My decision to pursue track instead of baseball made my dad angry, since he always wanted a son to play high school baseball. Nevertheless, I knew in the long run I would be a great track athlete (pun intended). My sisters were both successful at track and it was only a matter of time until I developed into a young adult, so I thought why not give it a try. Coach Brentlinger wanted me to try out an event I was completely unfamiliar with at the time, pole vaulting, and also wanted me to do it in less than two days. I was no brainiac freshman year, but I could tell pole vaulting was not a sport that somebody could pick up in two days, especially if I wasn’t even going to practice it in those two days. The only thing I did to prepare for my first meet was drive a small pole into the side of the secondary gym’s wall. That’s it… and I did that about 5 times. When the meet, at Illinois College, rolled around I had no understanding of the fundamentals pole vaulting required, and had a pole that was way too big for my size at the time. I know today that when an inexperienced jumper first starts to learn pole vaulting, the pole should be nice and small so the vaulter can actually