August 2015 Vaulter Magazine

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AUGUST 2015 ISSUE

CONTENTS

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FROM THE EDITOR

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HAVE FUN! BE SAFE! VAULT HIGH!

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MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE, POSSIBLE

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THE ANNUAL RIVER VAULT

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“MY BIGGEST MOTIVATOR IS MYSELF”

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Photo By Charlotte Brown

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FROM THE EDITOR How did summer go by so fast? Thank goodness the warm weather will stick around for a couple more months as school is soon to start. This month we have a pretty awesome lineup for you!

To start we have an article on the Tailwind Pole Vault Club based in Jamestown, Kansas where Coach Dr. Mark Breault (Doc Bro) changes the lives of all the vaulters who come through his club. Not only does he teach how to pole vault, but Doc Bro teaches his vaulters a specific attitude to have—attitude that soon changes their altitude. Doc Bro has great advice in this article that could help you as well, don’t miss it!

some people. Instead of giving up, Julia pushes herself, with the support of her coach and mom, to achieve her goals. She is her biggest motivator and her story is very inspirational.

Don’t skip her story.

help of her coach and the drive she has to defy gravity. How does she do it? Jump on over to her story and find out!

On a side note, at the end of June, our very own editor got married. With an idea of her college coach, Coach Tom Akers, Sadie bought an old wedding dress and did 3-left swing ups at her club’s Friday Night Vault. Being the first to get married from her club, Sadie has decided to keep that dress and make it a tradition for all the Flying Dragon Pole Vault Club members who get married to wear the dress and pole vault in it.

On our back cover this month we have the well-known event the annual River Vault. I don’t think many missed seeing the event take place on a barge on the Mississippi this year! This article tells you how it happened and what Coach Burish had to go through to get things done. There are also some facts about the club he runs and the University he coaches at, and some possible ideas that may happen at next year’s River As always, we thank you for Vault. This event is only going sticking with us each month.

Next we have a story on re- to get bigger, so check it out!

Have a great end of your sumcent high school graduate, Jumer and we will see you in lia Hanks. It’s amazing that in On our cover this month is September! just three years of pole vault, bling pole vaulter, Charlotte Editor Sadie Lovett Julia found herself at the top Brown. Who knew that pole Sadie@vaultermagazine.com of the podium at high school vaulting blind was possible? state. But what is even more Going through many eye suramazing is that she grew up geries to fix her condition, without her father. Times can Charlotte went completely get tough, but competing with- blind her sophomore year of out one of her parents there high school. But still, Charlotte would be a deal breaker for does the impossible with the

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Sadie Lovett Wedding Dress Vault

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HAVE FUN! BE SAFE! VAULT HIGH! By: Grant Overstake

That’s the mantra at the Tailwind Pole Vault Club, where for the past 19 years, Dr. Mark Breault (Doc Bro) has helped to change the altitudes and attitudes of literally thousands of young people—one happy vault and vaulter at a time.

pole-vault community. His epic Peace, Love & Pole Vault logo is well known the polevault world. From Olympic greats to grateful parents, they appreciate the impact Doc Bro is having on the sport and on their lives.

It’s no surprise that Breault, a retired chiropractor from Concordia, Kansas has more than 3,000 friends on Facebook, mostly from the international

“Coach Bro and Tailwind have been a huge part in my life,” she says. “As an athlete and as a person, Tailwind has changed me drastically. Without Mark, I wouldn’t be into vaulting like I am now. And, Tailwind is one of the best, most supportive environments I’ve ever been in.”

It happens in a converted old high school gym in tiny Jamestown, Kansas (Pop. 300).

The state-of-the-art facility has become a Field of Dreams for pole-vaulting, drawing athletes to north central Kansas. There’s something mystical about the atmosphere here. It’s the kind of place that vaulters travel thousands of miles to come to, and never want to leave.

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This includes vaulters like Mackenzie Van Pelt, a gritty farm girl from nearby Beloit, Kansas, who overcame some serious health concerns in recent years to make it to the awards stand at the Kansas State meet this past season.

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Vault sessions and camps at Tailwind have a rock concert, street-vault atmosphere, with music blaring from the facility’s awesome sound system. Central to the club’s positive vibe are Doc Bro’s guiding rules: Have Fun! Be safe! Jump high!

“The latter means jumping higher than you ever have before, not higher than everyone else,” he explains.

“Pole-vaulting is more about you making yourself better and learning how to overcome obstacles.

Accomplishing things you didn’t think you could.”

