As I watched kids doing work on monkey bars at a high school recently, I noticed a few of these kids really had some good upper body strength. I questioned them about their intrest in vaulting and offered a 2 hour session to see if any of them might have the tools to become vaulters. One girl showed an intrest. Junior, Hannah White of Keller High School. She tried to vault in the 7th grade, but three girls that had started learning earlier had an edge on the rest of the kids, so most of the 7th grade girls that were interested moved to other events. Hannah has caught on in just a few workouts. She is much faster, stronger, and taller than she was as a 7th grader and seems to be having a blast. I feel she has the potential to jump 10' this season.

So far, three vaulters have set new PRs early in this season. Eighth grader Cameron Mills, of Indian Springs, jumped 8-6 in his first competition of the season. Had enough height on 9' to clear 9-6. Cameron's teamate Hayden Whitt has vaulted 11' in two competitions that were held in January. Jr. Michael Mcleod vaulted 15-3 after
no-heighting in his first two meets. More to come.

Several 8th grade vaulters show a lot of promise. Hayden Whitt of Indian Springs Middle posted a jump of 8-6 during the 7th grade season. Hayden vaulted through the summer and improved to 10-3. Hayden should be shooting at 12' or better by the time the season hits. Anthony Fuqua of Keller Middle had good jumps at 10' in the summer.
The girls 8th graders are looking at an awsome season. Jessie Johnson of Argyle cleared 9-3 as a 7th grader. This girl plays every sport she can play and is great at all of them. Jessie could jump anywhere from 10' to 10'-6". The duo of Avery Mason of Dawson middle and Tiffany Premo of Keller Middle have made great improvements. Avery began vaulting in the summer and Tiffany began in September. Both workout together and should be jumping close to 9' by the time the season hits.

The lady Polecats are looking forward to the upcoming season. Heights of these gals should range from 11-6 to 13.
Taylor Theodore of Keller High, Kaylee Brazeel of Argyle, Emily Malone of Central, Megan Whitson of Southlake Carroll and Alex Weber of Highland Park should all be in the mix. Brook Malone of Central, younger sister of Emily, could be chasing a 10' bar. Ashley Fithian of Keller High could be looking at 11'. The vaulter that nobody knows about is senior, Lauren Ammott of Keller High, Lauren jumped 10' her freshman year and went straight gymnastics her sophomore and junior year. She worked out a little in the summer and has not lost a thing in the vault. She could jump 11' or possibly as high as 12'. She is definately the "dark horse".

The track season for 2008 is coming up fast and it looks like it could be a good one. Several guys should be jumping in the range of 14'6"-16'6". Some of the guys in this group would be Monte Willett(15-6) who qualified for state last year. Monte is a senior at Grapevine High School. Hayden Clark(14-9), a junior from Southlake, finished second in district last year. He is joined by fellow Dragon, John Ruellas, also a junior. John has spent many hours working technique and conditioning this fall. Tucker Theodore of Keller High, a junior could blow away some big bars as he has been training for strength through the off season. Junior, Michael Mcleod,(14-9) of Denton Ryan was district champ and finished 4th at regionals. Hunter Griffin(14') of Denton Ryan made some big improvements over the summer and was close at 14-6. The little man from Argyle, sophomore, "Shotgun" Sam Retzloff(14') is gong to do some damage. The 5'6" 125 pounder was close at 14-6 in the summer jumping on a 14'3" 160 lb pole by summers end. Could be an interesting year with the younger guys making improvements as well.