Billy Payne's Daughter on the Rise In Texas

[Bubba PV]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/New_ ... ntial.html

By Dan McCarney - Express-News Not prone to hyperbole, private pole vault tutor Glen Dickson needed only one workout with New Braunfels sophomore Demi Payne to break his inclination for understatement.

Go home, he told her, and write 2012 on your mirror.

Puzzled, Payne asked why.

“I said, ‘That's when the Olympic trials are, and that should be your goal,'” Dickson said. “That was way, way out of character for me. I've had a lot of kids I thought could be good. But I've never told anybody something like that.”

Then again, he's never had a pupil with this much potential.

Now a junior, the daughter of former Baylor All-American Bill Payne ranks among the state's best vaulters despite having never picked up a pole until the summer before her sophomore year.

Payne already owns the area record at 12 feet, 6 inches, set last March — barely two months into her first season. She followed that by finishing fourth at the Class 4A meet.

Should Payne continue her rapid improvement, both Dickson and Bill Payne think she could make a run at the state (13-7) and national (14-1) records as early as this spring.

“She went from never jumping once in her life to making state in a year,” Bill Payne said. “We're hoping she'll be at the top of the nation by the end of the year. She's made so much progress in one year. The sky is the limit.”

If there was ever an athlete destined to pole vault, it is Payne. She was exposed to the sport almost from the day she was born, regularly attending her father's workouts during a lengthy professional career in which he competed internationally for five U.S. national teams and reached the Olympic trials three times.

But even with a regulation pole vault pit built into the backyard of Bill's home in Fort Worth — he and wife Dana, who played basketball at Baylor, are divorced — Demi said she never had any desire to follow in his footsteps.

“I honestly didn't even think about it,” she said. “It's really weird, because you'd think I would have. Everybody told me my dad was one of the best in the world, (and that) I have the genes. Being young I was like, whatever. I was more into basketball and volleyball.”

On a whim, Demi joined a group of vaulters her dad was coaching two summers ago. Relying on nothing but raw instinct and athletic ability, she cleared 10-6 on the first attempt of her life. The height would have tied for at least sixth in all five classifications at the 2008 state meet.

“My dad told me, ‘Demi, if you don't do this (full time) you're crazy,'” she said.

Having since blossomed to an even 6-foot, with a combination of speed, strength and coordination bestowed by her athletic parents, Payne is one of the few high school females in the United States capable of using a 14-foot pole. Naturally, a larger pole means bigger jumps.

Now comes the hard part. After getting by strictly on talent — “I wasn't even thinking about what I was doing; I just did it,” she said — Payne has begun the arduous task of fine-tuning her technique, a process that takes years.

If everything goes as planned, she could earn the Olympic berth her father and coach think is within her grasp. As far off as that seems, Payne embraces the challenge.

“It's more of a dream than anything,” she said. “But you never know. I'm definitely going to give it my all.”

[Bubba PV]

I saw her in January at a meet at my coach, Kris Allison's place, capping a 13' 7" pole, JUST missing the bottom of the swing. Bubba

[belmore]

Demi Payne is the real deal, she really does remind me of her dad back in the day. Wild Bill is still my favorite vaulter, I was a big fan, still am. Agressive, fearless, I can't help but see that when Demi's on the runway. Looking forward to seeing her top the old man's accomplishments. Good luck.