The Pirate Flag and Track and Field

Title: The Pirate Flag and Track and Field

In a fantasy story, sometimes the veteran needs something new to succeed.  In the Lord of the Rings there is a character named Strider, who is really tough.  He takes on several ring wraiths on Weathertop with only the hobbits as allies and drives them off!  Later in the story he (with two of his friends) tracks down a war band of orcs running after them day and night for days!  At Helms Deep Strider (aka Aragorn) helps over a 1, 000 humans hold out against 10, 000 special Uruk-hai (book not the movie).  As tough as he is though, Aragorn (Strider) is up against an army that he can’t fight without help.  In the movie Strider gets the sword of Narsil that helps him enlist an army of the cursed dead.  (In the book he already had the sword when he left on the quest).  In the movie, without that sword the armies of good would have lost the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.  Sometimes a tough character isn’t enough and needs something else to complete their quest.

We don’t have the Sword of Narsil at JT track and field but we do have a pole vault pole called “Brigand”.  During the winter before Autumn’s eight grade track season, Grandma Card offered to buy Autumn a pole vault pole.  At the time I didn’t understand pole vault poles so I had her buy a top of the line Pacer FX (or Fed Ex as Autumn calls them).  This was the worst thing I could have done (well, except for buying a Carbon) because at her level she was NOT ready for such a pole.  Autumn loved it!  She named it “Brigand” and said it was “a pirate swooping in to steal other points in a track meet!  We bought black grip tape for it, which definitely made it look different from all the other poles with traditional white tape.  Autumn would vault with Brigand for two years taking third place in a Sectional Contest with it in ninth grade but she never bent it.  Then Autumn went to Rockback and we learned a lot.  I had to go to my mother-in-law and admit that we had bought the wrong pole for Autumn.  We bought her a Skypole that was only 11’ long and was specially modified by the manufacturer to bend easier.  Autumn nicknamed the pole “Levy” after an Anime character in a show called Fairytail.  Autumn has used this pole since tenth grade and has won four invitationals with it, a county meet, and the Class D Indoor Track Sectional Meet this year. 

During meets this winter when Autumn was on fire (not all meets unfortunately) two pole vaulting experts, the head of Rockback and the head of Max Velocity pole vaulting, both told us her pole was too weak for her.  Was Autumn really ready for Brigand?  Autumn insisted on starting this season with Levy.  (Brigand is not gentle... he’s a pirate after all!)  The first meet of the season she blasted over 7’6” and since she was all that was left had the official put the bar up to 8’6” and flew over that easily.  Considering Leland has used Levy to go over 9’6” and that Autumn can go over a 10’6” bungee with her, I began to think that we just perfect Levy and try to go over 9’6” with her.  Autumn liked this plan too.  Then came the meet at JC.  Autumn was nervous and did not vault well.  Instead of two or three clean vaults over the lower heights Autumn had to take a full seven vaults!  The official got to see her bend that pole every time and noticed a few problems.  After she was out he made it a point to come over to me (even though the pole vault pit was still going!  That’s not normal!)  “Coach!” he said.  “That pole is WAY to soft for her!  She needs something harder!”  He talked to me for more than a minute to me about it (highly unusual!).  On the bus ride his words stayed with me.  I thought back to my biggest criticism of Autumn’s vaulting, the last year especially.  I would often complain, “Autumn, you are just hanging on that thing!  Go up!”  What if Autumn couldn’t go up very well with Levy because Levy was too gentle.  What if Autumn needed to sail the seven seas with Brigand?

I talked with her about it and Autumn suggested she spend a whole practice doing jump drills with Brig.   I agreed.  On Tuesday Autumn ran back and forth on the high jump pad counting her steps and jump dropping the Brigand.  She felt guilty as she watched short and long distance die but I wasn’t worried about it.  “Your still running,” I said to her, “and I can always kill you later in the week.”  On Wednesday, yesterday, Autumn brought out the pirate and prepared to use him.  Down the runway she flew and launched into the sky and then she screeched in terror, her leg hitting the pole as she went up and then crashed down to the matt.  The next vault went even worse, her hands being hurt by Brigand as she tried to hold on.  Leland wasn’t doing much better.  He hit one time and the pole bent and then shot out of his hands like something out of a cartoon.  Autumn got so scared she would run down the runway and then bulk at planting.  Finally I growled, “Go throw discus,” and kept working with the other vaulters.

