Joanna’s High School Pole Vault Progression

Joanna Yu, c/o 2021.

I thought it would be fun to summarize Joanna’s high school pole vault experience so far with a look at all her pole vault final makes from every meet and mock meet. She had fewer meets to compete in than the average high school pole vaulter so the video won’t be too long.

Joanna has had some challenges. She started pole vault at the end of February in her freshman year, and her high school did not have a pole vault coach or pit. But Coach Warren Jacques trained her on his own time that season. She also took a big break during the summer and fall.

Sophomore year was going great until she sprained her ankle as it appeared she was finally going to have a break through. Her league also doesn’t seem to have as many meets as the SoCal girls and she didn’t have a year-round club to train at. To alleviate that issue, Joanna trained at different camps with Stacy Dragila, Tim Reilly, and Ben Greenbaum in the summer.

Junior year was starting to looking good, and then the pandemic happened and all her meets were cancelled. However, the bright news is that The King’s Academy gained pole vault coach Justin Ellerbee. So joanna was finally able to have year round training when there wasn’t smoke in the air from a fire or a Covid lockdown or Covid quarantine.

Now comes senior year, and it looks like track season is starting, albeit late. We’re grateful that she already had 3 meets in great weather. I’ll probably replace this video with another one when she’s finished with her season, but after her not competing for a year, I was eager to put a video together so that I could have something to enjoy. Hope you enjoy too!