http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/ ... ion=sports
Vault club jumps at indoor chance
By Curtis Anderson
The Register-Guard
Published: Saturday, January 6, 2007
SPRINGFIELD - If you build it, they will come.
In essence, that was the impetus behind the recent construction of an indoor pole vault facility at the Regional Sports Center in Springfield.
The new runway and pit serve as home base for the Raising the Bar Vault Club, which was formed by three local coaches to provide pole vaulters of all ages and experience a chance to jump indoors during the cold and wet winter months.
"We're trying to help the pole vault community," said Dan West, 52, a veteran coach who worked with vaulters at Montana State and Oregon before his current stint at Lane Community College.
"It starts with middle school kids and goes all the way up to us masters guys that still want to jump. We're hoping, as the idea catches on, that we'll be able to help kids from all the local high schools by not only giving them a chance to jump indoors, but also by teaching the correct techniques."
advertisement
Though still in its fledgling stages, the club will host an all-comer's meet at its new facility on Sunday at noon.
The competition will give vaulters from all over the state an opportunity to have a practice meet prior to the annual Pole Vault Summit, which will be held at the Grand Sierra Casino in Reno, Nev., on Jan. 19-20.
"We could have as many as 40 vaulters at the meet," said West, who guided Great Britain's Mike Edwards to a 13th-place finish at the 1991 World Championships and a berth in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. "It's a really positive thing to have our own place and be able to help out the sport we love."
The club's other two coaches are also familiar names in the local community - former UO standout and assistant coach Mark Vanderville and longtime Springfield High assistant coach Dan Umenhofer.
Five years ago, Umenhofer had the distinction of winning the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges pole vault title with a clearance of 15 feet when he was a 42-year-old student-athlete at Lane.
"Without a doubt, it was the biggest meet I could ever win," Umenhofer said.
Vanderville, who was coached by West during his two seasons with the Ducks in 1990 and '91, still stands 10th on the all-time UO outdoor list with a 17-6 clearance. The 1990 Pac-10 runner-up spent seven seasons as a volunteer coach at Oregon before leaving the program this past spring.
All three coaches expressed the hope that by having an indoor pole vault facility open to the community, they can help "raise the bar" in terms of performance at the high school level in Oregon.
"There was nothing around here for our high school kids in the winter," said the 38-year-old Vanderville. "When they started track in the spring, they would only have about two weeks to prepare. This will be the first year we can get a big group of high school kids out here early to get ready for the season."
Collin Cram, a former multi-sport star at Siuslaw High in Florence, is currently training for the decathlon at LCC. Last year at this time, he and the rest of the Lane vaulters were practicing outdoors.
He said the inclement weather took its toll.
"It got to us very quickly," Cram said. "If you look at the weather today, it's just terrible, and it has been that way for the past couple weeks. So, having an indoor facility is huge. Our practices are better, and we've already seen big improvements that we didn't make last year because of the weather. ... I feel really fortunate that we get to take advantage of this facility this season."
As a high school coach, Umenhofer said the absence of vaulting at the middle school level and the rising costs of equipment have combined to hurt the sport locally, with some smaller high schools forced to drop the event.
"The pole vault has gone down in this area," he said. "When I was in high school in the late 1970s, there were six or eight guys that could jump 14 feet in the district. Now, most of the time, a 13-footer wins district and everybody else is jumping 12 feet.
advertisement
"I don't know if it's lack of coaching or lack of interest, but there has to be a reason for that. It's an expensive sport, and some schools can't afford to buy new poles or bring their pits up to legal size ... but what hurts more than anything is no vaulting in middle school. It used to be, if you had a decent junior high coach, the kids knew all the fundamentals by the time they got to you. It's not that way anymore."
At present, the Raising the Bar Vault Club conducts workouts four days a week from 4-6:30 p.m. The LCC group and a few open athletes train on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with middle school and high school vaulters on Mondays and Wednesdays.
The cost is minimal. It's $30 to join the club for one year and $15 per month to use the indoor pole vault facility.
Anybody interested in checking out the club can simply show up at one of those sessions - the Regional Sports Center is located at 200 S. 32nd St. in Springfield - or contact one of the coaches through the main office at 747-4781.
"Our goal is to be a community sports facility," said Mike Chastain, operations manager at the Regional Sports Center. "The (pole vault club) was a really good fit. There was a need in the community and we have the space. That's what we're here for and it's worked out great."