Doc Bro has a doctor’s gift for watching a vaulter’s movements. He evaluates each vault and prescribes adjustments, as needed.

“We are very basic,” he says.

“We start from short runs until the vaulter has good balance and control. Then it’s a matter of getting them on the right pole, focusing on getting the right hand hold, the right run, and landing in the right place in the pit.”

From the beginning, Tailwind vaulters learn to “know their numbers” which include the length of their runs, size of poles, handholds, and standard

Doc Bro with Young Vaulters

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placements. With more than 400 vaulting poles to choose from, his athletes change poles frequently. These variables are kept one session to the next in the vaulter’s personal notebooks. The formula works. Over 90 percent of the club’s 400 annual campers soar to PRs. Celebration dances on the landing pit are required after every PR

On the pits with Doc Bro

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at Tailwind, and there’s always dancing going on.

A long chalkboard in the gym chronicles PRs of these vaulters, from 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 step runs. Doc Bro uses a formula whereby a vaulter can tell what their full-approach PR would be, even from just two steps. It’s the same time-

tested formula used by Earl Bell, the legendary Olympian and coach of Olympians. Doc Bro and Bell have been friends for years and often help coach at each other’s camps, which says a lot about Doc Bro’s street cred in the sport.

Keeping track of every tick of progress turns tedious rep-

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etition into something motivational. The doctor says, “Many coaches are always pushing for the 6-inch PR because at meets the bar goes up 6 inches each time. But we believe every inch is very important. My belief is that six one-inch PR’s is far better the one six-inch PR.” By the numbers, Doc Bro’s vaulters have been super successful, with hundreds of state and national medals, championships, and countless school records. But Doc Bro is most proud of the vast number of grassroots, small town farm kids, like Van Pelt, who’ve found success in life after spending time with him in Jamestown.

A sign at the club reads, “Make someone glad you came and sad you had to leave!”

The beautiful facility is open to anyone who wants to pole vault, have fun, be safe, and jump higher. And, there’s never a charge for regular-session vaulters. His only requirement is that you come with an open mind, and a good attitude.

He says, “I often hear kids say they will start having fun when they start jumping high.

To that I say, ‘You will start jumping high when you start having fun!’”

Dr Mark

The link between attitude and altitude is super important to Doc Bro. Far more important than a pole-vaulter’s trajectory; Breault’s mission is to help every young person on his runway see brighter horizons

in real life. Another club slogan is, “Vault High, Don’t get High” because illicit drugs and other temptations are everywhere, even in rural Kansas.

He tells youngsters, “Anyone

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can drink alcohol, anyone can do drugs, anyone can get a tattoo, anyone can break the law. But who can pole vault 10-feet, 11-feet, 12-feet or higher? If you want to be different, then do something other people can’t do! Let’s go pole vault!”

And then he shows them how.

Doc Bro was a standout high school and junior college vaulter at Concordia High School and Cloud Community College. A model of fitness, he recently set a new PR for his age, soaring 12feet, 9-inches at 59 years-young.

Club Image with Doc Bro

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On Saturday, October 3rd, 2015 scores of vaulters from beginner to best will make the annual pilgrimage to Jamestown for the Doctoberfest Street Vault, named in his honor.

The two-day event is one of the great happenings in the sport, attracting stars such as Olympians Becky Holliday, Jeremy Scott, and three-time national champion, Mark Hollis.

Remaining 2015 Camps at Tailwind: July 3031 (Thursday- Friday), August 1-2(SaturdaySunday), December 28-29 (Monday-Tuesday), and December 30-31 (Wednesday-Thursday).

Learn more about Tailwind Pole Vault Club and like Tailwind on Facebook.

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Each issue is packed with meet stories, performer lists and other useful stats, interviews and profiles of your favorite athletes, action photos galore, opinion columns and feature articles, and everything else you need to keep abreast of the total track scene. If high school track is your special interest, seven issues during the year carry prep top performer lists and reports.

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Making The Impossible, Possible By: Sadie Lovett

Motivated by the people around her, Charlotte Brown does the impossible by pole vaulting blind.

Charlotte and Her Guide Dog

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Charlotte was born with normal vision. But when she was 16 weeks old, she got unexpected cataracts in both of her eyes. She had surgery to remove them, but throughout the next few years, she had many other surgeries.

Along with the cataracts, Charlotte also has a detached retina and high ocular pressure both of which required surgery. Af-

ter visits to many different doctors, Charlotte and her family learned that she was losing her vision because of something in her DNA. “It’s an auto-immune type of mitochondrial problem that does not have a cure,” Charlotte says.

