The Pole Vault
Dilemma
By: Jim Patrick - The Salt
Vault
not the same in
History
& Opinions on the Pole Vault Issue
May
12, 2006
The runway for pole vaulting at
The Juan Diego junior looks like a pole vaulter.
He has the arms of a vaulter, muscular from handling
the fiberglass poles and vaulting himself as high as 14 feet last year. But he
doesn't compete in the pole vault anymore, at least not in a way that matters
to his high school team. Last year, when Juan Diego was in
Class 2-A, Jansen's pole vaulting earned points for the team. He placed
first at the state meet, earning 10 points for the Soaring Eagle. Juan Diego
moved up to 3-A in the offseason. That was a problem
for Jansen, since 3-A no longer counts pole vaulting as an official event.
While the Utah High School Athletics Association insists the
move was based on safety, some coaches say the move was more about a
competitive imbalance, and money. "The thing that killed it, I believe, is
money," Juab coach Gary Nielson said. "In the
All of which leaves Jansen and other
IN THE BEGINNING
Pole vaulting was doing fine here in the late 1990s. There were no problems
with the number of competitors and no one was talking openly about ditching the
event. But, in 1998, Gregory Christian died while helping coach the pole vault
at
In state track and field competitions, teams can earn points in
events ranging from the 100-meter dash to the javelin. A first-place finish
earns a team 10 points, second place is worth less and so on and so forth, down
to eighth place, which is worth a point.
Coaches who never placed an athlete in the top eight had little
motivation to keep the vault. "To me, it was like getting rid of the
forward pass in football," Buhrley said. "A
lot of schools didn't [compete in it] anyway. They felt it was advantageous to
schools that put any time or money into it. To me, it's sour grapes because I
don't know how to coach it. I'm too lazy."
That sentiment was echoed by several coaches. "Here in
NUMBERS GAME
David Wilkey, an assistant director at the UHSAA,
wants to make it clear: As far as the UHSAA is concerned, safety is the only
issue with the pole vault. "It is a safety issue, period," Wilkey said.
The coaches don't believe it. "If they were worried about
kids' safety, then they wouldn't let girls play year-round soccer, because
there's been way more kids with ACL and MCL injuries than from pole
vaulting," John said. "Playing year-round is a dangerous thing, but
they don't try to do anything about that. And don't get me started on
football."
John and other coaches don't deny vaulting can be dangerous, but
they say the UHSAA would be doing more to protect athletes if it were really
only worried about safety. Of the 41 states that compete in pole vault, six
require athletes to wear helmets.
Wilkey said that the
issues of safety and money were intertwined. In regard to helmets, none has
been tested and approved for pole vault use by a national testing authority.
That would, theoretically, leave the state open to liability lawsuits if
athletes that used helmets are injured. Pole vaulting is a dangerous enough
sport. According to the
"They kind of panicked a little bit and said all pole vault
pits must be a new size," Buhrley said. "At
the time, we were one of four schools with the proper pits."
Schools like Juan Diego couldn't pay the bill - and more than
one coach pointed out their schools had other priorities. "It got back to
me that they've said, 'All we have to do is wait until Roger Buhrley retires, then we can get rid of pole vault,' '' Buhrley said. "Ninety percent
of schools would rather get rid of it, take the $10,000 it costs every 10 or 15
years and spend it on football helmets." Money is always an issue for
schools, and it seems especially so in
Finances have already had a crippling effect on the event.
"The thing is, with all the regulations they've added, it's
a huge expense," John said. "At public schools, they just fill out a
form. You can't pull over drunk drivers and write tickets for private schools.
At private schools, you have to do it the old fashioned way, with bake
sales."
EFFECTIVE
Classes 4-A, 3-A and 1-A still have kids who compete in the vault on an
exhibition basis. In theory, anyway. At last year's
state meet, there were no 1-A vaulters. "Instead
of giving the vault the death penalty, it's the slow death penalty," Buhrley said. Others agree.
Schools like Juan Diego are unwilling or unable to come up with
money for new pits, so kids have to drive elsewhere if they want to train.
Winning heights have come down as a result. "The winning vault last year
for Class 5-A was 12-foot-6," Buhrley said.
"The last time that height won was with bamboo sticks." Nobody's
talking about bringing back wooden sticks to make the sport safer. But coaches
are fighting a grass-roots campaign to keep the event. Even
if it might be a losing cause. Buhrley expects
the event to be gone when he retires and John said the vault will disappear as
early as next year.
While superintendents in 2-A and 5-A voted to keep the vault, coaches say they wouldn't be surprised if there was another
vote taken to get rid of the pole vault. With javelin also considered a risky
sport, coaches are clearly annoyed that the "field" in track and
field appears to be falling to the wayside.
"It's going to be like field day in elementary school, pretty soon,"
Nielson said. "There's only going to be a couple of events and everybody
gets a ribbon."
At Juan Diego, Jansen is done winning pole vault ribbons. With
his senior year still ahead, he has switched to sprinting events to try to help
the Soaring Eagle at the state meet. As for his favorite event, Jansen has no
hope that future Juan Diego athletes will get a chance to soar at the state
meet. "I think it will definitely be gone," Jansen said. "I don't
know how long. . . . maybe five years."