There aren’t too many athletes out there like Jon Tripp. He drives a 1971 Super Beetle, loaded with stickers and custom plates, and with his speakers blaring during practice, he’s generally the life of the party.
That said, the party came to a halt last year at state, where after making the big dance, Tripp failed to make a qualified jump.
“I hadn’t done anything wrong the whole year,” said Tripp. “It was a good meets, and it was like hitting rock bottom. It felt terrible.”
Failure at the biggest meet of the year brought on a difficult discussion for Tripp and his coaches. How bad did he want to be a state champ?
“We talked about how we’re going to change everything,” said Tripp. “I mean, I was a mental mess last year, and it was basically a 365 day plan to completely flip everything around that was wrong.”
“I told him that he had to commit to the weight room,” said West pole vault coach Scott Palin. “And then we spent December, January, February in Metra, down in that cold barn, three nights a week. And he was there every night.”
The mental, and physical adjustments made, it was now up to Jon to finish the job. It started with a PR a week ago at the Border Wars with a 14‘7” vault. But adjustments aside, Tripp says that music has made a marked difference in his performance this season.
“I like really old music, and so a lot of the old stuff really goes through my mind,” said Tripp. “I think of a lot of powerful lyrics that really hit me deep. There’s this song called Breakthrough by Queen, it says ‘break through these barriers of pain, to the sun shine from the rain.’”
It’s that love for music, that has changed the culture at West High practices. With his Beetle parked near the pit, and the speakers cranked up, Tripp brings an old school vibe to the pole vault pit.
“The distance runners, they run by and they see us all kind of sitting by the bench, and then they run back, and they see us sitting there, and are like ‘when do you guys ever do anything?’” said Palin. “We’re just chilling, having fun, we jump every three minutes or so. So there is a lot of social time, but the work gets done, that’s for sure.”
That laid back atmosphere suits Jon to a tee. Each athlete is different, and coach Palin knows that, which is why as state approaches, there are no plans to change anything about West’s high flying hippie.
“The biggest part is that I had to let him be him,” said Palin. “Because as soon as you try to make him somebody he’s not, then he doesn’t perform well anyway. But he is really learning what it takes to be a champion.”
“I think the worst thing I could do at this point is to get more tense, and get more focused,” said Tripp. “Not that focus is a bad thing, but when you start to turn it into a worried state of focusing, it can turn sour pretty quick.”
So that’s the plan, stay calm, and enjoy the ride. Right now, Tripp is in the drivers seat for the Class AA crown, and is looking to bring his party to state in Kalispell, but leave with a much better tune this time around.
