Vaulting through life - Andy Behl (Western Washington)

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.gnacsports.com/ (and they got it from the Everett Herald)

Vaulting through life
Cascade grad and current Western Washington pole vaulter Andy Behl is a world traveler, team leader and a daredevil.
May 5, 2006
By Larry Henry, Special to The Everett Herald

EVERETT, Wash. - Are you serious?
That was the question Steve Behl asked after his son said he was taking up the pole vault as a freshman in high school.
Yes, said Andy Behl, he was serious.
How long is this going to last? his father asked.
Andy didn't have an answer to that question then, but he does now.
When he finally lays down the pole sometime this spring, his adventure with perhaps the most difficult event in track and field will have lasted eight years.
It began the spring of his freshman year at Cascade High School in Everett. It'll end after he completes his senior season of competition this month at Western Washington University.
It's been kind of like a long romance. For the most part, it's been uplifting. But there have been some rough spots along the way, as well. But, when you love something as much as Behl (pronounced bail) does the pole vault, you learn to take the bad with the good.
And just when you think the good times will roll forever, a bad one up and bites you on the backside.
Take a recent meet at Central Washington University in Ellensburg.
Behl was coming off a victory at the University of Puget Sound, a meet in which he was the only vaulter in the field to clear a height, 13 feet, 53/4 inches. The week before that, he had won the Ralph Vernacchia Team Classic in Bellingham.
Then came the trip across the mountains.
In Ellensburg, they get a lot of wind. They got wind and rain that day. Wind and rain can cause major problems for a pole vaulter.
A major problem is vaulting into the teeth of a wind. And it is trying to get a firm grip on a slippery pole.
Behl had his problems. "I didn't do that great," he said.
Great for him would have been clearing 16 feet and qualifying for the NCAA Division II nationals. As it was, he came up way short - 13-113/4.
That old romance had hit another bump. But Behl wasn't letting it get him down. He still had a few meets to try to get to nationals.
He was confident he could do it if ... . the elements were kind. "The tough thing about outdoor (vaulting) is you can't take the good weather days for granted," he said.
Western vaulting coach Dick Henrie said Behl has to get into the 16-foot range to make nationals. "We need some (good) weather," he acknowledged.
What Henrie wishes is that Behl were not a senior, considering the improvement he's made this season. "This year he has really gone after it, whereas before I'm not sure he was ready mentally," the coach said. "He's come into his own this year. It'd be nice to keep him a couple of more years."
Dedicating himself to weight lifting last summer, Behl built his upper-body strength, a prerequisite for a powerful takeoff in the vault. "I was in the weight room every day," he said. "The sport really grabbed me the last two years."
For those it "grabs," outsiders would question their sanity. It is, after all, a very difficult, a very techhical and a very dangerous sport. "I think it is the most technical and the most dangerous (event in track and field)," said Henrie, who has taught vaulting for more than 30 years or ever since he graduated from Western.
Think about it. The vaulter sprints down a runway with a 15-foot fiberglass pole in his hands, planting the pole in a metal box in the ground which springs him upward as the pole bends. As he nears the top of his ascent, he makes like a gymnast, turning completely over so that instead of looking up as he goes over the bar, he's looking down.
If everything goes right, he lands on a thick pad instead of on concrete. Oh, and his pole doesn't break.
"If a person takes off correctly," Henrie said, "the pole shouldn't ever break." Imagine what happens when it does. "It feels like the elevator drops out from under you," he said.
Like a relief pitcher, it is better if the vaulter has a short memory. Henrie's youngest son had a great deal of success as a vaulter, clearing 17 feet. His most vivid memory: the time he broke a pole. "It (the pole) came back and slapped him," Henrie said.
Behl has never broken a pole nor missed the pad. "It's the type of sport which is definitely a little scary," he said. "There's always a little thought in the back of your head ... what if? What could possibly go wrong? I've seen a number of poles broken."
What Behl tries to do before each attempt is visualize a vault without fault. "The perfect vault," he said. Cast out the negative. Insert the positive. "When I think negative," he said, "I've got to overcome that."
He overcame it two months ago at the University of Washington Outdoor Preview, clearing 15-1 to take second place.
That was Behl's career personal record outdoors (his best indoor mark is 15-51/2), beating his old mark - set last year - by a foot. "He was stuck in that 14-foot range, but before this season he set some pretty big goals," Henrie said. "He's probably the most focused person I have. He really wants it this year."
Though he is not considered the Vikings' best vaulter, Behl has won three meets this spring and is ranked No.2 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. And he has emerged as a team leader for what he does off the field. To build camaraderie, Behl has entertained fellow vaulters at his parents' cabin on Hood Canal, and he has hosted spaghetti dinners at the house he shares with three other students in Bellingham. He has also started a Bible study group for any teammates who wish to take part. "He kind of pulls everybody together," Henrie said.
The Behl family - Steve, his wife, Rita, and three of their four children - moved to El Paso, Texas, just before Andy's final year of high school. He stayed in Everett with a friend's family, showing a little of that independence his father talks about.
"He loves adventure, he is not one to have to follow the crowd," Steve said. "He is comfortable experiencing new cultures and meeting new people. We found that out when he went to Australia and it was eight days before he called home."
Andy spent six months Down Under, taking business classes at the University of New Castle in New South Wales.
While there, he took a side trip to Thailand, two weeks before the tsunami hit. "I'm definitely open to new experiences," he said. But getting blown into the Pacific is not one of them.
Last summer his travels took him to Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from his parents' home, where he had an unpaid internship in the human resources department of a plant his father manages. Steve, who had a commuter pass, would drive across the border each day and Andy would walk across.
Next month, Andy will walk at graduation ceremonies, taking with him a degree in international business.
He will already have put away his vaulting pole, which, he hopes, will have taken him to the national meet at Emporia, Kansas, this month.
And if it doesn't? Hey, it's been an adventure anyway.
One of many he's bound to have in a life that's really just getting off the ground.

[Powervaulter]

Andy's a great guy. He has helped me in the last year with getting mid marks, and we'd chat at the end of the runway lots. I wish him lots of success in his career, but I hope he still comes out to jump once in a while!