PoleVaultPower.com

HELP SAVE VIRGINIA POLE VAULTING
VHSl agenda vote this weekend
F. Discussion of eliminating pole vault for 2014-15 indoor and outdoor track.

Coaches need to tell their athletic directors to vote NO!

GROUP BOARD AGENDA
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2014
Meeting Place and Times: Holiday Inn Select Koger South Conference Center, Richmond
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Presiding: Chairmen listed below respectively.
Directions to Group Board Chairmen: Together with the other group board offi cers and the region and district chairmen, you are responsible for distributing delegate credentials (paddles) and confi rming attendance of voting members.
Group 6A Chairman: Paul Joseph, Oscar Smith High School
Group 5A Chairman: Thomas Nichols, North Stafford High School
Group 4A Chairman: Susan Bechtol, Churchland High School
Group 3A Chairman: Rhonda Stegall, Hidden Valley High School
Group 2A Chairman: Eric Baylor, East Rockingham High School
Group 1A Chairman: Mark Dorsey, West Point High School
I. Roll Call, Confi rmation of Voting Delegates/Alternates, and Minutes.
II. Selection of Group Board offi cers and three new ADs for Executive Committee. Marc Cole, 5A; Ken
Wright, 4A and Tom Horn 2A will remain on Executive Committee for one more year (see page 4, Item I).
A. Representative from 6A South to replace Brad Qualls from 6A North
B. Representative from 3A West to replace Joe Breinig from 3A East
C. Representative from 1A East to replace Trevor Coleman from 1A West
III. Announcements, review and action by all group boards.
A. Fall and Winter State Team Champions.
B. Report of February Executive Committee actions.
C. Review legislation. Note Handbook Section 21-6-1 Membership Review-By majority vote of those present at
any regular meeting of a group board, a group can initiate a review by the full membership of any legislative
amendment adopted by the Executive Committee or of any legislative proposal submitted by members not
on the Executive Committee and rejected by the Executive Committee. The membership can reverse the
action of the Executive Committee by a favorable two-thirds vote of those attending the next membership
meeting following Executive Committee action if there is a quorum of a majority of the total membership
present. A favorable vote of one-fi fth of those present may require a recorded vote. Those legislative
amendments that are subject to review are listed in the agenda which follows and will be identifi ed by the
group board chairman. A listing of each legislative proposal with its Handbook section number from the
December and February Executive Committee meetings begins on page 14-25.
D. Sites for 2014-15 and sites needed for girls golf zones (see charts on pages 7-10).
E. Discussion of Alignment.
F. Discussion of eliminating pole vault for 2014-15 indoor and outdoor track.
G. Discussion of continuing business with rSchoolToday.
H. Group 1A - Take action on request by Bland and Rocky Gap for a combined school (ADM not to exceed 300
in grades 9-12) for 2014-15.
I. Report on 2014 VIAAA State Conference, March 25-28, Norfolk Waterside Marriott.
IV. Business from the Floor.
V. Adjournment.

My thoughts...



Let’s Talk About Pole Vault Safety!

I love the pole vault! I hate injuries. I am a parent, a coach, a pole vaulter, and a fan of the sport.

After a report came out over ten years ago that called pole vault the “deadliest” sport, I decided to research the issue. Something about that didn’t sound right to me. I found the study the article was based on, it was assuming there were 25,000 pole vaulters in the US. That didn’t sound right to me either.

The NFHS tracks participation rates in all of their sports. The problem is, pole vaulting is not a sport. Track and field is a sport. T&F participation is easy enough to track, each school reports to their state how many kids turned out for the track team, each state reports to the NFHS.

Although the state associations and NFHS are not tracking pole vault participation, sites like MileSplit and Athletic.net have allowed us in recent years to be able to get a clearer picture. These sites only count athletes who clear a bar in competition, most high schools end up with kids who try the pole vault, but never compete. Those athletes also count as participants (if they were injured, we would certainly count them as an injury!).

I did an extensive study of these sites, and concluded that we have over 90,000 high school students in the United States who participate in the Pole Vault every year. My data was included in this article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22582223 (I am RG Peter).


Now let’s talk about accidents. It is very important that since the VHSL governs high school that they only consider high school accidents. High school pole vaulting is extremely safe. In 2003, the rules changed, requiring the pits to be larger. Since then, catastrophic injuries decreased dramatically, especially at the high school level.

