Pole Vault Mentor

This is a “Sunday Story” essay on Our America – even though it’s not Sunday.  No politics today, just a story about a friend.

Mentor

A mentor is someone, usually older, who goes “above and beyond” to bring you into a different “world”, often a profession or career.  They may be a “boss”, but if they are, they’re a “boss” that’s as interested in your learning and success as their own.  They may just be a more experienced co-worker or contemporary, giving of their own time and self to help you learn and succeed.  And, often, a mentor also becomes a friend, more than “just” someone working in the same field.

Throughout my careers (politics, teaching, coaching, administrating, officiating) I’ve had the absolute gift of great mentors.   Now at sixty-eight, it’s sort of odd to think about “growing” anything but older.  But in all of those “career” paths, even now; there’s been someone more experienced, willing to take me “under their wing” and “grow me” in the job.  They’ve taught me to be successful, but more importantly, they taught me to “do it right”, whether with kids, or with rules and guidelines, or with the “techniques” required to get the work done.   I might have been “OK” completely on my own, but I know I am so much better because of those mentors.

Track and Field

I was a track and field coach for forty years, and during that time I coached every event.  I started as a sprints and hurdles coach because that’s what I did.  But along the way I became a throws coach (shot and discus, also some javelin, but not hammer), a jumps coach (high, long and triple), and a distance coach, including cross country running.  

I had success in all of those areas; and I think it was that broad experience that helped me be a better head coach.  Different kinds of kids did different events. To be successful, you had to reach the kids where they were and challenge them to be better.  What worked in encouraging a sprinter didn’t work with a high jumper, or most distance runners.  

Pole Vault

But if you ask around in the track coaching community in Columbus, Ohio, you’d probably hear me “pigeon-holed” as a “pole vault guy”.  That’s because, back when I first became a head coach (at twenty-five, really a kid myself), I had good vaulters, but didn’t have a coach for them.  So I took on a new event.  And I spent several summers travelling to find “the best” vault coaches to learn from.  

 I spent time with Marshal Goss at Indiana University, at the time coaching the American Record holder, Dave Volz.  Then I went to Rhode Island to learn from Bill Falk, who was dedicated to teaching vault to America, as well as his All-Americans at the University.  He held massive summer camps for kids from all over the Nation.  I learned a lot from Bill, and my kids improved.  And I got to introduce kids from Pataskala, Ohio, to fresh lobster (three out of four liked it, I ate the fourth’s share after my own).   

The Rock

But I kept hearing about this pole vault camp at Slippery Rock University, three hours away just over the Ohio/Pennsylvania line.  Some athletes we competed against in the summer went there, and came back with stories of a “pole vault boot camp”, with twelve hours of instruction a day for five days.  They were weary, but once they recovered they were so much better.  There were five camp sessions a summer, with sixty to one hundred vaulters in each session.  All in this small town in Pennsylvania, where the one place kids could get snacks was a gas station with the odd name of “Sheetz”.

So I sent some kids up to Slippery Rock in the early 1990’s , and I went myself for a couple of days.  And I met a guy named Mark Hannay.  He was the camp director, the pole vault and javelin coach at “The Rock”, and a former successful high school track coach at Mercer just down the road.  Mark was passionate about pole vault, and, as a high school teacher (science), he was able to break down the vault in terms that kids, and coaches, could understand.  That first year I went up for a couple of days, but the next year I enrolled for the full Sunday through Friday experience.

Pole Vault Boot Camp

It really was pole vault “boot camp”.  We were up at 7 for breakfast, and onto the track by 8:30.  There were ten “pit groups”, on five separate runways and pole vault pits, and the kids were divided by ability.  Pit One  was for the rookies, Pit Five was the most advanced vaulters, the state qualifiers and champions of their areas.  Athletes came from all over the country, flying into Pittsburgh.  Mark would send a staffer to pick them up.

Half of the kids would vault (the A group from each pit about ten) and half would do drills (the B group).  Then, after an hour and a half, they’d switch.  There’d be a “pit coach” on each pit, with about ten kids on the runway at a time.  The Slippery Rock college kids would run the drill sessions.  At 11:30 we’d break for lunch, but by 1:00 we were in a lecture hall.  Mark would lay out the vault in a series of lectures, usually until about 3:30.  Younger kids would start to squirm, and everyone, somewhere along the way, took a nap (including this coach).  But athletes, with their vault problems fresh in their minds, could start to see the answers. 

