North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: On The Pole
5/28/2005 12:00:00 AM | Track
May 27, 2005
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH - Eric Hoverstad became a pole vaulter for the same reasons he was a football receiver and a pretty good wrestler: He had decent speed and hands, two essential qualities needed for soaring nearly two stories over a bar.
He began competing in the sport after he was cut from the Millbrook High School baseball team as a sophomore. Needing something to do in the spring, he was encouraged by his football coach to try track and field. The coach even suggested the pole vault, because of Hoverstad's wrestling background.
"I don't know what his thinking on that was," Hoverstad said, "but I tried it and I stuck with it and kept doing it." And there was a really big advantage to participating in the pole vault.
"There was really no running involved," Hoverstad said. "What could be better than going out for track and not having to run? You get a pole, run down the runway, then jump."
But it wasn't without some setbacks. The first time he ever tried to simulate the pole vault, all he had to do was jump over a broomstick lying on the ground. When he landed, his feet slipped out from under him on wet grass and he went sprawling.
All the seniors laughed.
Over the next month, however, Hoverstad began learning the skills necessary to become a good pole vaulter: speed, agility and athletic ability. He began to run with the pole, plant it firmly in the box and spring himself up and over the bar. It's a difficult maneuver, not without some risks.
Have you ever seen what happens when a pole vaulter goes straight up in the air and comes straight back down? It's not pretty.
Most high schools don't even have the proper equipment or the necessary liability insurance to compete in the pole vault.
Hoverstad started slowly, and became good enough that as a senior, he finished fifth in the state 4-A track and field meet.
He came to NC State as a walk-on and has gradually increased his height by more than two feet.His mark of 16-6 ¾ (5.05 meters) is the third-best vault in school history.
But it has been a rather lonely existencs.
There have never been more than three pole vaulters in the program during his time here, and the last two years he has competed and practiced pretty much by himself, with instruction from Wolfpack jumps coach Gail Olson. It's kind of like being the punter or placekicker on the football team, where most of the work is done individually.
Saturday, Hoverstad will compete in his third consecutive NCAA East Region Championship, hoping to finish in the top five or with an NCAA Championship qualifying mark so he can advance to the NCAA Championships June 8-11 in Sacramento, Calif. He finished a career-best 12th in last year's regional meet.
"I need to do well, and other people need to do not so well," Hoverstad said. "Being dependent on other people is not something you really look for, but one thing about the pole vault is that there are so many variables that go into it, it is really easy for somebody not to clear a bar.
"There will definitely be people who won't clear what they are supposed to clear."
If he doesn't advance, Hoverstad's career at NC State will come to an end, with lots of fond memories - and a $5,000 scholarship for dental school.
Hoverstad, an ACC Honor Roll member for three consecutive years, just graduated from NC State with a B.S. in Biology, and was one of three members of the Wolfpack track and field team to win ACC Post-Graduate Scholarship Awards. Hoverstad and distance runners Leslie Jimison and Andy Smith were the three NC State athletes among this year's 29 scholarship winners.
For now, Hoverstad is working as an assistant to a Raleigh oral surgeon. Later this year, he will submit applications to dental schools, including the one at the University of North Carolina.
"It's cheap," he said, needing to explain. "And they have a really good school, one of the top in the country. But I won't cheer for their teams.
"I will still be wearing red all over campus."
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
