PoleVaultPower.com

OKAY, heres the deal, em esp for you. The school board has decided not to have pole vault for winter track. HOWEVER! i just spoke with the Superintendant and have been informed that the way to get this changed for spring track and next years season is to write letters. i am not doing winter track. i am devoting all of my time to get this pole vault program back. My coach and i are going to work with the atheltic boosters along with other county vaulters and coaches to make a group effort to get this event re-instated. NOw in this letter, (you need to make it to the superintendant and make copies for the school board AND get your pricapal involved) okay, back to the letter
It needs: The problem/current situation, requirements for the school(s), monetary and time consuming, and possible solutions. TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO DO THIS!!!! THE MORE INTEREST SHOWN AND MORE LETTERS THE BETTER! however, do not simply make copies of the same letter. em, IM me b/c i didn't save your screen name. Don't let this happen to you.

here's the deal lavasteal: me and Kathleen r gonn set up a meeting w/ my principal in a week or so because we have to have time to get our info together and all of that stuff. on monday i am givin a sheet to my coach w/ ways that i could continue winter track vaulting this year w/out vaulting in spotsy county. this is because my SHORT TERM goal is to be able to vault in winter track BUT my long term goal is to ultimatly help you out with getting back the vault in our county. hopefully my coach will be able to work out something for me for this winter season. Kathleen IS interested and wants to help however i thought that sara might also want to help but she seems to think some part of this is funny or something! GRRRRRRRR! i asked her if she wanted to help out me and kathleen and if she was willing to meet with the prinipal and she laughed at me and said that it was a dumb idea. so she's out of the question i think as far as help. Like i said i'm gonna go ask Laf's coach next week about this and i just e mailed jim keys about helpful ideas for us. today my mom is going to talk to a member of the school board about all of this. i'll keep u updated though...
em

Try getting your newspaper involved.... the fact that they are not willing to spend the money for safety but are perfectly willing to drop an event which could lead to scholarship money for guys and girls (think Title IX).... you might want to mention it to them before you do it (go to the paper) and then they might not want the bad publicity. The angle could be that since they refuse to put safety first, the vaulters are forced to go to other places where they do think safety is important to vault to be able to keep up with other vaulters in the state and area of the country. Just a thought It could be considered discrimination of a sort...

i just wanted to wish you all the best of luck in getting pole vaulting back in your county....i can't imagine not vaulting...thats just sick and wrong taking that away, lol....like i said, good luck...keep it up with those letters though..it's true (i've known similar situations at our school) letter will EVENTUALLY get it done if you keep sending them and get them to the right people

Discrimination is a consideration and it has been suggested that i resort to telling the newspaper about this thus giving these people bad publicity. i don't know what the motivation was but it makes me mad! thanks wacky...i can't imagine track w/out the vault either...so i'm gonna fight to get it back!

You basically would go from the angle of how much money they put into men's sports vs. women's sports...in this case women's track. For example...how much money did they spend on football, baseball, and guys' basketball lately vs. girls' track ... that should be public information. If you get it back, it would of course benefit the guy vaulters, too. That is where Title IX comes in.

what is title IX ??

Title IX was congressional legislation that said specifically this:
"No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid." http://bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu/ge/
It has recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. As far a sports it applies to gender equity in the number of scholarships, participation, etc. From what I understand, (which may not be 100% correct) it applies to college athletics in the area of the number of athletic scolarships offered to female and male athletes. So, if your school has football, (which has like 60 something full scholarships) Track, (which has 12.4) and any other mens sports, it must have an equal number of female scholarships available. This becomes a problem because of the fact that football has so many scholarships that other mens sports must be dropped to make up for it. When I was at University of New Mexico, they cut mens swimming, wrestling, and gymnastics because of this (mens track was next on the chopping block!). This is the only compliant that I have about it. Anyone with a better background in all the NCAA regulations on this feel free to correct me.

personally, i don't believe this is a case of gender descrimination w/the title IX, because male vaulters are also suffering the consequences. and before you go to the paper, make sure you have all the facts and don't make this into a slander issue. I want this just as badly, but don't hurt anyones reputation w/out learning exactly whats happened. I talked w/another school board member last night. I don't believe it even made it to our local school board because everything i said was new to him. He had no idea that vaulting had been cancelled. (this is one of my good friend's dad so its not like he was lying).

hey, don't worry! i'm not going to the media or anything i was simply stating that it has been suggested by multiple people that the school board is sensitive about bad publicity , and it might be a way to help fight this. (i don't think i agree although, i value everyones oppinions). Remember i have a piano teacher that is on the school board and i can beleive that this may not have reached them. I do have connections with the MW College pole vault coach just to let ya know so don't rule that out as a temporary possability! i am setting up a meeting w/ my principal too as soon as possible (just as soon as i have all my info together).

My experience with these things... the more you get parents involved the better. I can't say I have ever worked with an administrator that cared one bit what I thought about anything.

okay, here's the "skeleton" i was talking about on milestat. first off, i welcome any and all suggestions and additions. However, any information is not to be heresay, unless states as so. I would like to have the source where you got the information (eg vhsl handbook would suffice as teh source) and if it was told to you, i would like to know who you got the information from and where i can contact him or her. this is not to deter you from helping out, but i want reliable sources backed by factual information. a letter based on here-say will not get us anywhere. okay, sorry for the length but here is my brain-child:

WHAT WE KNOW
*There is no Pole Vaulting in the track and field programs
Spotsylvania County
*New Regulations have been instituted by VHSL converning mats
and coaches

WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW
# amount of interest/cooperation with other schools
# CERTIFICATION OF COACHES
~ Cost of hiring a certified coach
~ Cost of certifying a current coach
~ Where would we find a certified coach?
~ What is the certification process/ how do you go about
getting certified?
# POLE VAULTING SITE
~ Will one site suffice?
~ Possibility of two sites, one at mass for spotsy to go to
and one at chancellor for court to go do (easier transport)
~ Mary Washington as a possibility, and or cost?
TRANSPORTATION
~ Of people to/from Site (bus=money)
~ Of equipment to/from Site
~ Storage from equipment? labeling of equipment?
~ If a school has an away meet (ie invitational) who's
responsible to get the poles and such the day
(more later...chores)
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