UNCC pole vaulter soars through the pain

[rainbowgirl28]

http://charlotte.com/223/story/90929.html

SOUTH ROWAN HIGH GRAD PERSEVERES
UNCC pole vaulter soars through the pain
Despite spinal fracture, Caleb Henley posts records in his specialty
JOE HABINA
Special Correspondent
As a student at South Rowan High School, Caleb Henley believed he had found his niche in pole vaulting. But it wasn't without difficulty.

His body was telling him to ease up on the painful stress to his back.

But his mind was telling him to push for that next school record, a state championship and, ultimately, a college scholarship.

Because his raw athletic ability was always more than enough to produce remarkable results, Henley never realized that his awkward technique was causing a stress fracture in his spine.

Now a sophomore standout at UNC Charlotte, Henley still deals with regular discomfort from the fracture.

His coach says he has the potential to be one of the NCAA's elite track-and-field athletes, but Henley understands that will come only if he can properly manage his nagging injury.

Started in middle school

Henley started pole vaulting at Corriher-Lipe Middle School, he said, where he set the school record. He continued vaulting in high school and discovered that not many people participated in the event, and even fewer were good at it."It kind of opened the door for me," Henley said. "My parents told me I needed to work with it, that it could be something that could get me to school (into college).

"Not many people care much about it," he said, "but it was my chariot and horse in getting me to school."

By his junior year, Henley was emerging as a state championship contender. He connected with a coach in Greensboro who, among other things, rented out poles to vaulters like Henley who were moving to longer and heavier equipment.

He started feeling some pain in his lower back, but Henley dismissed it as an aching muscle. He first had it looked at by a chiropractor during his senior year.

Champion as senior

The discomfort barely slowed him, and Henley followed up his state runner-up finish as a junior with a 4A state championship as a senior.

He set the school record with a vault of 15 feet and became former long-time South Rowan coach Larry Deal's final state champion athlete.

It was at the state championship meet that Charlotte 49ers' coach Bob Olesen first saw Henley jump. Olesen remembers being impressed with how incredibly fast Henley was for a vaulter, but how much he lacked in technique.

Henley got the college scholarship he so desperately desired. A self-professed "gearhead," Henley is an engineering major and wants to pursue a mechanical career in NASCAR.

Fracture is diagnosed

In his freshman season at UNCC, Henley broke the school record with a vault of 15 feet 1 1/2 inches at the same N.C. A&T track where he set the South Rowan record during the 2005 state championships. But Olesen continued to try to correct Henley's flawed technique."Caleb is kind of too fast for his own good," Olesen said. "He's very quick for a pole vaulter. If you don't take off at the proper point, certain forces can go into your body and can put that much more stress on your back.

"In his case," the coach said, "it's been touch-and-go as he's learned new techniques."

By the end of his freshman year, Henley could no longer take the enduring pain. He sat out fall workouts and competed in a few indoor-season events.

A team physician diagnosed the stress fracture in Henley's spine, which is treatable (but not curable) with medication, ice, an electric stimulation machine and some TLC.

"We've been through our physician, so it's been given medical attention," said Olesen. "No one has given us any indication that it could be catastrophic, but it could be really sore. If his technique continues to be more efficient, then he'll probably be pain-free."

Broke his own record

Henley returned strong enough -- and, he said, with a better understanding of pole vaulting -- to break his own UNCC record last month at Clemson with a height of 16 feet 3/4 inches, a vault that has been accomplished by about only 50 others in NCAA Division I this year.

Olesen is confident Henley could reach an NCAA qualifying mark of 16 feet 7 inches, especially as the 49ers compete at the N.C. A&T Invitational in Greensboro this weekend.

Henley understands that his long-term health could be at stake. He has considered dropping the pole vault and switching to sprints, he said; he's fast enough to compete in those events, but still unpolished.

But Henley said he'll continue to work on his pole vaulting, knowing it's what made him the track-and-field athlete he is.

[polevaulter08nw]

Go Caleb! It was my freshman year where all of this started i believe. He worked through it all and got to his goal. Im glad that he is still going and jumping better, though i knew of his 16 foot clearence. I really feel he needs to get his back under control, obviously what they are trying to do, and then he will be ready to get up there. Good job and keep working, maybe ill get to jump against(in the same meet, cause of the NCAA ruling) him in a college meet sometime next year.