After fifty years as a track athlete then a coach, meet manager, and now an official who “specializes” in Pole Vault; weather in Ohio is always a factor. We can run in anything short of lightning. I’ve vaulted in snow, wind, and even light rain. And my “reputation” is: if they can play a football game in the weather, we can run in it too. My teams were (here’s a magic word) “indoctrinated”. If the weather was bad, it was “Watkins Weather”, and we would have an advantage over other teams. We practiced in everything, so we could compete in anything.
Now, pole vault does have limitations, greater than the other track and field events. If you can’t hang onto the pole, then you can’t vault. So rain can, and should, limit competition.
Today is the final day of the Division III Regional meet. Somehow, the show has to go on. In four different meets throughout the state, sixty-four women vaulters are vying to reach the State Meet next week. The top four in each Region, and then the next two overall, will line up on the runway at Ohio State University next Friday afternoon.
As the head pole vault judge at one of those Regional meets, I’m focused on the radar. The vault is supposed to start at 4:00, and there’s a 99% chance of rain. It’s not likely we’ll start on time.
In my years at Watkins Memorial High School, I had the advantage of a very stable coaching staff. Not only did my assistant coaches stay for generations of athletes, but so did our middle school coaches. One of them, also the former High School head football coach and the lynchpin of the school system, was Jeff Severino. And Jeff has a saying when it came to track meets: “There’s always a window”.
I’m desperately trying to find “the window” for tonight’s Regional meet. The alternatives of postponing to another day are difficult, particularly when teams are travelling from all over the South and Eastern parts of Ohio to compete. “Coming back” is not just inconvenient, but expensive. And, there will always be some competitor who cannot return – it’s not fair to her. The best choice is to find a way to vault – tonight.
The green radar rain mass that started at ten, passes through by six. There might be another small shower about nine. There’s Jeff’s window: six to nine on Friday evening. If we can get poles checked in, and get vaulters on the runway at six, and start the competition by six-thirty, and finish in two hours or so…we can get it done. No one has to drive back on Saturday evening (after the entire officiating crew finishes another Regional at a different site, fifty miles away), or worse on Sunday afternoon.
So that was before…here’s what happened. I arrived at the meet site in light to moderate rain. The Referee, Head Field Judge and I discussed the situation. Wisely, they determined that while we should delay the event start, we shouldn’t put a set time (6:00). Instead, just wait it out and start warmups as soon as possible. Meanwhile, I did as much as I could in the rain to get the pit ready for competition (put the measuring tape on the runway, installed the “standard guides”). The pit itself was already zeroed and “legal” from Wednesday’s boy’s competition. As coaches and athletes arrived, the Pole Vault crew checked poles and uniforms under a tent. Eighty percent of the field was checked in before we even determined when we would start.
The rain lessened, and it was just drippy. I pumped out the vault box (using a hand pump for small boats) and paced around, waiting for “the moment”. At about 4:30, it arrived. We started warmup (with some grumbling from coaches), but the scattered drops soon gave way to just gray skies. We began the actual competition at 5:15, and concluded the Heath Regional Women’s vault with attempts at a new Regional record at around 7:00.
It’s a good thing. On the way home 45 minutes later, it rained so hard, cars were slowing and hitting their flashers on the highway.
We found our window.
Ohio Pole Vault Safety 