Good Colleges for Vaulters?!?

[Vaulting Guru]

Hey, I'm still in high school, but if any of you college pole vaulters kno of a good college to go for vaulting, let me kno. I'm kinda in the dark at this point.
lez

[rainbowgirl28]

Hey, I'm still in high school, but if any of you college pole vaulters kno of a good college to go for vaulting, let me kno. I'm kinda in the dark at this point.
lez

Well you want to pick a college based on a number of factors, vault should just be one of them. If you really want to vault in college first you have to pick a school where you can get on the team. Talk to the coaches of schools you are interested in, and see what it takes to get on the team. Talk to them before spring your senior year. If you are a junior look at the websites of schools you are looking at and see what vaulters they have. Different coaches look for different things, some want people with lots of speed and power therefore "potential" others look for more balance.

Try to get to know the coach a little bit too, and talk to the vaulters on the team and see what they have to say about him. If you hate the coach, vaulting will not be any fun.

And of course there are like a zillion other factors when choosing a school! So choose one that is a good balance of all the areas.

[xtremevaulter]

I think honestly you shouldn't pick a school solely on pole vaulting. Because you have absolutly no clueif you well do it your whole life. Your college should be picked on what you hope to study, the surroundings, and accomodations, and then on athletics. But maybe that is just me. hehehe. Hope that helps a little bit.

[Guest]

Since alot of people here probably came from the WA track board (like me) I'll warn you, if you are a pole vaulter do not go to Central Washington. It is the worst pole vaulting college, no coach, all of the poles are 20 years old, no indoor facilities which sucks cause its cold in the fall, snowing in the winter, and windy in the spring, its an NCAA college and the school record is only 15'7. Scott Alexander did 15'8 in HS came here and still hasn't matched it. The best small colleges in the Pacific Northwest are Humboldt (CA) and Western Oregon. I love WO indoor pit, it cracks me up how you have to start in the middle of the weight room run through a doorway (I always wondered why WO vaulters always held their poles so close to the ground on approach) and then vault into something that looks like a big catchers mit. I always set up camp there during the conference decathlons.

Hey Becca your name sounds familar, do I know you?

[ChrisPetersen]

Oops guess I forgot to login on that post

[xtremevaulter]

Yeah that is the school that I go to. Great i have to learn how to carry my pole low this kinda sucks. hehehe Anyway. Yeah i checked out CWU and I hated it.

[rainbowgirl28]

Haha actually Chris you were the first one to join from the WATFXC board

And for everyone else, we figured it out and I used to jump with Chris at Steve Marshalek's, back when I was in high school and he was at Highline CC. Back in the day

[Azbeachboy1]

Here is a list of schools with the top pole vault programs in the country:

Texas
Stephen F. Austin
Tennessee
Washington
Michigan State
Baylor
Oregon
California
Nebraska
Southwest Texas
Idaho State
South Carolina
Oklahoma
USC
UCLA
Arizona
Georgia
Brigham Young
Oklahoma

[rainbowgirl28]

Just curious... did you make that up or get it off somewhere?

There are some really good small schools out there. Clackamas Community College in OR has one of the best coaches in the country with Rick Baggett

[dubjones]

Howdy,
The list posted earlier is fairly good, but with one minor exception
Arkansas State, in Jonesboro Arkansas. I don't know why people leave this one off nearly all pv schools lists. Here is the basic info you might want to know. Pv alumni include. 3 time olympian Earl Bell, American record holder Jeff Hartwig, Olympians Kellie Suttle, and Chad Harting. All of which, with the exception of Chad, still live and train in Jonesboro. Other locals include, Derek Miles (5.80) , who is an advisor at the university, Jillian Schwartz, Erica Boren, Mark Calvin (5.50), Lon Badeaux(5.42), Gusavo Rehder (5.37), Will Jones (5.36), Brad Tyler (5.43) , just to name a fiew. This is pole vault town USA. You can contact the current pv coach at ASU at lonpvh@yahoo.com. A new track is being constructed on campus, should be finished in December, all Mondo surface, with all new equipment. If you are looking for a good place to jump, there is none better. Hope this helps.
Dub

[Azbeachboy1]

I compiled the list above according to the schools that have the best vaulters and greatest consistancy! Every school listed has at least one vaulter that qualified for NCAA's last year. Every coach at any one of the schools has great ideas in how to create the best vaulters!!!!!!

[xtremevaulter]

I compiled the list above according to the schools that have the best vaulters and greatest consistancy! Every school listed has at least one vaulter that qualified for NCAA's last year. Every coach at any one of the schools has great ideas in how to create the best vaulters!!!!!!

But those are all NCAA D I schools. What about us NCAA D II school's huh. What are some good vaulting school there