Within the pole vault community, we closely monitor these injuries. Working with Jan Johnson (I spoke to him this morning), I have only been able to come up with five catastrophic (death, skull fracture, other severe head/spine injury) injuries to high school pole vaulters in the past 11 years. Only one of those five led to death. Most of the others ultimately resulted in a full recovery.

That’s five catastrophic injuries nationwide, among 90,000 participants per year, in an 11 year span.



Now let’s talk briefly about the benefits of the event. The pole vault often attracts kids who are on the fringes. It keeps them involved in a sport when they might otherwise be getting in trouble. It inspires passion like few other sports or events do. Many students from Virginia have earned college scholarships for the pole vault.


Let’s stop pretending this is a safety issue. This is an issue of schools who have chosen not to offer the event, being upset they are losing points to schools who offer it.

The excuse is that they can’t afford it. Those who want to make it happen, find a way to make it happen. Maybe you share facilities with another school. Maybe you fundraise for five years to buy a pit. Maybe your kids practice with a club.

Is it fair to deny kids the opportunity to participate in an event they love, simply because some schools don’t have it?

While we all want a level playing field when it comes to team scoring, the truth is, you never have a level playing field. Some schools get more kids to turn out. Some schools have more talent. Some schools have better coaches. Some schools have better facilities. Pole vault is just one of MANY events in track and field. Schools who don’t offer it have MANY other events to make up those points.

It is wrong to deny over 1,000 Virginia high school student-athletes the right to participate in the event they love, and potentially earn college scholarships, simply because some coaches want to improve their team’s chances of winning a few meets.

Please, do what is right for the kids. The pole vault is a safe, fun, and rewarding event. Please do not take it away from your athletes.


Becca Gillespy Peter
Pole Vault Power
http://www.polevaultpower.com/

Coach's
Please look at the page 6 of Virginia High School League board agenda for 3-13-14. They are going to discuss eliminating pole vaulting for the 2014-2015 indoor and outdoor season. We are looking to have coaches and more important all the AD's to fight for pole vaulting. Get the word out and contact the VHSL board to oppose this measure. Please help Virginia to keep the vault!

Link to the agenda: http://www.vhsl.org/doc/upload/adm-memb ... -20142.pdf (page 6, Part III, Letter F)

Here are the e-mail addresses for the Group Board members.
paul.joseph@cpschools.com, tnichols@staffordschools.net, susan.bechtol@pps.k12.va.us, ebaylor@rockingham.k12.va.us , mdorsey@wpschools.net, rstegall@rcs.k12.va.us
Also send your input to Lora Bickley, the Office Manager and Assistant to the Executive Director of the VHSL and request that she distribute your views to the Group Board and Executive Committee. lbickley@vhsl.org

The board meeting is tomorrow and Friday in Richmond, VA. Here is the part of the agenda that we are concerned about:

---------------------------------------------
III. Announcements, review and action by all group boards.

A. Fall and Winter State Team Champions.

B. Report of February Executive Committee actions.

C. Review legislation. Note Handbook Section 21-6-1 Membership Review-By majority vote of those present
at any regular meeting of a group board, a group can initiate a review by the full membership of any legislative
amendment adopted by the Executive Committee or of any legislative proposal submitted by members not
on the Executive Committee and rejected by the Executive Committee. The membership can reverse the
action of the Executive Committee by a favorable two-thirds vote of those attending the next membership
meeting following Executive Committee action if there is a quorum of a majority of the total membership
present. A favorable vote of one-fifth of those present may require a recorded vote. Those legislative
amendments that are subject to review are listed in the agenda which follows and will be identified by the
group board chairman. A listing of each legislative proposal with its Handbook section number from the
December and February Executive Committee meetings begins on page 14-25.

D. Sites for 2014-15 and sites needed for girls golf zones (see charts on pages 7-10).

E. Discussion of Alignment.

F. Discussion of eliminating pole vault for 2014-15 indoor and outdoor track. ***************************************

G. Discussion of continuing business with rSchoolToday.

H. Group 1A - Take action on request by Bland and Rocky Gap for a combined school (ADM not to exceed 300 in grades 9-12) for 2014-15.

