Prep Wednesday : Hitting Their Marks : Slocum: Poles Apart From Other Vaulters

You’re a pole vaulter and what you do is less a sport than trial by ordeal. Nobody knows how to coach you. No matter how high you vault, it’s never high enough. And just when you get this crazy, body-flinging thing down, chances are your league will ban it.

Even when you win, you lose.

If you’re really good, like Foothill High School’s Steve Slocum, your ordeal is even worse. Sure, your coach is not only knowledgeable, but also happens to be your dad. After that, your luck goes sour. Because you’re talented, people expect more out of you: “You only vaulted a hundred feet? You’re loafing,” the critics sniff. And you’re not satisfied, either. Because you’re talented, you sometimes wait around for 12 hours before you get to warm up. Your league won’t definitely say whether your sport will be banned, but only makes ominous noises. Life is a long battle with frustration.

In spite of the trials of track’s most eccentric event, Slocum continues to compete in the pole vault, his efforts being some of the best around. His best jump this season is tied for second among California’s pole vaulters. Track and Field New s rated him fourth in the nation early this season. With the exception of the Sunkist and Arcadia track meets, Slocum has won the nine meets in which he has vaulted.

“In every meet except at Sunkist and Arcadia, everyone has come in and gone out before Steve had his first jump,” said Paul Slocum, his coach and father.

In a dual meet last Thursday, Slocum cleared 16 feet by some six inches. The mark was a personal best and was more than two feet higher than anyone else in the Southern Section cleared that day.

“I made 16 really easy,” Slocum said. “I cleared it on my first attempt.”

Said Paul Slocum: “I would say 16 feet puts him in the top five in the nation. A 16-foot vaulter is like a seven-foot high jumper, there aren’t many of them. To put it into perspective, a 16-foot vault qualifies him for the NCAA Division II college nationals.”

Not only was Slocum’s vault a personal high mark, it was also the end of a stagnant period. A climb over a wall. At the beginning of the season he seemed locked at 15 feet.

“I was stalemated,” Slocum said. “I’m just now starting to go. I just needed another pole.”

He recently began using a pole 15-feet 9-inches long--longer and heavier than his old pole. The new pole meant that Slocum would have to adapt his entire vaulting motion. If he didn’t switch, his coach says he would never vault beyond 15 feet.

With the larger pole, his run would be slower. He would fall over the bar at a different speed. An already intricate affair becomes even more complicated. Paul Slocum said that some tactician, using videotape, calculated there were about 264 things that could ruin a jump from the moment the pole is planted until the vaulter crosses over the bar.

Slocum was able to make the transition, though. He always has.

Says his coach: “If there was anything we could tell about Steve when he was little, it was that he had determination.”

Indeed, the elder Slocum recalls his youngest son, then an 80-pound fifth-grader who vaulted into mattresses in his backyard, trying to bend his older brother’s pole. The pole was much too large and unwilling.

“He lived to bend that pole,” Paul said. “In the fifth grade he was always trying. Now the takeoff is definitely the best part of his vault.”

Slocum lives to vault higher and higher. He practices Monday and Tuesday, watches videotapes of his jumps Wednesday and vaults in meets Thursday. Fridays are spent in the gymnastics room, performing handstands and other exercises to help his vault.

What really helps Slocum, though, is his father, a former pole vaulter and walk-on coach of six years at Foothill. As a pole-vaulting specialist, Slocum’s abilities are in such demand that vaulters from other schools often attend Foothill practices. Foothill has 13 vaulters out, whereas most coaches are lucky to have two.

Says the father: “Steve has the advantage over the rest of them because we can talk about it until he falls asleep,” Slocum said. “But it never gets to the point where I say he has to spend four hours a day out there or that I threaten to take his lunch away if he doesn’t go higher. But I probably get just as emotionally involved with the other jumpers.”

Says the son: “He really doesn’t pressure me at all. He’s a very positive coach; he doesn’t look at the negatives, just how you can make it better next time.”

Paul Slocum said his son’s slump was caused in part by a lack of competition. “You’re always competing against numbers,” Paul said. “Once you get 15 feet, you want 15-6. You always want more. The thing about pole vaulters is, by the end of the day, they’ve all missed their last three jumps.

“That’s where the frustration comes in. There are guys getting distances of 12 feet that 10-foot jumpers would give their eye teeth for. But the 12-footers want to go 13.”

Paul Slocum says the good vaulters are punished unfairly. They must report to meets early then wait seven to eight hours--when the distances are high enough--before they can attempt their first vault. He said Steve once waited 12 hours before he could compete.

When the vaulters aren’t forced to wait, they’re being phased out altogether. The Empire League has banned pole vaulting, and Paul Slocum says he has heard rumors that his Century League is pondering the same action at its upcoming league meeting.

“They blame it on money or safety or something but really they just don’t have anybody who can coach it,” Slocum said. “It’s time-consuming. You’ve got to stand there and watch every single jump. If you coach pole vaulting, that’s just about all you can do.”

In spite of the drawbacks and disappointments, Slocum is forever an optimist, especially about the future of his best vaulter.

“We think Steve’s got 16-6 without any trouble this year,” he said. “I think 17 feet is a real possibility. The only thing that can stop him is if he runs out of time. It’ll take a while for him to get used to a bigger pole.”

Slocum agrees that “17 feet is really not too far off.” He hopes to become accustomed quickly to yet another pole and hopes to peak at the state track meet.

By that time, though, he will probably be thinking about 18.