Dude after Bob Pullard's Record

[vaultmd]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-son ... 572.column
From the Los Angeles Times
HIGH SCHOOLS

Kyle Ballew has his sights set on pole-vault record

It has been 40 years since the City Section record of 16 feet, 7 inches was established by Bob Pullard. Kyle Ballew has a good chance at breaking it on Thursday.
Eric Sondheimer

May 27, 2009

It has been 40 years since the City Section record of 16 feet, 7 inches in the pole vault was established by Bob Pullard of Los Angeles High. It's the longest surviving record in City track and field history.

Perhaps it's only fitting then that the teenager ready to take a shot at breaking the record this week grew up more familiar with Joe DiMaggio's seemingly unbreakable 56-game hitting streak in baseball than a four-decade old high school pole-vault record.

But everything changed for Kyle Ballew of Woodland Hills El Camino Real when he failed to make the school's baseball team.

He had been playing baseball since he was 7 when he was cut as a freshman during tryouts and forced to join a regular physical education class. Then he was cut again as a sophomore.

"It was a true passion," he said. "It stung at the time, 'What am I going to do now that I can't play baseball in high school?' But I decided to make the best of it and see what else was available."

His older brother had been a pole vaulter, so Ballew joined the school track team and won the freshman-sophomore title in the West Valley League by clearing 10-6. Last year, as a junior, he won the City title at 12-6, but it wasn't an entirely happy time for him.

He qualified for the state meet with the lowest qualifying mark. While his best mark was 13-0, other high school athletes were clearing 15 and 16 feet.

"That opened my eyes to what the possibilities were," he said.

By August, he was working out three days a week with his private coach, Brooks Morris, at Los Angeles Valley College. He'd take a bus from Woodland Hills to Van Nuys, or his mother would drive him because he didn't have a driver's license. He worked on speed, strength, technique and agility. Almost every day, he did something to help him in the pole vault.

And what did all that hard work produce?

Last month, Ballew cleared a school-record 16-1. That's the fourth-best mark in the state this season and, more impressive, it meant he improved more than three feet in less than a year.

"I guess it's pretty remarkable because I hear a lot of people only improve eight inches, maybe a foot, between seasons," he said. "When I jumped 15 feet for the first time, it was huge for me because I didn't think I could make that big of a mark, and 16 feet blew my mind."

His 16-1 mark came at Birmingham High, the same pit that will be used for the City championships on Thursday.

There seems little doubt Ballew will win his second City title in a row, but the focus will be on whether he can threaten Pullard's record. Pullard is a former USC standout who became a Los Angeles police officer and tutor of youth pole vaulters. He died in 1989.

"That mark is good now, but it was astonishing then," longtime track observer Hal Harkness said of Pullard's record.

Said Ballew: "I never wanted to say I was going to break it, but I want to try to take some cracks at it to see how close I get. I mainly wanted to jump high because there's not a lot of guys in the City Section that have jumped high, and I wanted to bring back the pole vault into everyone's focus."

Morris, a former pole vaulter at Burbank Burroughs and USC, has been the coach responsible for guiding Ballew, who intends to train under him next year as a student at Valley College. It was Morris who instructed him to let out a loud grunt each time he starts his run toward the pit as a way to improve his intensity.

"He was so passive," Morris said. "It's something that puts you in a frame of mind that you can run through a wall."

Ballew, 6 feet, 160 pounds, certainly has the mental makeup to soar. He loves roller coasters and says he has always wanted to go sky diving.

"It's kind of an adrenaline rush," he said of vaulting. "Not many people can say they took a fiberglass tube and shot themselves 15-plus feet into the air. That's kind of a cool feeling when you're on top and the excitement of coming down on the pit and seeing the bar still standing."

El Camino Real track Coach Vic Lepisto believes Ballew will perform well at the City finals and later at the state championships.

"He's ready to bust it out again," Lepisto said.

With hindsight, Ballew said he is grateful to the El Camino Real baseball coaches who cut him.

"Right now, it's probably one of the best things that happened to me," he said.

And the lesson learned?

"That even if you don't succeed in one thing, you can always find something else that you're better at and come through big," he said.

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

[marshall]

he was flying on thursday man. he was easily over 16'0 on his first two attempts but had some standard issues. third he didn't really swing up and got caught on his back.