Then it was dinner, and back to the track for another three hour session.  Next, return to the lecture hall, this time just for an hour.  Then, a quick break – to Sheetz or to order a pizza, then back to the lecture hall for a movie.  There wasn’t too much goofing around back in the dorms after Monday night.  Everyone was exhausted.

By Wednesday the vaulters were too tired to argue.  They’d just “do” what the pit coaches told them.  And even though their legs were “jellified” by all the vaults, most had amazing improvements.  They forgot all their “bad habits”, and just did what they were supposed to do.

Pit Coach

That first year I was “just another observer”.  Then, in 1995, Mark asked me to become a “pit coach”.  I wasn’t ready to spend five weeks of the summer, but I was very willing to do one.  And for the next eleven years I became part of “Mark’s Coaches” at “The Rock”.  Like the kids, it was pole vault “boot camp” for us too.  We talked vault through all the meals, and through late nights in the dorms waiting for kids to nod off.  Mark had amazing energy, his force drove the whole enterprise.  

And he brought us coaches, into the real world of technical vaulting.  We were on the cutting edge, part of an American effort to regain the “top”, first taken by the French and then the Russians.  Mark was on a first name basis with the best coaches in the world:  Petrov, Landers, Bemiller, Hull, and Mark’s mentor, Rick Attig.  And he brought their experience and knowledge to us.

And, of course, we “pit coaches” had a lot of discussions as well.  Some of my best friendships in the pole vault world were formed around the tables in Boozel Dining Hall, on in the “lounge” in the dorm.  We argued, we discussed, everything from technical pole vault stuff to how to handle track teams.  And there were stories, so many stories, from Mark about his water-skiing days, and from the rest of us as well.  After a few years, we knew most of the old ones, but they were good to hear again.

Coaching Coaches

In 2002 four athletes died nationwide in the pole vault, including one that the Pennsylvania guys were close to, Kevin Dare at Penn State.  That summer, we determined that we needed to do something to “save” our event.  I was already involved in pole vault education in Ohio, but it was at Slippery Rock that year that we all became dedicated to making pole vault safe by making coaches coach safely.  Mark was the impetus for that, in Ohio through me, in Pennsylvania through Rob Wahl, and in other parts of the country as well. 

The last year at the “Rock” was 2006.  There were already “rumors” around that Slippery Rock was making “a change” that wouldn’t include Mark Hannay.  Hard to imagine that they’d turn down five weeks of filled-and-paid dorm rooms and meal plans (at that time the kids were paying about $250 per session, $25,000 gross income a week for four or five weeks), but they did.  Mark left Slippery Rock, and the legendary camp days were over.

But he still kept his hand in pole vault.  He developed a “Pole Vault Education Initiative”, to reach coaches with carefully vetted information.  We even tried a PVEI camp at Gettysburg College, which was great fun, but the private college costs were too high.  I had pole vault camps modeled after “the Rock” back at Watkins Memorial High School until 2017, and helped other camps as well.

Making a Difference

I was part of the continuing education here in Ohio, developing a basic “pole vault safety program” for coaches.  There are several other ones as well today, but I’m proud that here in Ohio, a coach must at least have “certification” in pole vault before they try to teach kids.  I’ve done thirty-plus years of coaching clinics in Ohio, and some in Michigan as well.

Mark passed away this week.  He first went into Hospice last summer, and I got a chance to go see him.  I went into his room and he was fast asleep, so I sat awhile until he finally  woke up.  I introduced myself, but he was still dozy.  We started talking, but he didn’t realize who I was.  We talked track, and pole vault, and he asked where I was from.  I told him near Columbus, and he said “You need to talk to Marty Dahlman down there”.  We got through that moment of awkwardness, then spent a couple more hours, until he was clearly tired, and it was time for me to go.

I got a chance to tell him that we did reach a lot of people, and that he did make pole vault a better and safer event in our “track and field” world.  There hasn’t been a pole vault fatality in more than a decade.  I think he took some pride in that.  And, I thanked him for taking me into the “Slippery Rock” family, and teaching me so much about our event.

I lost a mentor this week.  But I, and my other “pole vault friends”, will continue to carry on what he taught and inspired us to do.  Thank you Mark, for taking us under your guidance.  I know you never vaulted, but I bet there’s water-ski jumping in heaven.  Your knees are perfect now:  Jump high and long.

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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.

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