I. Report on 2014 VIAAA State Conference, March 25-28, Norfolk Waterside Marriott.

I just saw this on VA Milesplit. As a D3 college coach in the state of Virginia, this is a shame. My institution started track and field this season for the first time in school history and as such, equipment was purchased (including pits). The majority of our enrollment comes from VA and, as such, most of the team is from this state too. I have been coaching at this level for 16 years and have seen the growth of track and field and pole vault over that time. While the PV depth in high school here in VA does not seem to be the same as other locations I have been, that does not mean there is any less of a passion by those student-athletes that compete.
We have a daughter in 8th grade who is a vaulter. Unfortunately, they don't have pole vault in the middle school. We moved from Indiana where in 6th grade, she was an 8'6-9' vaulter. She is an avid athlete (soccer, basketball, track). Up north, soccer was in the fall so she was able to do all 3. Here, track and soccer are in the same season. If it weren't for pole vault, I have no doubt she will play soccer instead. Over the years, I have had multiple soccer/track duel sport athletes and track is often the secondary sport. I wonder what the percentage of current T&F athletes in high school would no longer participate if pole vault was no longer.

My main concern is that you will get administrators that will be making a decision about an event within track and field that really don’t know track and field. To eliminate the pole vault is the same as eliminating diving, the 100 meter backstroke or 200 meter backstroke from swimming or the rings, uneven bar or floor exercise from gymnastics or the 145lb weight class from wrestling. I don’t think they truly understand this.

Because a small set of schools either choose to not have a program or don’t have one for other reasons is not an excuse to take it away from others. This is more envy than competition. An attempt to take away an event which one school excels in to make the other schools get ‘better’ will always fail and will result in less competition. Ultimately, it takes away the individual achievement of the athletes that participate in this event, which is sad.

Instead of being envious or targeting other schools to eliminate the vault they should call the schools with successful programs and ask about how to emulate a successful program of their own or collaborate to improve the conditions within their own conference or region. This benefits the athletes and will in turn increase the competition level.

One comment that was published on VA milestat states: “Some of the suggestions brought up on the floor by schools' administrators were: separating it from the sport entirely, having pole vault not count towards a team title, safety concerns, lack of interest, and new liability costs for schools having to get new liability insurance.”. What burns me is the flippant comment of the “lack of interest”. If they would just look at the statistics from milestat they would clearly see that the level of participation in Virginia has increased significantly in the last 10 years (Girls: 2003 - 196, 2013 - 1180 Boys: 2003 - 252, 2013 - 1313). Interest in the vault in Virginia is continuing to grow significantly. I know that as a HS coach in VA and friends with many other coaches in VA; we will continue to be loud in our opposition.

I heard that separating diving is also on the table. Apparently Maggie Walker killed it in swimming & diving too.

oh no, didn't mean to use a bad example.

and the results of the meeting ??? Anyone Know ?

volunteer wrote:and the results of the meeting ??? Anyone Know ?

It sounds like the 4A-6A schools voted to keep PV as is, 2A and 1A want to drop it, not sure about 3A. Next I think the VHSL makes a decision? Va.milesplit.us has more info.

For more updates ...here is link to VHSL Voting as of today ..

http://va.milesplit.com/articles/123188 ... yegqE1OWM8

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/03/track-p ... t-safe-now

Track | Pole vault is safe, for now
Princess Anne track coach Brian Triolet hopes the issue is over.

About two weeks ago, he heard the Virginia High School League - the organization that oversees interscholastic sports in the state – considered the elimination of pole vault from track and field.

Triolet, who picked up the event in high school and whose brother was state-runner-up in 1989, was against it. And he and other supporters made a lot of noise to make sure their voices were heard.

“We found out about it a few days before the VHSL meeting,” he said. “And we set the world on fire. I was calling everybody and everybody was calling me.”

They showed up for the VHSL meeting last week. He said the item was discussed among all classifications – each in separate rooms – about whether to keep it or get rid of it.

“One of the 2A schools made a suggestion to the VHSL to get rid of it,” he said. “But what they didn’t understand is if one group gets rid of it then they all have to get rid of it. We went to the meeting and basically told them they were nuts.”

Most people were in favor of keeping it and Triloet thinks the issue is hopefully over.

“Right now we’re good but we have to see what happens in May because it can be brought back up to legislation,” he said. “But we’re going to keep the pressure on hopefully they’ll just forget about it and never bring it up again."

What bothers Triolet, who coaches more than 20 individuals in the event from all over South Hampton Roads, is that he can’t believe the issue was even put on the VHSL docket.

“To get rid of the event because of one school or for one group doesn’t make a lot of sense to me,” he said. “It’s about stepping up your game. If I don’t have any throwers . . . then I better find some throwers and throw coach.

“But I don't think anything is going to happen. At least I don’t think so.”