PoleVaultPower.com

I need some clarification on a rule that nearly got half of our poles DQ'd last night. Apparently, and I'm not sure if this is just with Michigan or Nationally, all poles must have a manufacturers label in contrasting color with all of the ratings on it. They wanted to DQ our poles because the labels have long since worn off. All we have on them is the weight ratings in bold and contrasting color. I have run across this problem once now, another coach in the area has also experienced this once. The poles were accepted by the official at regionals, and were only accepted at our league meet because of the fact that the regional official allowed them.

We are concerned, as are several schools, that poles that are in great shape yet and have a distinct manufacturers etching with the weight rating, but have our labels on them are going to be DQ'd. I've read the rule in the rulebook. It mentions something about the manufacturer must have a label on the pole.....

Does anyone out there have this rule that they could post???
How would someone get a manufacturers label put back on a pole?

Call the manufacturer and see what they will do about it.

UCS 1-800-537-7117
Gill 1-800-637-3090

I think Jan is willing to send you labels if you need them, but they will be Gill labels.

Here is what I find in the NFHS manual page 56, Rule 7, Section 5, Art 3.



- master

Thanks!!

The question that really has to be answered is this, what can you do if the original manufacturer's applied label wears off.
Over time that does happen as a result of friction pulling a pole out of a carring bag or when storing on horizontal racks.

One way to protect that labeling on some poles is to wrap the weight label with clear packing tape. It works very well except on UCS poles as their weight rating is on the hand hold band.

Your state athletic office should be able to provide guidance to you and your officials.
I can tell you what we do here and that is if the pole etching can be found and weight rating/length determined we'll put a weight label on the pole. The length has to match to else the pole is tossed as it could have been cut down.
If there is no hand hold band, we'll put a colored band on 6 inches down from the top of the pole. NF approved that procedure back in 1996 when all this rating stuff first came about. Back then we refered to poles with just etchings as "old" poles verses "new" poles with the new labeling applied at the plant of manufacture. NF even produced a video tape on how to do this. I still have it.

One would think that all these old poles would have been retired by now. Would be nice, but not the case. I still see these old poles at meets. They are perfectly legal here if the labeling I mentioned is applied properly.

If you have the time, obviously the best solution is to return the pole for relabling.

This actually happened to me last year at sections or sub-sections, i forget which. All I know is that I was not going to beable to use my "illegal" poles because of they were SO OLD. The bands had worn off, so people before me put bright red tape for the Spirits. I guess this isn't allowed so I ended up using a fellow vaulters poles. I made it to the next round, and UCS was happy to ship labels down after they had verified everyone about the poles through the numbers they had engraved on them.

ON any brand pole older than 1996 with engraving visable, I recommend you place your own tape label with weight prominently visual on a contrasting label with coaches signature, there was a grandfather clause allowing coaches to place their own labels on poles before 1996

This is what we have done. These are the poles that were DQ'd. Is there any place in the rulebook where this is written?? Or has this grandfather clause expired?? Perhaps its expired, that would explain why this year is the first time we've run into this problem. The official on Wed. mentioned that they had given schools a "grace period" to comply with this rule.....maybe thats what he means....

On one of our Altius poles the engraving itself is about an inch tall and in contrasting color, but he didn't want to allow it.

I will definitely start talking with the manufacturers though, and get some new labels for this old poles.

I appreciate all the advice so far!!

indestructo wrote:

ON any brand pole older than 1996 with engraving visable, I recommend you place your own tape label with weight prominently visual on a contrasting label with coaches signature, there was a grandfather clause allowing coaches to place their own labels on poles before 1996

This is what we have done. These are the poles that were DQ'd. Is there any place in the rulebook where this is written?? Or has this grandfather clause expired?? Perhaps its expired, that would explain why this year is the first time we've run into this problem. The official on Wed. mentioned that they had given schools a "grace period" to comply with this rule.....maybe thats what he means....

On one of our Altius poles the engraving itself is about an inch tall and in contrasting color, but he didn't want to allow it.

I will definitely start talking with the manufacturers though, and get some new labels for this old poles.

I appreciate all the advice so far!!

It's been taken out of the rule book. The NFHS grossly underestimates the lifespan of a pole!

Most officials are reasonable and willing to work with coaches as long as the engravings are still visible, however, the way the rules are written now is problematic.

Yet another reason I usually avoid officiating high school . . .