Charlotte never had good vision. When she was very young, she had decent close-up vision, but very poor distance vision. Between second and

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sixth grade, Charlotte’s vision was very back and forth— sometimes it would be worse, sometimes it would improve.

In sixth grade, she lost most of her vision and then lost the rest of it halfway through her sophomore year of high school.

So now, she essentially is totally blind. Charlotte can only tell if it is light or dark outside—no shapes, shades, or anything.

Charlotte started running track when she was 4 years old.

But she did many sports before she started pole vaulting: gymnastics, tap and ballet, soccer, basketball, and cross country—she has always been involved in sports!

Charlotte started pole vaulting in the 7th grade. At first, she was not that serious about it—she thought it would be fun and at the time, no one else would try it. After two years, Charlotte knew that pole vaulting is what she wants to do in college. Having lost most of her vision in sixth grade and then the rest in high school, Charlotte had to come up with a way to pole vault even if she could not see. “I count my steps and listen to the beeper I place right above the plant box. The step counting tells me when to take off and the beeper tells me where to put the pole tip,” she says. Along with the help of counting steps and the beeper,

Charlotte and Coach Howell - By David Claybourn

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FUN FACT DID YOU KNOW? that pole vault has been part of the Summer Olympics since they began in 1896. The first pole vault gold medalist was American William Hoyt from Glastonbury, Connecticut. He won with a jump of 3.30m or 10’9 ¾.

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Charlotte’s coach, Coach Howell, also stands right next to the pit every time she jumps just in case he needs to catch her: “Other vaulters have the advantage of being able to see where to land if they get stuck in the air, I don’t. He [Coach Howell] has caught me several times and has never dropped me so I’m grateful for that.”

Charlotte’s biggest inspirations growing up were her two older brothers. “Everything was always a competition,” she says “they definitely gave me my competitive spirit.” When Charlotte was younger, she wanted to be just like her brothers. Having the decent close-up vision when she was little, she can remember chasing her oldest brother, Lachlan, on the track: “he has bleach-blonde hair and I knew if I could see it, I must be close!” Both her brothers, Lachlan and Gannon, are very athletic and have encouraged her every step of the way: “I still look up to them.”

Like any other pole vaulter, Charlotte has her off days. Not necessarily because she can’t see, but because pole vaulting is a tough and frustrating sport! “Pole vault is unique in the sense that if the stars don’t align, it can really be a bad day.

If you have an off day in running, you simply don’t run a good time. But in pole vault, if

you have an off day, there is a chance you will “no height” at a meet which is very frustrating,” she says. Pole vault can be so up and down with performance and Charlotte puts it perfectly: “you can be a world champion one day and no-height the next.”

Sometimes days are harder than others. They require taking the vault in steps and it can be overwhelming with the amount of technical aspects. On those days for Charlotte, Coach Howell will have her focus on one thing at a time: “If I am not swinging well or I am not running off the ground, he just tells me to focus on one part and then once that is fixed, move on to the next aspect of the vault.”

Charlotte may be given many reasons to give up pole vault.

But instead, she continues and encourages others to keep it up too: “‘Stick with it.’ It is easy to get discouraged and get stuck in a rut. I’ve learned that at the end of the day, no matter how bad you jumped that specific day, smile and say you’ll be back tomorrow. Because no one knows what the future holds and the only way to find out is to fight another day.”

A quote Charlotte gives us is one by U.S. Navy Seal, Marcus Luttrell, “I am never out of the fight.” She says, “never stop fighting for what you believe in, love, and aspire to be.”

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Charlotte Brown Runway

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Charlotte and Her Guide Dog

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River Vault Trophies

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The Annual River Vault

By: Sadie Lovett

Putting himself on the PoleVault-Community Radar, Coach Jeremiah Burish builds his pole vault club, University pole vault team, and organizes the famous River Vault that was held on a barge this summer.

Coach Burish runs the La Crosse Track Club in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The club has over 100 athletes, which are mostly elementary school ages. The club has masters training and competing. The club is also transitioning into offering more to the high school and college level athletes. The club has just started to include pole vaulting so the pole vault numbers are small, but they will soon grow as the club offers more for their pole vault athletes.

Along with running a pole vault club, Coach Burish is starting his fourth year at Viterbo University. Viterbo is also located in La Crosse, Wisconsin. There he coaches pole vault and creates the strength training for the young and upcoming program of the Viterbo V-Hawks. The track program at Viterbo is only four years old. The school is a member of the NAIA and will be a part of the North Star Athletic Association Conference for the first time starting the 2015/2016 season.

