Vaulting Into New Territory North Idaho Girls Are Pole Vault Pioneers

Jami Cole always wanted to fly.

As a girl, she tried jumping off tables.

“I’ve always been a daring person,” the Lake City High School freshman said. “I like mountain climbing. It’s a challenge; you have to push yourself.”

She remembers going to track meets with an older sister and being drawn to the pole vault.

“I’d get real fascinated by it - how people can get that high off a little pole,” Cole explained.

Cole experienced that thrill over the weekend at the Post Falls Co-Ed Relays.

She is one of a half-dozen North Idaho girls who are pioneering the girls pole vault.

Although Cole’s 64-year-old grandmother, Dixie Coyle of Rathdrum, vaulted in high school, Idaho has yet to sanction the event for girls, which means they must compete with the boys.

Montana, Oregon and California became the first states to sanction the girls pole vault earlier this year.

Cole cleared 7 feet and narrowly missed at 8 feet in her weekend debut.

Lake City vault coach Russ Blank projects Cole to be a 10-foot vaulter before her career is over.

“I thought maybe the guys would be real rude to me, a girl trying to take away their sport,” Cole said. “But they go through the motions with me and run through it with me.”

“Jami is physically stronger than some of the guys,” Blank said. “Once (the girls) know they can do it, the fear factor goes down, the enthusiasm goes up.”

Blank is a former University of Montana pole vaulter and also coached the event at Missoula’s Hellgate High School before moving to Coeur d’Alene last fall.

“Last year when I worked with some girl vaulters, they were typically more aggressive athletes in nature,” Blank said.

“What I’m trying to emphasize is more technique with swing and maximizing swing. If they can do that then the strength will come,” Blank added. “It may be a while until they get a bend (in the bar) from the actual vault itself. It all comes in time.”

The run, the plant, the swing and the turn at the top are pole vault basics. The runway approach distance is dictated by the vaulter’s ability to control the pole at maximum speed. It is considered one of track’s most technical events.

Cole and sophomore teammate Sheryl Dilday spend three days a week practicing vaulting.

“Both Jami and Sheryl are dedicated to other events and valued at those events, too,” Blank said. “Some coaches say, ‘Does she really need to vault?’ At this point, that’s fine. They’re just working into it. As they get better and make improvements they may choose to specialize. It’s one of those events you really need to specialize in.”

“They seem a little more timid,” observes Lake City junior Tyler Frades. “They don’t like to get upside down. They try to shoot straight over or ride the pole straight up.”

Junior Gretchen Hammarberg of Coeur d’Alene has no problem turning upside down, especially with 11 years of gymnastics experience.

Hammarberg improved on each of three vault attempts at Tuesday’s dual meet with Lewiston, but she failed to clear the 7-6 opening height.

“I was really nervous,” Hammarberg said. “I’ve never really even tried with the bar and with all the people here.”

Coeur d’Alene vault coach Jason Wing “told me to grab higher (on the pole) so I can get more height and to rock back more,” Hammarberg added. “I wasn’t doing either thing to the full extent.”

Hammarberg relates the pole vault to vaulting in gymnastics, except the “springboard” is a 12-foot-long pole.

“From gymnastics, the experience of being upside down isn’t no big deal, it’s one of my senses,” Hammarberg said. “I’ve never experienced the height (of pole vaulting). I think it’s unique, especially for girls. I like doing something not feminine.”

Moscow has two girls who pole vault, including former gymnast Jamie Sumner and Kim Breckenridge. In a triangular meet last month, Breckenridge cleared 7-6 and Sumner cleared 7 feet.

“It was kind of a quiet thing, people didn’t realize girls were pole vaulting,” Bears coach Chris Tarabochia said. “(Spectators) might have saw it and not realized what was going on.”

Sumner and Breckenridge are specializing in the event. “That’s pretty much all they do every day,” Tarabochia added. “They are pole vaulters.”