Vaulting past 50

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/conten ... 70BLM.html

Vaulting past 50
2 Ohio men hope to scale new heights at Senior Olympics
Monday, June 18, 2007 3:22 AM
By Tom Reed
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Chris russell | dispatch
Tom Stover during a practice jump at 11 feet


Dow Rogers at takeoff

As a couple of gray-haired thrill seekers, Tom Stover and Dow Rogers are raising the bar -- some days as high as 11 feet -- on athletic nonconformity.

No slow-pitch softball or doubles tennis for this highflying Canal Winchester tandem.

Hands clutched firmly around fiberglass poles, Stover and Rogers run full speed for 70 feet before propelling themselves toward the adrenaline-rich heavens.

The pole-vaulters are two of 60 central Ohioans who are expected to compete at the Summer National Senior Games, which begin Friday and run through July 7 in Louisville, Ky.

"I thought 50 was over the hill until I started watching

these guys pole-vault," said James Bell, 49, who is taking up the sport. "Some people refuse to grow old, and Tom and Dow are prime examples."

Bell's son, Corey, is among vaulters at Canal Winchester High School, where Stover, 53, and Rogers, 51, help coach.

Teaching boys and girls the highly technical sport renewed their competitive drive and fueled an interest in the Senior Olympics.

Last summer, Stover won the state-level competition for men ages 50 to 54 by clearing a bar placed at 11 feet, 6 inches. Rogers was runner-up at 10 feet, 6 inches.

Both qualified for the nationals -- and some good-natured ribbing from the students.

"The girls on our team will yell, 'Don't break a hip,' during practice," Rogers said. "We have a lot of fun with it."

Of 687 athletes who will represent Ohio in Louisville, eight compete in pole vault.

Rogers and Stover contort their bodies in midair at an age when the slightest twist leaves some weekend warriors reaching for medicated muscle rubs.

Pole-vaulting can be a graceful, yet dangerous, sport -- one scarred by serious injury and death.

Eighteen high-school competitors died from 1983 to 2005, according to a report from the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury.

The biggest fear for many vaulters, Stover said, is losing body control in midflight and missing the large, foam-padded mats that cushion landings.

Rogers said that several school programs statewide, including Canal Winchester's, require vaulters to wear helmets at meets.

"We stress safety all the time," Stover said. "We take a step-by-step approach with the kids until they have proven they are ready to go over a bar."

In 1972, while pole-vaulting for Whitehall-Yearling High School, Stover broke his left ankle when his leg slipped between two mats.

The injury ended a promising senior season -- he had cleared 13 feet, 8 inches -- and left him disheartened .

Stover, a graphic artist, went almost 30 years between vaults until Canal Winchester girls track coach John Bender invited him to join the staff in 2001.

Before long, he was having as much fun as his students.

"Coach (Stover) likes the fact that he can out-jump 18-year-olds," said vaulter Rich White, a recent Canal Winchester graduate.

"Both coaches are very knowledgeable about what they do, and they can definitely walk the walk."

Five years ago, Rogers saw Stover vaulting at the high school and asked whether he could join him.

The men formed a friendship based on a shared desire to defy gravity and Father Time.

"I'm as proud as you can be of a 51-year-old man as vigorous as Dow," said his 82-year-old father, Dow Jr. "Sometimes, he invites me down to the track to catch his pole."

Rogers' passion for the high-risk sport is curious given the fear he has of heights.

A man who becomes nauseated walking through tall buildings and driving in the mountains feels at ease sticking a fiberglass pole into an aluminum box and launching himself 12 feet off the ground.

"It happens so quickly that I don't have time to think about it," said Rogers, an engineering technician who vaulted at Walnut Ridge High School and Clemson University. "I'm back on the ground three seconds after leaving it."

Rogers and Stover are excited about competing in Louisville. The winning vault at the 2005 National Senior Olympics -- 10 feet, 4 inches -- is within their range.

The pole-vaulting competition, scheduled for July 4, includes a division for men ages 80 to 84.

That's the only incentive the two need to stay in shape.

"I've had people tell me, 'You're too old for this sport; it's time to stop,' " Stover said. "Those are the people I choose to ignore."

[Bubba PV]

I got to meet both guys in Louisville. Really nice and very good vaulters. Stover got 3rd. Bubba