Traveling Club Team in SoCal Filling fast for Vaulter Club!

Here in California you have the best of weather for many options in life.  Many of the kids around here play and participate in many of those options such as surfing, soccer, skiing, and many others. You have always heard the stories of mountains in the morning and surfing in the evening.  Why not take advantage of such activities if you can?

Now let us talk about pole vaulting and the lack there of in the state of California. If you talk to coaches and parents alike, they state that there are no opportunities for pole vaulting in the state like other sports. Well, that is all about to change and do so very quickly.

Vaulter Magazine – Vaulter Club Inc. is on a mission after their successful summer camps with local kids and kids from all over the United States. We listened and talked to many kids from all over the United States this summer, as well as the those from the surrounding areas. What they wanted was more options like other sports, with opportunities to jump and travel to meets. Practicing all fall and winter is fun for only so long, and then it becomes the same old situation. Some have heard of our plan and our signing up for our club already.

The Plan

Have multiple clubs and schools come together with teams and set up a circuit for the athletes to pole vault all fall and winter. Right now, we have right around 10 active participating clubs that would like to join our effort with dates from November 7, 2015 through January 9, 2016. All they have to do is commit to one meet (home meet) and have between five to seven athletes ready to jump. Once they put on their meet with concessions, booths or whatever then they just have to participate in the other meets that are set up. (Away meets) The last meet will be at the pole vault summit (www.polevaultsummit.com ) where the athletes’ mark will count for future reference.

Commitment is the name of the game with a situation such as this. When you have an All-comers meet, anyone can come and almost anyone can show up at the last minute. No dedication and no commitment to team or club, not to mention the meet. Some people like that setup, but is it working in Southern California? What if you have 10 teams with five to seven jumpers per team and the doors were closed to anyone else but the clubs? Of course, anyone can spectate, but joining at the last minute would not be possible. Can you just show up to a soccer or football game the day of and participate?

The clubs can recruit and train the same way that they do today, none of that will change. Saturdays we will have pole vault competitions and dedication to the club by participating in the meet. This is a commitment for both coaches and athletes alike. It is time to get activities such as this started here in California and throughout the United States.

Area’s that are committing to the program are listed below. We have to slow down a bit; we are running out of Saturdays.

Dana Hills

Vaulter Club

Corona

Norco

Carlsbad

San Diego

Newport Harbor

Marina High

And more…

Down the Road

In the future after this successful season we would like to branch out to neighboring states and take our best team against their best teams for a trophy at the end. Maybe travel to Las Vegas or Phoenix and see what we can make of this travel circuit.

This year we plan to have a trophy for the best club and have a point system. Winner keeps the trophy for the year and surrenders it or keeps it for the following year if they are the winner again. The point system will most likely be middle school and high school only. We want to grow the sport and get the kids excited about the future of pole vaulting on a larger scale.

Therefore, what do we have to lose! Some will be skeptics; some will think it will be the best opportunity to get their athletes in competitions throughout the year. This may even be old news for other states that are already doing something similar. GREAT! We just hope that we can start something that will spread to all regions around this nation.

Like Vaulter Magazine that I started almost four years ago, you have to get up and get started if you plan to make things happen in life. Why just sit around and talk or wonder about what you can do with the sport of pole vaulting, when you can go out and change someone’s life tomorrow. I hope that you all join us and help us make this sport one of the best that this great nation can provide.

Doug Bouma

Vaulter Magazine – Vaulter Club Inc.