every event.  And this “third man” is one of the top vaulters in the state, but won’t get to prove his prowess on the biggest stage.  He can’t beat his own teammates, and while he might be in the top dozen in Ohio, since he is only third at his own school, this was his last high school meet. 

He ultimately cleared 14’6”.  When he failed at his third attempt at 15’, there were tears in his coach’s eyes, and warm hugs from teammates and friends.  He’ll go onto vault in college.  But these were the bittersweet last attempts of his high school career; at home, with friends, family and teammates watching.  He was third in the Conference.

Battle at the Heights

Then the two best vaulters in the state continued, battling each other in a good hearted competition for the Conference Championship.  They tied for first at 15-6, then “jumped off” in a tie-breaking procedure.  When neither cleared 16’, we moved the bar down to the conference record 15’9”.  One cleared, one didn’t; and the champion was determined.  The winner was pleased.  The runner-up  concentrated on video of his vaults. What could he improve for the next competition, as he works to hone-in his skills for his final high school meets?  Three weeks and two competitions left until the state finals.

This season, I’ve had the privilege of officiating these young men in vault at six competitions.  They are always polite and welcoming; their enthusiasm and dedication “spills out” onto the runway.  As an official I am a “neutral observer”, but as a former coach, it’s still fun to have just a little part in what they and their coach are accomplishing. 

I won’t officiate these guys again. I’m at different state qualifying meets from their school in the next weeks. And I’m privileged to be on the women’s pole vault crew at the State meet, just as competitive and intense as the men.  But be assured, I’ll have a “pit-side” seat for their efforts come that first Saturday in June.  

The Sunday Story Series

Author: Marty Dahlman

I'm Marty Dahlman. After forty years of teaching and coaching track and cross country, I've finally retired!!! I've also spent a lot of time in politics, working campaigns from local school elections to Presidential campaigns.