At Viterbo, students will benefit from the superb science, arts, education, and healthcare programs—the University placement is over 96%. The school is also very affordable.

98% of the undergraduates

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receive financial aid, there are more than 100 scholarship funds, and many aid packages including athletic scholarships.

Before Coach Burish was the pole vault coach, he was an All-American pole vaulter at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse while also coaching for two years at a high school in La Crescent, Minnesota.

The program at Viterbo is very young. Right now Coach Burish is working on building his team: “my vault crew is small, but they are the hardest working bunch on the team.”

What Coach Burish looks for in an athlete is someone who is committed to the vault and wants to be a student of their event. “It takes a lot more than just showing up to practice and completing the weight lifting to be successful at the collegiate level, so I want the athletes that will put in the time outside of practice in order to achieve that success,” he tells us. For a team to be successful, everyone needs to push themselves and their teammates to be the best they can be.

While being a coach to both the club and University, Coach Burish organizes the annual River Vault, which took place on a barge on the Mississippi this year. The River Vault has

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been going on for 6 years now.

It usually takes place on the sidewalk of scenic Riverside Park during the 4th of July, but this year, Coach Burish got very creative.

“I started the River Vault when I was a Junior in college because I thought it would be a great addition to the festivities at Riverfest and be a fun environment for pole vault athletes to compete at,” says Coach Burish. Every year since, the event has grown drawing in athletes from all over. Since this

event takes place right next to the Mississippi, everyone has always watched the barges go by while they compete: “how cool would it be to actually vault on the river on one of the barges,” they thought.

So after the 2014 River Vault, Coach Burish started to make everyone’s thoughts happen.

When the event was over, Coach Burish approached Brennan Marine, a local barge company.

He wanted to know how possible it would be to make a barge the venue for the event.

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River Vault Barge

Very excited and cooperative, the barge company was able to provide a barge even with all the construction projects on the river. By the time the barge was tugged to the park, the pits, runways, and supplies to Brennan’s harbor, they had to use a crane to get everything on and set up in time. Everything was hauled from land to the barge and was planned in less than a day.

Coach Burish says that it was executed perfectly and that it would not have happened if it were for his sponsors: Brennan

Marine (for the barge), Modern Crane & Rigging (for the crane services), and Steiger Construction (for the dump truck and trailers they used to haul all the equipment on).

The only small problem they had was the main barge was too short. The barge was 125’ by 50’, which may sound really big, but their pits would be hanging off one end and the end of the runway would be hanging off the other—I guess that is one way to keep vaulters from running

through! But, instead of risking the possibility of someone running through and into the Mississippi, the Coast Guard and Brennan saved the day. A 16’ by 50’ barge was provided to extend the runway. There was a 5’ difference in height between the two barges, so to fix that, they rented and assembled an 8’ by 40’ stage with adjustable legs to make up the difference in height.

With the extra barge, they were able to extend the runway to 119’ and move the pits back another 10’, which gave them

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a small buffer-zone for run throughs and the possibility of someone kicking the bar to the back of the pit.

The turnout to this event was huge. There were athletes from eight different states. The field was limited to be sure they would get through all of the athletes in the time that they had scheduled and so that the elites could compete while it was still daylight. The performances were second-tonone. “There were 16 personal bests (or tied PRs) from 8 different athletes,” Coach Burish tells us. The youngest competitor was Katie Wright from Prospect, Kentucky. Katie came into the competition with a PR of 5’6” and at the end of the day she had four PR vaults ending with 7’6”. Andrianna Jacobs, a high school senior tobe from Rochester, Minnesota, cleared 13’4.25 (4.07m) which qualified her to compete at the USA Junior National Championships. Her jump also broke the Minnesota State High School female record. The biggest vault of the day was by Peter Geraghty with a new PR of 18’6” (5.64m), which won the elite competition and the cash prize.

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With this event being at the annual 4th of July celebration, thousands of people come through the park for all of the festivities, bands, and the wonderful fair food. Once people entered the park, it was hard for them to miss a giant barge and the crazy sport being run on it, so of course they all had to go by and check it out! Throughout the day the crowd got bigger and bigger as the people lined the river bank to watch. The crowd got engaged in all the excitement by clapping and cheering for each vaulter as they made their attempt at each bar.

With the growing support from sponsors and club members, this event was one of the best to attend. This event has been going on for six years now and Coach Burish will get calls months in advance of people wanting to know when the River Vault will be, who all will be there, and what new things he has planned for it.

So of course he will continue putting on this event!