I died a little inside.  It was over.  After I had helped with vault, I went over to hurdles and helped kids there.  Zoe got over her fear of the form finder and improved a good bit!  Lana learned to stride between the hurdles, which was fantastic!  I told her, “I don’t care how many modified races you lose, keep striding!  It is the key to everything!”  Jillian looked good over all but we fixed a little hiccup in her first hurdle hit.  Overshadowing it like a huge cloud was that Autumn was done as a vaulter.  I had done everything I could do as a coach and had come up short.  I had prayed about it and God was silent.  Toward the end of hurdle practice I noticed Autumn working with the pole “Leann Green” and she was doing okay with it.  I excitedly asked her about it when I got back down and she shrugged.  “It didn’t go very well.  I keep coming back to the runway!”  I had her do a vault for me and sure enough, she would get up and start to bend and then crash back to the runway.  “Dad, could I just go in and color with the team?”  I sighed.  “Sure,” I said. 

The kids laughed and talked as they colored with Coach Dave and I took a nap on the carpet under my penguin blanket.  I didn’t feel like laughing or coloring.  Finally I got up after my cat nap and said to Autumn, “I’m going to go put the pitt away.”  She seemed surprised.  “Dad, I was hoping to vault more.”  “Alright,” I said quietly.  At 5:20 we headed back outside.  The sun came out, beating down on my gloomy soul.  There was only one thing I could think of and I wasn’t sure it would work.  “Autumn, remember that one meet we tried to use Brig in winter season?  One coach told you to use a lower grip and that sort of worked.  Let’s try that.”  I wasn’t very confident in that advice.  Autumn’s day with Brigand had gone so poorly in indoor that we didn’t bring him out again.

Dutifully I put up a bungee at 7’6” and pushed it back to “Rockback” training depth (30+).  “Alright,” I called, dreading what might come next.  Autumn exploded down the runway and got up!  I was surprised.  Back down the runway she went and flew over 7’6” without even being close to the bungee.  I straightened up in shock.  That was a great vault.  “Dad, could you put this up higher?”  “Sure!” I called back, the sunlight starting to reach my cold heart.  “What do you want?”  “How about 8... no 8’6”!”  Autumn went right up to it.  She didn’t get over it clean BUT it was a great “hit.”  Autumn was getting more and more excited.  She had gotten the pirate ship out of the harbor and now was firmly at the wheel, steering for deep water.  “Thank you, Lord,” I whispered.  Autumn was having so much fun that I had to force her to stop vaulting!  (It has been a long time since I have had to do that!)  I don’t know how Autumn’s last high school season is going to go but the pirates flag is unfurled and is snapping in the wind over the dark ship named Brigand.  Autumn will have a good test immediately after break!  I was asked if Bath could attend our next league meet as one of the coaches there and I said, “Yes, please!  We’d like a challenge!”  Bath is good!  One weapon they have is the Class C pole vault champion from indoor this year.  Autumn tied her once at the “One and Done” meet and now they will be facing each other next Tuesday.  The Class D champion with her pirate pole will be facing the Class C Champion.  Even if Bath doesn’t come down next Tuesday, Autumn will surely face her at the Ferd-Stenta Invite that Friday (Bath hosts that meet!)  Bath is Class B in outdoor track but class means little on the pole vault runway. 

A common trope in fantasy literature is an item of power that must be mastered for victory.  The heroes early battles are desperate things because of unfamiliarity with the item in question.  If they master it in time, they have a chance!  “If....”  It creates plot tension and makes for a more exciting story! 

*** Author Adrian Essigmann has eighteen books in print on Amazon.com, soon to be nineteen!  All of them are $.99 cents on Kindle, with the exception of “An Assumed Risk” which will be (Lord willing) an e-book before summer.  All of his books are available in soft cover too!  Type Amazon Adrian Essigmann and his author’s page should come up ***

Book list

Fiction

Wolf Hunting – Action/suspense

Wolf Hunting 2: Trick Shot – Military action/ science fiction

American Fairytale – Colonial America/ Fairytale

Life, Liberation, and the Pursuit of Video Games – Dystopian

Asylum Series (Tribulation genre meets CS Lewis meets lost)

Asylum

Killer Robots

Werewolves

Elf Princess

Zero Book – 666

C-3 Series (Pilgrim’s Progress meets Ender’s Game)

An Assumed Risk

Heavy Opposition

A Distant Boom

Two Hearts

The Magnificent Six

Don’t Pass Go!

Two Paths – Coming Soon!!

The Princess of Ashes Series (C-3 Series spin off)

Falling Ashes

Non-fiction

Miracles Can Happen: The Jim Ross Story – Jim Ross was miraculously sparred from death... twice!

Attack on Girl’s Track – A look at boys competing in girls sports, from the perspective of a track coach.  The book uses five years of track results from Section V (2012 – 2016) to prove its point.