Article about Canadian coach Krupa

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/Articl ... ?e=3183247


Keys to the vault
By BERND FRANKE QMI Agency
Posted 3 hours ago
STEVENSVILLE — There are soar points, then there are sore points.

With the safety of his pole vaulters uppermost on his mind, George Krupa patiently encourages them to concentrate on the latter so they can avoid the former and steer their hurtling bodies clear of injuries. Planting the base of the pole at just the right angle in the vaulting box and at just the right instant after a sprint at all-out speed along a narrow cinder runway all need to be in perfect synch for a proper, and safe, vault.

And all of these techniques that need to become second nature in pole vaulting are just for starters for the senior elementary and junior high school students starting out trying to master a demanding sport. Krupa, a volunteer coach at Ridgeway-Crystal Beach High School and with the Niagara Regional Athletics track and field club, also has spent the past 25 years telling — and sometimes showing — his students how to fall once they let go of the pole and clear the bar.

"Ideally, you want to land on your back, you never want to land on your feet. You don't want to catch your spikes on the cushion, because that's when foot and ankle injuries happen," said the 61-year-old Krupa, who retired after working 30 years for Niagara Region as a public health inspector.

It was just such an injury that prevented him from going for a gold as a Welland High hopeful at the Ontario high school track and field championships in the mid-1960s.

"I went every year, but I never won," said Krupa, who didn't go on to compete at the post-secondary level when he attended Ryerson in Toronto.

However, the Welland native never lost his passion for a sport that he and younger brother Jack picked up when they were growing up and looking for something to do when they weren't playing hockey.

"We liked jumping — over tracks, over ditches, over anything," he said in recalling how they convinced their father Julian to set up a makeshift pole vaulting pit in the backyard of the family's home on Seventh St.

"When we were kids, we landed in sand," he said with a chuckle, grimacing at the memory of hard landings on a not-so-soft surface.

Julian Krupa, who is now deceased, also found time, after working all week at Page Hersey, to get a load of sawdust from Hicks Lumber to improve the training area for his sons. His dedication as a dad was rewarded in 1968 when Jack Krupa won the gold medal for Welland High at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) championships.

George Krupa's son Todd followed in father's footsteps, both in track and field as well as in hockey. After a successful high school career on Ridgeway-Crystal Beach track team, he was awarded a two-sport scholarship to major in business studies at the Milwaukee School of Engineering where he broke the school and conference pole vault record.

"He drops the stick and picks up the pole," George Krupa said of his 24-year-old son now in his third year at university.

George and Laura Krupa also raised two daughters, Kelly and Jill, but there wasn't much high school pole vaulting for girls when they were growing up.

"That didn't come until later," he said of his daughters now both in their 30s.

Though their three children have all left home, the Krupas are hardly empty nesters when it comes to sharing their lives with such up-and-coming young athletes as three-time Canadian champion Jason Wurster. He won provincial high school titles under Krupa at Ridgeway-Crystal Beach and is a strong contender to represent Canada at the next year's Summer Olympics in London.

A regulation poll vaulting pit, complete with a cinder-topped runway and a landing area of forgiving cushion instead of sand, has been a centrepiece of the backyard of their rural Stevenville home for years as have pencilled-in marks on the back of their garage indicating the height achieved by his pole-vaulting prodigies.

Krupa, who occasionally will pick up a pole and put his theories into practice, usually mentors Ridgeway-Crystal Beach students or Niagara Regional Athletics track club members, but he won't turn away anyone willing to learn and invest the training time needed to become a contender for a medal at OFSAA.

Notre Dame graduate Sharon Michalak, now on the track team at the University of Western Ontario, shared credit for the gold medal at the provincial championships last year and for the silver she earned at the Ontario Summer Games, also in 2010, with Krupa.

"The training isn't as intense as university. George's approach is a lot more laid back but we still accomplish a lot," said Michalak, who is preparing to compete at the Canadian Junior Championships next month in Winnipeg by spending three mornings a week training with Krupa.

Michalak's younger Andrew, still a student at Notre Dame, also trains with Krupa.

"It's something to do, and this keeps my young," said Krupa, whose success over the past two-plus decades as a coach has turned the annual provincial high school track and field championships into reunions of his current and former students.

There is also some "payback" involved in George Krupa's devotion to pole vaulting and dedication to students whose success at track meets he actively follows as their biggest booster and strongest supporter.

"I guess you could say this is my way of paying back everything I received from all the wonderful coaches who worked with me," he said in singling out Reg Redshaw, one his former minor hockey coaches, for praise.

While training sessions routinely take place just before noon, to avoid the energy-zapping hot midday sun, Krupa doesn't mind working with students earlier in the day if conflicting schedules can't be changed.

"As long as they bring the Timmies, I don't mind," he said with a laugh at a recent training sessions before turning his attention back to the OFSAA Class of 2011.

[heather3]

George Krupa is such a great man! I'm so happy he's getting some recognition in the Global pole vault community

[wurster490]

Nice article. Stevensville is a really small town, and luckily enough I am from that town, and whenever I saw George he would always ask me when I wanted to come try pole vaulting. I always blew things off until one day I decided to give it a try, so from the spring of 1999 I've been addicted.

Thanks for posting Becca.