Rick Devereux
The Pacific Coast League dropped the pole vault this season as a
scoring event in track and field after having the event for 30 years.
Teams can still have pole vaulters, but it doesn't count toward the
team score in league meets.
Corona del Mar High, a member of the PCL, still has three athletes
who compete in the pole vault, but Coach Bill Sumner doesn't foresee
any future vaulters joining the team.
"I know that if you take out an event, you can kiss it goodbye,"
he said.
The fear that other leagues will follow the PCL and cut the event
is a real one, considering the monetary motives of such a move.
A pole vault pit can run from $6,000 to $15,000 and a pole can
cost between $300 and $500. A pit can last up to 10 years, but poles
need to be replaced at least once a year. That means it could cost a
high school upward of $1,000 a year per vaulter.
"The Pacific Coast League dropping pole vaulting will absolutely
affect other leagues to drop pole vaulting," Sumner predicted.
Eric Tweit, Newport Harbor boys athletic director, thinks the
technical difficulty of the event has aided its decline.
"It's pretty hard to find someone to coach a single event when I'm
trying to find someone to coach two or three things," Tweit said.
"When you're looking for coaches, you're looking for someone who can
[coach] both of the hurdles, or the long and triple jumps, or the
shot and discus, because that covers two events. That's why it's so
tough because, with the vault, you need a single coach and that's all
he concentrates on."
Tweit, who is also the girls track and field coach, has found
Logan Odden to coach pole vaulting. Odden went to Marina High, where
he set the Orange County record at 16 feet, 7 inches as a senior. He
is currently competing for Golden West College.
Odden came in specifically to coach Newport freshman Allison
Stokke. Stokke set a school record and personal best of 11-6 on April
15 at Laguna Hills, won the frosh-soph division at the Orange County
Championships April 24, and beat everyone, boys and girls, with a
jump of 11-0 at a dual meet against Woodbridge at Orange Coast
College April 28.
Odden was introduced to Stokke by Kevin Magula, Odden's former
high school and current Golden West pole vaulting coach. Magula still
coaches at Marina, but also coaches a club called the High Flyers in
Huntington Beach.
Stokke was told by a family friend to try pole vaulting after she
stopped competing in gymnastics and the friend referred her to
