http://www.floridatoday.com/article/200 ... 3/SPORTS07He's above the rest: Merritt Island's Vani looks down at record
BY BRIAN MCCALLUM • FLORIDA TODAY • APRIL 8, 2009
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The thing about the pole vault is that nothing else at a track and field meet stops traffic so completely.
Maybe sprints and relays draw fans to a stadium, but when an announcement blares that a record vault attempt is coming, everything stops. Every head turns and fans rise to their feet. Rhythmic clapping begins.
A long jumper soars 26 feet without warning. A record run isn't confirmed until afterward. Only in the pole vault is there a bar set in a fixed spot at neck-craning heights for all to see while a competitor stands alone, set to succeed or fail.
Make or miss. Yes or no.
Last year, Merritt Island's Mike Vani heard that clapping as Riley Egan of St. Thomas Aquinas raised the bar and raised it again. Now at UCLA, Egan upped the FHSAA record just 12 months after it had been upped by someone else. This year, Vani wants to be the guy they're clapping for.
"You hear it, and you think about it," Vani said last week during the Cape Coast Conference championship at Astronaut High. "It's that much more motivation, and it juices you up."
It could be his turn. Vani cleared 15 feet, 9 inches at the CCC, taking most of his attempts after everyone else was finished. He already had the best mark in the state this year and the best in Brevard history, at 15-7.
Now a senior and already signed to go to South Florida, Vani came out for Merritt Island track and field as a ninth-grader. Coach Pat Campbell found a home for him quickly.
"I handed him a pole and said, 'You are a pole vaulter,' " Campbell said. "He wasn't fast enough to run."
It worked even better than planned. Vani, who grew up living and breathing basketball, was 5-foot-9 and about 120 pounds at the time. Today, with a nod toward the height on his mother's side of the family, he is 6-2 and gaining weight at 155.
Strength is one of the keys to success in the pole vault, and it is the area in which Vani has the most room to grow. Rather than bad news, that shortcoming holds promise that what he has already accomplished is only a preview of what could lie ahead.
"This kid here, in my opinion, is a 19-footer," Campbell said. "That's my opinion, and I'll put it out there."
Vani reached 11 feet in ninth grade and 13 the year after. Then he got serious. He finished third in 3A in 2008, two places behind Egan, last May at 14-6.
"Last year, I started thinking that basketball is not going to take me anywhere, and pole vault is it," Vani said.
Despite growing up a Florida Gators fan, he signed with USF in February, taking the pressure off that decision.
Now it's on to seeing what he can do before completing his high school career.
There is the state-meet record. Joseph Davis of Riverview cleared 15-10 in 2007, and Egan blew that away with a vault of 16-7 last May.
"Everybody thinks about what they want to end the season with. I want to break the state record, so 16-8 would be great," Vani said, "but I really want to get 17 feet."
Egan's new tutor, Bobby Haeck, is now living on Merritt Island and working with Vani. They met last year at a regional meet. Haeck saw Vani landing dangerously close to injuring himself jump after jump but appreciated that he kept competing.
"He's a trooper," Haeck said. "I didn't know how he would adjust to my system, but the results have been good."
In Vani, Haeck found something different than the 5-6 Egan. Vani has the height and the long arms that creates what the coach called "a great lever system."
Rather than worrying about numbers, Haeck focuses Vani on technique.
"The height will come," Haeck said. "The job at district and regional is to make the top four. If you win, then you can worry about jumping high."
Maybe "worry" isn't the right word in Vani's case. He is optimistic, almost vivacious when talking about the future, whether it's as imminent as the Class 3A championship on May 8, or years from now, when his potential will become clearer at USF.
Either way, he isn't worried; he's ready. Heads are turning. And clapping can be heard somewhere in the distance.
im still coming for you this year!