First indoor meet is the U-High Invitational held on March 2 at ISU's Horton Field House. Please let me know as soon as possible if your athlete cannot participate. Rosters will be filled out soon and do not want to enter someone not able to be there. Please understand not all athletes will participate in every meet. Entrants in each event are limited and will will base our entries on many factors, including their eligibility, health, attendance at practice and preparedness to compete without injury. All athletes are expected to be at every meet unless they are excused by Coach Neisler or I. Athletes are also expected to be the entire meet (in the meet venue), unless again, they have prior permission from Coach Neisler or I to leave early.
The following is from a February 6, 2013 Pantagraph article and highlights area pole vaulters from the Flying Dragons Pole Vault Club. Athletes from this club have enjoyed a remarkable amount of success in the past few years. Two recently graduated athletes from our team, were members of this club, placed at the State Meet and are now successfully competing in pole vault at the college level . If any athletes have an interest in checking out the Flying Dragons club, please let me know and I will give you contact information. We currently do not have a female vaulter. (U-High does not have the facilities to train athletes in this event so this club is an option if your athlete has an interest)
Members of the Bloomington-based Flying Dragons Pole Vault Club focus on clearing high bars rather than trying to beat others.
Following that philosophy helped land scholarships for Sarah Bell and Brittany Hull, who signed national letters of intent on Wednesday.
Central Catholic High School’s Bell signed with Vanderbilt while North Carolina landed Normal Community’s Hull.
Bell picks Vanderbilt: Bell’s in-season career best of 13 feet, 2 inches ranks second in Pantagraph area history. Her off-season best is 13-3½.
Bell won state titles as a freshman and junior and placed second as a sophomore. She has also won four state medals as part of sprint relays. She credits her success to the Flying Dragons.
“The club has been everything for me,” she said. “It’s where I first started and I haven’t left. It’s exciting for us (Flying Dragons) to find our new homes and continue to vault and do what we love.”
Flying Dragons coach Mike Cockerham expects Bell to soar in college.
“When she gets to college and she gets into that four-year regimen of training, big poles will come and big bars will come (for her),” he said. “I expect her to jump 15 feet in college.”
Bell, who plans to study subjects related to exercise science, also considered Kentucky, Kansas and South Dakota.
“It was a long process for me because I found so many positives from each school,” she said. “At Vanderbilt, I fit in well with the girls and I really enjoy the coaching staff. It just felt right for me.
“It’s exciting to be in the SEC (Southeastern Conference), which is the most prominent track conference. Some of my competitors from the past are at SEC schools so hopefully I will run into them.”
Hull to be a Tarheel: Hull chose North Carolina over Kentucky out of an original pool of 20 schools because of its “fun” coaches.
“They seem like my style of coaches,” Hull said. “I love the campus. I really didn’t want to go that far away, but I looked at other schools within six hours of here and they just weren’t the same as going there. I just loved it. It was an easy choice.”
Hull cleared 12-3 last outdoor season, the seventh best mark in area history, but her indoor best was 13-¼. She placed second in last spring’s Class 3A state meet.
Hull, who plans to study exercise science, said she didn’t know much about pole vaulting until she joined the Flying Dragons.
“They just make it really fun,” she said. “You don’t want to be rooting against your teammates. Ever since we’ve gone there, we don’t really care who wins.”
Cockerham believes North Carolina has found a gem.
“I think it’s a good fit for her,” he said. “She has a lot of potential.”
I hope to have our web site up and running soon. Much depends on my ability to beg a parent helper to keep it up to date. Any Volunteers?
