How I became a writer Part XVII

Title: How I became a writer

Part XVII

Brooke was very excited the day a very expensive white pole vault pole came in the mail, her senior year.  I had it purchased to “help” her win sectionals that year.  Brooke was an excellent straight pole athlete and I hoped this would help her learn how to bend...after all, it was a better pole.  Have you ever heard the expression, “killing them with kindness?”  This was what happened here.  The school would even show more kindness (again at my request) to Deven Brutsman by purchasing for him the very best pole on the market...a carbon. 

Why was this a bad idea?  If the objective was to “bend” the pole, it was a horrible idea.  I now know that the better the pole the harder it is to bend!  I had the perfect pole for Brooke to bend, a 120 mystic, I just didn’t realize it!  A mystic is the best pole to try and bend but again, I was ignorant of that fact.  In those days I went around to fellow coaches in the area for help and one coach taught Brooke a bad way to bend the pole (no it was not the Arkport coach:), which I have nicknamed bending the bow.  He wasn’t trying to hurt me or my program.  In fact it was very kind of him to pass on what he knew from his coach, it was the wrong information though:(

One blessing of the white FX pole was that it was an excellent pole for straight pole technique because it is very light weight and gives the vaulter an extremely stable point to vault from.  Those who enjoy straight poling usually gravitate to the stiffer poles, which at JT are the most expensive ones:)  Poor Deven spent weeks trying to bend a carbon and my own daughter Autumn bravely tried to bend her 12’6” FX (which Grandma Card had purchased for her) by getting on the end of the pole!  Those two poles refused to bend.

Days before Brookes sectionals, which would be Brooke’s last chance to pole vault as a high schooler, bending had been abandoned early in the season.  Brooke was just hoping to tie the school record and even that seemed highly unlikely.  Wednesday night she looked at me with hopeless eyes and asked, “Do you really think I can do it?”  I told her, “Brooke, in my opinion you are one of the best vaulters in Section V, so yes, I think you can do it!”  I wasn’t lying to her.  Brooke’s biggest weakness was going to the bar instead of a few inches above it.  I have since learned that this is the number one problem most pole vaulters have to overcome. 

That Saturday morning I begged God that all of Brooke’s hard work would pay off and that she would do well.  Boy, did God answer that prayer request!  Brooke was on fire and cleared 7’6” tying the school record!  I was so happy and thanked God profusely.  But Brooke wasn’t done.  Remember I said she had one weakness, well, that day she mastered it!  Like a bird with a healed wing she wasn’t done yet!  Brooke went over eight feet BREAKING the school record!!  We were now screaming like lunatics from the fence area hugging one another!  Then her opponent faulted out and BROOKE WON!!!  The girl who had hoped to make it over 7’6” had WON sectionals!!  The Lord was so good that all of her hard work paid off the very last day of her career!!  She got one more week and went to State Qualifiers!  What a great end of her career!  The JT girl pole vault pioneer that had gone all over the county to learn her craft, had won!!

 As awesome as this was, it left our program still unable to bend the pole:(  Deven had spent a week of that summer (and his family spent close to $600 plus gas) at an “advanced” pole vault clinic in Buffalo.  (I got their flier at a track and field event during the spring season.)  It didn’t help him at all!  Brooke was now gone and my two ace pole vaulters, Deven and Autumn, were still unable to bend the pole, even after Deven’s families huge sacrifice!  Deven won sectionals with straight pole style!!!  (Again, that carbon made an excellent platform to use as a straight poler).  Early during in the State Qualifier week, I bumped into Ryan Freeman.  We talked about track and I mentioned my big problem with bending.  He lit up immediately.  “Oh, we have a kid at our school that can teach him!  He taught me and I don’t even compete in pole vaulting!”  A day later the kid from CV (a PA school just across the border from us) named AJ(?) came to practice with Ryan Freeman.  In one day he did what the Buffalo “elite” program failed to do...taught Deven how to bend the pole!

People noticed Deven at State Qualifiers and asked if he wanted to a pole vault camp in Warsaw, NY called, “PVP”.  Of course he did and Autumn went too.  I’ll never forget that first day, rolling into PVP with Autumn’s very expensive FX pole.  I couldn’t wait for PVP’s head coach, Mike Auble, to teach Autumn how to bend that!  He looked at the pole and said, “That is a very, very nice pole, but we won’t be needing it today.”  I was very disappointed at first but I would learn why the FX was a horrible pole to learn bending on.  The first thing a pro does is put you on a weak pole far below your weight!  This never occurred to me because in high school you HAVE to have a pole that matches or is below your weight!  It was the first of many lessons I would learn from Mike Auble and PVP but that is another story for another time!

In my writing I now had a better idea what I was doing but sensed somehow something was still off, I just didn’t know what.  It was similar to my pole vault dilemma and I needed expert advice so I sought God’s face on the matter.  Suddenly he wasn’t quiet.  He revealed that one of my biggest motivations for being a writer was for the coveted title of “Author.”  Quietly he whispered, “Gaining a title is not a good reason for writing a book and I won’t bless that goal.”  The sin is officially called theologically, “The Pride of Life,” and I repented of it.  Oh, I would still struggle with it at points but the farther I go in my writing journey the more I realize how irrelevant the title is.  It is merely a definition of what I am, it should not be needed to boost my ego.  Then I thought, “Well, if God blesses my writing I can use the money to....” God cut me right off.  “Adrian,” he said softly, “money is another terrible reason to write a book!  I’ll take care of you whether you make a dime at writing or not.”

Now I was ready to write a book...but what should I write?