'It's such a nice place to be'

Jan. 24—URBANA — You might not think of pole vaulting as a lifelong sport.

Donna Brown begs to differ. She's 74.

"My advice to anybody younger is 'keep jumping,'" Brown said. "Because you forget how to jump if you don't do it."

Brown's enthusiastic presence was impossible to miss at Bryan Carrel's Pole Vault Junkies training facility in north Urbana.

Her daughter, Paige Martin, was among the first athletes Carrel coached after taking to the sport during her senior year of high school.

Though Martin has since moved out, Brown noticed a leftover pole from those days in the garage a few months ago and hatched an idea.

"I started running around in the summer carrying the pole with no pit, no place to put it," Brown said. "All I did was sort of practice carrying it. Bryan got this place open, which was last week, and he started new people."

Luckily for Brown, Carrel's new indoor facility — an unassuming warehouse in north Urbana that marks the third location since PV Junkies' inception — gives athletes the chance to sharpen their skills year-round.

Even better news for Carrel's athletes: The venue's heating system was due to arrive on Jan. 19, bringing a measure of relief after a single space heater in the middle of the warehouse combated early January's bone-chilling temperatures by itself.

"It's been a process," Carrel said. "Getting the floor down, getting the turf in, getting the boxes installed, the pits in. There's still a million little things left to do, the heat being the top of my list right now."

Carrel, who vaulted at Indiana State after serving in the Persian Gulf War during a four-year stint with the U.S. Marines, was drawn to the sport in part because of its coolness factor.

"Pole vault kind of stands out in that there are street events," Carrel said. "I've run events at the Indiana State Fair, at a Dave Matthews concert, beach vaults ... you don't see that with the other events. It's the culture, it's the attitude, it's the addiction, so to speak. Thus, the junkies."

High school athletes come from far and wide to learn from Carrel — whose son Brandon vaulted at Illinois and son Tyler currently vaults at Indiana — and his staff.

Danville, Georgetown, Taylorville and Mt. Zion are regularly represented at practices, which take place on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

"A lot of people travel just as far as I do," Georgetown-Ridge Farm senior Haley Carlton said.

"Almost everyone is relatively 30 minutes to an hour away because this is like the spot in the middle of everywhere. I came once and then I've been coming back ever since and I've been here for years and years."

There are reasons that Carlton — thrice a Class 1A pole vault state qualifier and set to compete at Southern Illinois — has been vaulting with PV Junkies since she was in middle school.

"The lessons that I learned from pole vaulting, I find a way to apply them to real life," Carlton said.

"I know that sounds like something you're going to hear every athlete say, but it's such a real thing ... sometimes it's hard for me to do one thing and stay focused on that one thing, but (Bryan) is just very patient, easy to work with."

Newcomers — like Brown — are more than welcome to try their hand at the craft.

Look no further than Danville sophomore Matthew Sherman, who competed with a 10-foot bar as a freshman but has since upped that by two feet.

"It was terrifying," Sherman said. "Just going upside down, it was terrifying but now I just embrace it and I love doing it."

Assistant coach Katie Straus, a graduate student at Illinois who competed collegiately at Cincinatti and ranks sixth in Bearcats history in the indoor and outdoor pentathlon, is another relative newcomer to vaulting.

She's been a valuable resource with other events that share plenty in common with the craft of vaulting.

"Bryan was my last call in terms of like options," Straus said. "Initially I tried going, like, maybe with the university or volunteer coaching and I found his club, but it was pole vaulting and I (didn't) know if they were going to have training of what I need for the other events."

"He had a kind of an opening with coaching for high jump and hurdles. And I was like, well, those are my two most practiced events, so I can cover that."

Straus still competes regularly — she plans to partake in a pentathlon in Terre Haute, Ind., in April — and uses her time at PV Junkies in part to stay sharp.

That she enjoys coaching is an added bonus.

"It kind of brings a different value to all of the studying technique I've done," Straus said. "Whereas previously it would be for my own performance, but now being able to see how I can help other people and help them click is really gratifying."

Whether a true beginner like Brown or a seasoned jumper like Carlton, each of the roughly 20 vaulters on hand Thursday shared a similar enthusiasm.

"These people are some of my best friends in and out of the club because we do share that like-mindedness," Carlton said.

"Most everyone here is not only a dedicated athlete, but they're a dedicated student so we can talk about things in the sports world, in the academic world, in our own personal lives. It's such a nice place to be."

There's plenty of wisdom among the group, too.

"Just find something that's fun, which we've got to do," Brown said.