Article from CA

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http://www.dailyreviewonline.com/Storie ... 11,00.html

Turner's season is on the rise

Castro Valley pole vaulter has high hopes

By Matt Schwab, CORRESPONDENT

Pole vaulter Kevan Turner smiled and nodded when asked if he was naturally a risk taker on a breezy afternoon at Cal's Edwards Stadium.

"It didn't bother me going in the air when I first started," said Turner, a Castro Valley High junior, who cleared a personal-best 13 feet at the Oakland Invitational Relays last Saturday, good for sixth place. "It's just something that I enjoy doing."

And Castro Valley High pole vault coach Jeff McGallian enjoys having Turner on board. McGallian's other vaulting 'Kevin' is another Trojans' junior, Kevin Teel. Usually Teel and Turner are about six inches apart in competitions.

In the highly technical, living-on-the-edge world of pole vault, the event caters to surfer, skateboarder, snowboarder types, but there's plenty of room for people who simply want to step out of their comfort zone and soar, said McGallian.

McGallian, the Hayward Area Athletic League's pole vault guru, coaches 42 vaulters from Castro Valley, Hayward and Bishop O'Dowd all at Castro Valley High. McGallian, who also heads the East Bay Track and Field Club, enjoys all aspects of vaulting and mixing with those bold enough to take it on.

The vaulting scene is like a giant family, he assures. They all share the same risks, equipment and air space, so to speak.

"Probably the person that masters the pole vault is probably the best athlete out there (on the track and field team)," McGallian said proudly. "Once you leave the ground with a powerful pole, now you've got to learn how to use it."

Vaulting may be too risky for some school administrators -- one local school even left out a vault pit from its new track facility -- but McGallian believes the event, if done properly, can be safe and exhilarating for participants and spectators.

With vaulting pits and quality coaching scarce these days, people seek out McGallian's teaching as if he's mining precious diamonds in the Castro Valley hills. They find him mostly through word of mouth.

"A lot of schools don't realize that by losing the pole vault, they're losing an event that can benefit so many kids," said McGallian. "I use the 'Field of Dreams' quote, 'If you build it, they will come.'"

He says turnout this year is good overall. Of McGallian's vaulters, roughly 22 are girls.

While spectators generally don't understand all the nuances of vaulting, there's a lot to it. The pole vault is "extremely biomechanical," McGallian explains.

Everything a participant must endure -- a sprint to the pit toting a pole in varying winds, the plant, rock back to a vertical position, and the spring over the bar -- takes considerable time to perfect, McGallian assures. So the beginners can look awful and clumsy, and the experts -- college stars or Olympians who clear 18 or 19 feet -- can look spectacularly athletic.

Of course, speed on the runway is critical.

"It's physics. It's horizontal thrust to vertical lift," said McGallian. "So you figure the faster you are, the higher you go is basically how you develop it. It's all formula. If you break it down on a computer you would see."

At the Oakland Invitational, Montgomery's Matt Tillinghast took first place at 15-63/4, meaning he was 21/2 feet higher than Turner.

Turner, who looks to win the league title and eventually qualify for the state meet, knows how high he wants to fly.

"It's good to know that someone is up there getting 15 feet," he said. "Someday maybe I can get that."