Vertical Assault Article
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2004 8:57 am
http://www.nj.com/hssports/expresstimes ... 268310.xml
School vaults Lawryk to great heights
Sunday, April 18, 2004
By BRUCE BURATTI
The Express-Times
Mike Lawryk found himself in eastern Florida in 1995, sorting out his future and trying to acclimate himself to the state's climate and lifestyle.
He noticed a classified ad in the Vero Beach newspaper advertising for coaching positions at Sebastian High School. Lawryk, a 1981 graduate of Liberty High School, was fascinated by the prospect of working with youngsters. He filled out a resume, listing all the sports that he played growing up in Bethlehem.
The last entry on his resume -- almost as an afterthought -- Lawryk mentioned that he was a struggling 12-foot pole vaulter for the Hurricanes.
Sebastian hired Lawryk as a pole vault coach, a development that would change not only his life but steered the course of many young vaulters in Florida and along the East Coast. A year later, he opened his own vaulting club, Vertical Assault. What Butch Harmon is to golf, Lawryk is fast becoming in the peculiar art of pole vaulting.
In his eight years as director of programs, Lawryk has helped develop 20 state champions in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Florida along with several national-class vaulters on the collegiate level.
"When I first started at Sebastian I had two vaulters, a girl named Sarah Adams and a boy named Andrew Porter," he says. "I didn't know it then but it was the first year of the girls pole vault on the high school level in Florida. I sort of lucked out there. I was on the ground floor of something that was really going to be big."
By the time they graduated, Adams and Porter would become Florida state champions. Porter, a 12-foot vaulter when Lawryk became his coach, developed into a 15-foot vaulter in less than one year.
"When I took that first job, I really didn't know much about the pole vault," said Lawryk, a soft-spoken 41-year-old who is a carpenter by profession. "But I went to a clinic run by Jan Johnson -- a former world-class vaulter -- that changed everything. I spent four days there and I bought every video he made."
Lawryk quickly became a vaulting technocrat and his Vertical Assault club was born shortly thereafter. After three years in Florida, he moved himself and his club back to Bethlehem where his membership has grown to about 60 active members. He also serves as Liberty's vaulting coach and uses the school's facility as Vertical Assault's headquarters.
Lawryk's club doesn't cater solely to elite vaulters. Mixed in with his state champions are novices, who make up more than half his membership. Most of his vaulters are female. Of his 20 state champions, 19 are girls.
"I don't really know why that is," Lawryk says. "Guys have been vaulting a lot longer while most of my girls have a gymnastics background, and that translates well to vaulting. I don't think I've ever had a boy who was a gymnast."
The Vertical Assault stable includes reigning PIAA Class AAA state champion Courtney Regan of Easton, her sister Lindsay, a sophomore and nationally-ranked vaulter who has cleared 12-9 indoors. Penn State freshman Lauren Birckhead also won a state title in 2002 at Liberty.
Chelo Comino, a two-time Florida state champion, is a senior at Princeton and one of the top NCAA Division I vaulters in the nation. Keely Marsh, a senior at North Hunterdon, won the NJSIAA Group 3 title last spring and is headed to Brown.
Danielle O'Reilly of Shawnee High in Medford, N.J., the reigning NJSIAA Group 4 champion, was a Vertical Assault member briefly but now belongs to the HIP Athletics Club in South Jersey, which is much closer to her home. O'Reilly cleared 13-5 over the winter -- a prep indoor record for girls.
While Lawryk was working with Liberty's vaulters during a late-week practice, Moravian College's Mike El Kazzaz made an appearance. El Kazzaz was a 13-6 vaulter at Easton but in his two years with the Greyhounds -- and under Lawryk's guidance -- is threatening 15 feet.
"By just getting me to change the angle of my hands on the pole, Mike added six inches to my height," says El Kazzaz, who needs to clear 15-2\ to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Division III Championships. "He got me to get rid of a lot of bad habits."
School vaults Lawryk to great heights
Sunday, April 18, 2004
By BRUCE BURATTI
The Express-Times
Mike Lawryk found himself in eastern Florida in 1995, sorting out his future and trying to acclimate himself to the state's climate and lifestyle.
He noticed a classified ad in the Vero Beach newspaper advertising for coaching positions at Sebastian High School. Lawryk, a 1981 graduate of Liberty High School, was fascinated by the prospect of working with youngsters. He filled out a resume, listing all the sports that he played growing up in Bethlehem.
The last entry on his resume -- almost as an afterthought -- Lawryk mentioned that he was a struggling 12-foot pole vaulter for the Hurricanes.
Sebastian hired Lawryk as a pole vault coach, a development that would change not only his life but steered the course of many young vaulters in Florida and along the East Coast. A year later, he opened his own vaulting club, Vertical Assault. What Butch Harmon is to golf, Lawryk is fast becoming in the peculiar art of pole vaulting.
In his eight years as director of programs, Lawryk has helped develop 20 state champions in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Florida along with several national-class vaulters on the collegiate level.
"When I first started at Sebastian I had two vaulters, a girl named Sarah Adams and a boy named Andrew Porter," he says. "I didn't know it then but it was the first year of the girls pole vault on the high school level in Florida. I sort of lucked out there. I was on the ground floor of something that was really going to be big."
By the time they graduated, Adams and Porter would become Florida state champions. Porter, a 12-foot vaulter when Lawryk became his coach, developed into a 15-foot vaulter in less than one year.
"When I took that first job, I really didn't know much about the pole vault," said Lawryk, a soft-spoken 41-year-old who is a carpenter by profession. "But I went to a clinic run by Jan Johnson -- a former world-class vaulter -- that changed everything. I spent four days there and I bought every video he made."
Lawryk quickly became a vaulting technocrat and his Vertical Assault club was born shortly thereafter. After three years in Florida, he moved himself and his club back to Bethlehem where his membership has grown to about 60 active members. He also serves as Liberty's vaulting coach and uses the school's facility as Vertical Assault's headquarters.
Lawryk's club doesn't cater solely to elite vaulters. Mixed in with his state champions are novices, who make up more than half his membership. Most of his vaulters are female. Of his 20 state champions, 19 are girls.
"I don't really know why that is," Lawryk says. "Guys have been vaulting a lot longer while most of my girls have a gymnastics background, and that translates well to vaulting. I don't think I've ever had a boy who was a gymnast."
The Vertical Assault stable includes reigning PIAA Class AAA state champion Courtney Regan of Easton, her sister Lindsay, a sophomore and nationally-ranked vaulter who has cleared 12-9 indoors. Penn State freshman Lauren Birckhead also won a state title in 2002 at Liberty.
Chelo Comino, a two-time Florida state champion, is a senior at Princeton and one of the top NCAA Division I vaulters in the nation. Keely Marsh, a senior at North Hunterdon, won the NJSIAA Group 3 title last spring and is headed to Brown.
Danielle O'Reilly of Shawnee High in Medford, N.J., the reigning NJSIAA Group 4 champion, was a Vertical Assault member briefly but now belongs to the HIP Athletics Club in South Jersey, which is much closer to her home. O'Reilly cleared 13-5 over the winter -- a prep indoor record for girls.
While Lawryk was working with Liberty's vaulters during a late-week practice, Moravian College's Mike El Kazzaz made an appearance. El Kazzaz was a 13-6 vaulter at Easton but in his two years with the Greyhounds -- and under Lawryk's guidance -- is threatening 15 feet.
"By just getting me to change the angle of my hands on the pole, Mike added six inches to my height," says El Kazzaz, who needs to clear 15-2\ to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Division III Championships. "He got me to get rid of a lot of bad habits."
