Jordan Roskelly Article

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From Spokesman Review.com:

Breakthrough!

One attempt turned Mt. Spokane's Roskelley into an elite pole vaulter


Mt. Spokane High School pole vaulter Jordan Roskelley has cleared a personal-best 12 feet, 8 inches this season. (Jed Conklin The Spokesman-Review )


Dave Trimmer
Staff writer
May 17, 2007

Jordan Roskelley was tired of being average.

She was tired of being John's daughter and Jess' sister.

Since she couldn't beat them, she was going to have to join them.

"We were going to go to Everest this spring," she said. "I was begging to go because all winter I worked hard on pole vault and I hadn't improved. I figured my dad's a mountain climber, so is my brother, I could have an opportunity to climb Everest if I wanted."

Then everything turned upside down.

The Mt. Spokane senior figured out how to go upside down at the top of a vault attempt and suddenly the 10-foot, 6-inch vaulter went a foot higher than her personal record. Then she was a Pasco Invitational champion. Then she cleared 12-8, the best by a high school girl in Spokane, with hopes of increasing that at the 4A/3A Eastern Regional meet Friday and Saturday at Spokane Falls Community College.

And Everest?

"I PR'd and called it off," she said. "I'm out of my dad's shadow a little bit. Plus, I have something different I'm good at instead of following in my dad's footsteps, and my brother's footsteps."

Getting to the top of the Spokane vaulting world wasn't easy.

Roskelley was, in the words of Wildcats vault coach Shawn Gumke, a jack of all trades, master of none in her athletic endeavors, including gymnastics, volleyball and track.

She was a distance runner when she discovered vaulting as a sophomore.

"She did eight million laps around the pole vault area and realized, 'Hey, they're not running,' " Gumke said. "I got her to give it a try. We knew right away she was going to be pretty good. She was a tall gymnast. It's the only time a tall gymnast is rewarded."

Although area coaches have long recruited gymnasts to be vaulters because they aren't afraid to "go upside down," Roskelley struggled with a technical flaw that prevented her from accomplishing that difficult turn.

"It took a lot of hard work and really good coaching," she said. "We have a lot of amazing coaches around here. I locked out my (left) arm and it was just one those things it's not easy to fix. One day after a horrible week of pole vaulting, I was so frustrated, it just clicked. I PR'd by a foot."

It's hard to overstate how important that breakthrough was to Roskelley.

"I was decent in all (sports)," she said. "I wasn't horrible, but I wasn't good at any of them, I wasn't considered one of the best. That really bothered me. All my coaches really ever told me is I had tons of potential. Potential isn't good enough for me.

"I kept working at it and I got it. It was hard not being good at anything. It's fun to have something you excel at."

That frustration almost led to her quitting so she could attempt to climb Mount Everest with her famous father and brother, who, four years ago at 20, was the youngest climber to reach the summit. That didn't surprise her mother, Joyce.

"I think all our kids have been in that position," she said. "John's so disciplined – good at everything he does. He doesn't push that but that's the role model, to be elite at something. I didn't hear her express it in those terms, but she's always been really hard on herself."

It's not that Roskelley was a failure at everything prior to pole vaulting. She was a state champion fiddler at age 8 and raises hogs for 4-H, winning reserve grand champion last year. She's also an honor student who wants to major in biology prior to doing something in the medical field.

But with the way vaulting is going, 4-H and climbing are taking a back seat. She plans to vault at Oregon.

"In track you get out of it what you put into it," she said. "State championship is my short-term goal, but I'm not settling on 12-8 or 13 feet.

"I think I've become more confident. But because I always was in the middle of the pack, I still have a hard work ethic. I'm not settling where I am now."

Roskelley, who climbed Mount Rainier last summer, is confident she could summit Everest because, "Dad said I could do it, that's enough for me. I trust my dad. He's not someone to sugar coat."

But she's not so sure he could pole vault: "I told him this is a lot more technical than walking up a mountain."

Mt. Spokane head coach Annette Pedersen is delighted Gumke won the tug of war with distance coach Bob Barbero for Roskelley's services.

"She deserves everything she's getting right now," Pedersen said. "She worked hard, she stuck with it. Hard work paid off. It's good to see that happen.

"She could have done multiple things on the track, (but) probably not to this level. She's the first girl I've actually seen bend the pole and vault. It's cool."

Her mother has the same feelings.

"Frankly, I'm thrilled she has found her own niche," she said, "because it's easy to get stuck in the niche of your family and hiking and climbing will always be part of our family.

Roskelley still wants to climb mountains, though there hasn't been much discussion about a postgraduate trip to Mount McKinley.

But this spring she has already scaled one mountain.