Winning pole vaulter gets help from former stand-outs
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Pole vault pupil STAFF PHOTO BY DAN PARKER Port Aransas High School senior Drake Sawyer practices pole vaulting at the PAHS track field on Tuesday, April 15, while Des Kidd looks on. Kidd is a former pole vaulter providing private lessons for Sawyer.

When Des Kidd heard a year ago that a Port Aransas High School student named Drake Sawyer was working to become a winning pole vaulter, Kidd decided to contact Sawyer and offer him a little coaching on the side.

Kidd didn't know Sawyer, but he still felt a strong urge to help, because he once was a pole vaulter himself. Practitioners of the sport are so few, they belong to a select fraternity.

"Pole vaulting knowledge is so rare," said Kidd, a 44-year-old Port Aransas man who once was one of the top high school pole vaulters in the state. "It's not like there's a ton of people out there who have done it or understand it. … And it's complicated. There are a lot of things going on in a very short period of time."

Sawyer now has made it through district and area competitions and is poised to compete at a regional meet at Huntsville on Friday and Saturday, April 25-26. If he makes it past regional, he'll go on to state, May 9-10 in Austin.

At state, 27 years ago COURTESY PHOTO Des Kidd, then an Austin High School student, pole vaults at a state high school track and field meet at Texas Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas at Austin in 1981. Today a Port Aransas resident working as a radiologist, Kidd no longer competes as a pole vaulter, but he's keeping his hands in the game by helping Port Aransas High School senior Drake Sawyer hone pole vaulting skills that could soon land him in the state meet in Austin.

Sawyer said he's feeling confident he'll make it to state. If he does, it will be thanks to his own hard work, his natural talent and to free instruction he has received not only from Kidd but also from two other pole vaulting enthusiasts who have stepped forward to help in the past.

Maunel Franco of Port Aransas gave Sawyer lessons when he was a freshman and sophomore. Franco never has been a competitive pole vaulter himself, but he learned how when he was in his 20s. He later taught pole vaulting, along with other track and field sports, while working as a coach at various junior high schools and high schools in South Texas. He currently works as a territorial manager for a business that supplies convenience stores.

Eric Miller of Ingleside gave Sawyer lessons when he was a junior. Miller, who is the head girls' track coach at Ingleside High School, was a high school and college pole vaulter in Alabama.

Kidd has been tutoring Sawyer since last year's track season.

PAHS track coach Steve Reaves is not a former pole vaulter, but he works often with Sawyer, helping the student carry out Kidd's instructions, during practices at the high school track field. Reaves said the private instruction from Kidd, Franco and Miller have meant a lot.

"We're extremely appreciative," Reaves said. "They all seemed to have come along at the right time."

Kidd said the most significant lessons he's teaching don't have so much to do with the technical aspects of pole vaulting.

"Most importantly, I'm trying to instill a work ethic," Kidd said. "If you just put in your time, things pay off. Maybe not directly. Maybe not by being the best pole vaulter. But something good will happen. … Positive things will happen from positive work."

Teaching a person to pole vault isn't a simple thing, because it's not a simple sport, Kidd said.

"You can't tell (the student) what to do from a technical standpoint, because it's all happening so fast," Kidd said. "But, if you practice it and do drills on each segment of the jump, the end result is putting it all together in one quality motion."

Kidd knows a thing or two about putting it all together. In the early 1980s, when he was a student at Austin High School, he twice took second place in state competition. His prowess in the sport won him a full four-year scholarship to Texas A&M University.

Sawyer has some real potential, Kidd said.

"I think he's very gifted, physically," Kidd said. "But that may be a handicap, because in a small town, or a small area where there's no competition, what can drive you to really work hard and overcome things?"

If Sawyer continues to work hard, "he could be a really solid collegelevel vaulter," Kidd said.

Sawyer is the only PAHS student who has gotten this far in pole vaulting since Athletic Director Steve Reaves went to work for the Port Aransas Independent School District eight years ago.

"There's been a few kids who have tried it, but they didn't stick with it," Reaves said. Sawyer stuck with it. And not just because a bunch of people have been tutoring him.

"He's definitely got the vaulter's mentality. They're a little carefree and willing to go take a risk. He has jumped a few times and missed the mat and hit the ground," Reaves said, adding that Sawyer was not seriously hurt. "He jumped right back up and said, 'Hey, let's go again,' and I would have turned and run.

"He's just got that kind of mentality," Reaves said. "You just have to have a lot of courage."

Sawyer's best performance in a meet to date was a jump of 14 feet 6 inches at Ingleside High School this year. That's six inches higher than he got when he placed fourth at state last year.

Sawyer said each of his instructors have helped in one way or another.

"Mr. Franco kind of got me started and kept me in it," Sawyer said. "And I was like, 'OK, I can obviously do this.' "

Miller "helped out a lot with just little things I was completely doing wrong," Sawyer said. "He kind of fine-tuned me."

Kidd "knows a lot about (pole vaulting)," Sawyer said. "He helped me with drills I had never done before. … It's helped out quite a bit."

Sawyer said he has gotten calls from several small colleges and a larger one in Louisiana, where track and field officials wanted to talk about the possibility of scholarships. But he's hoping he can do so well at state competition that a big university will come calling.

"I'm shooting for a huge jump at state," he said.