There could be some new and exciting things added to this event next year. As long as there is a barge free to use,

they plan to continue the River Vault on a barge. The hope is that one of the larger barges will be available for them to use that will give them a lot more space. There is also the idea of making the River Vault a two-day event. This would then allow more vaulters to experience vaulting on the river. For now, these are just ideas, so who knows what else Coach Burish will come up with!

Without the help of his sponsors, Coach Burish would not have been able to pull off this event. A great field of elite athletes came in and Coach Burish was able to put on one of the best pole vault events in the country. “Be a part of the action next year and mark your calendars for the River Vault on 4th of July in 2016!” Coach Burish invites you. Who knows what this event will turn into in the next few years, so don’t miss being a part of it!

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Your new (longer) pole; the first jump.

You can do this.

TIME TO FLY

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“MY BIGGEST MOTIVATOR IS MYSELF” By: Sadie Lovett

Only pole vaulting for three years, Julia Hanks finished her senior season with a PR of 12 feet and a State Championship title.

Before Julia pole vaulted, she played basketball her 8th, 9th, and 10th grade year. She also ran hurdles in 8th and 9th grade. And all this time, Julia’s father was not around. It would be hard not having your father at home at all, but he had not been there since she was a toddler. Is Julia down about it all? No. Instead, she couldn’t be more grateful for her mom.

She says, “Having a dad in and out of my life was hard, but I was extremely blessed because I have an amazing

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mother who was better than I could ask for. It was harder while I was younger, but now that I have grown up, I feel extremely grateful for everything I went through as a kid because it made me who I am today. I do not pity myself in any way because I had an amazing childhood.”

Not being very happy with hurdles, Julia decided to try pole vault. She was instantly hooked and became close with the pole vault coach, Wes Barnhart, who is one of her greatest fans. Coach Barnhart and Julia also have the common thread: both of them grew up their entire adolescent life without a father.

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Julia Hanks, Emily Gardiner , Katie Haddad

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Coach Barnhart says that his dad not being in his life was a driving force during childhood to be good at something and to be the best he could be. When Coach Barnhart was in high school, he was a state champion in wrestling and state runnerup in pole vault. Everything changed when Coach Barnhart found Christ. His focus switched from proving to his dad that he would become something great, to competing for God. God became the father he was missing. When his focused changed, so did his performances. Every time he competed, he got closer to his goal of becoming a state champion. He knew that if he became a state champion, that he would prove to himself that all the work he had put in would be worth it, even if his biological father was not there to see it. He also knew that winning state would be the only way he could go to college and he was recruited

by University of Oklahom.

Now that he is Julia’s coach, he sees “a similar hunger to be the best—to show everyone that she was going to do something special.” “She had a determination and work ethic that resembled only what I

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Julia Hanks,Wes Barnhart, Katie Haddad

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knew in myself, something I can’t explain. Some are external, but some like Julia’s drive is deep inside,” Coach Barnhart says.

“My biggest motivator is myself,” Julia tells us, “I really only compete with myself and that is why I like pole vault so much.” Her mom is also the one who is always there for her if Julia has a bad practice or bad meet: “She is always at every meet and there to encourage me whenever I need it.”

Having signed to University of Oklahoma, Julia’s goals for college are just like her goals in high school: “I just want to have a good time and make a lot of friends, and if I PR along the way I will be happy.”

Instead of focusing on what she does not have, Julia focuses on what she does have and spends her time volunteering.

She says, “Only compete against yourself. Your only competition should be you and setting a new PR. As far as my biological dad, I don’t dwell on what I didn’t have. Instead I choose to focus on what I do have. I am a volunteer with the local chapter of royal family kid’s camp through my church.

So being around those kids with horrible home situations

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made me even more grateful for what I do have. I make a conscious effort to focus on positives rather than dwell on negatives.”

FUN FACT DID YOU KNOW? that The United States is the most successful nation in pole vault at the Olympics. The U.S. has won 21 gold medals and 47 medals total. France is the second most successful nation with three gold medalists.

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With college starting next month, we would like to wish Julia the best of luck as she continues her pole-vault journey. She moved mountains in high school, so we can’t imagine where life will take her in college. We know that no matter what, Coach Barnhart

and her mom will always be there for her. What you can take from her story is not to lose your drive for sports just because of something that may have happened at home.

Sports can be a comfort, a safe place, and a way to find out who you are as a person. Don’t give up just like Julia didn’t.

Let her story be an inspiration to you and know that you’re never alone when times get tough.

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MAGAZINE River Vault set up

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