Friday, May. 09, 2008
Soaring with competitive edge
By BRYCE NIEMAN
On it are listed the Panthers all-time track and field records and next to "pole vault" in the boys column is the name of Rodriguez’s older brother Devin with his record jump of 16 feet, four inches.
"I’m a couple inches away, but I think I can beat him," the younger Rodriguez said.
The Ridge senior has one more meet to try and top his brother’s school record, but even more than that he’ll be looking to top the rest of the Class 4A field at the state track and field championships this weekend in Austin.
Rodriguez set his season high and personal best of 16-foot-1 as he won the District 6-4A meet last month. He was able to win the 4A Region I title two weeks ago with a leap of just 15-6, but has his sights set on even greater heights at state.
"My goal is actually 17-1," he said, showing his competitive spirit as he notes that one of Grapevine’s state qualifiers has the goal of 17 feet even.
"I wanted to set my goal a little higher than his," Rodriguez said.
It’s that same competitive fire that allowed Rodriguez to have a breakout season for the Ridge football team, helping the Panthers to the 4A regional finals.
"He’s got a great work ethic," said Paul Weaver, Ridge’s head track and field coach and an assistant on the football coaching staff.
"What made him such a good running back," Weaver said, "is that he never got tackled on first contact. He finished every run by going through, and it took two and three and four guys to get him down."
Weaver said Rodriguez showed a willingness not to let anyone take him down on the football field, and that competitive instinct relates well to the mindset needed for a champion pole vaulter.
"You can relate a good, hard-nose running back to pole vaulting," the coach said. "They’re both not very common nowa-days, but it also takes having a couple screws loose to do both of them – especially pole vaulting when you’re hanging upside down at 16 feet in the air."
Taking on the best
Weaver said he believes Rodriguez has the ability to clear 17-feet or higher, a feat no one else in the state has accomplished this season.
Rodriguez nearly cleared 16-6 a few weeks ago at the Texas Relays in Austin.
"His second attempt at 16-6 he was a good foot over (the bar)," Weaver said, "he just clipped it with his chest on the way down."
As it is, Rodriguez’s jump of 16-1 is the third highest among any of the 4A competitors he will face this evening.
Vidor’s Jared Parker has the top height among 4A schools, clearing 16-6 at a regional qualifiers meet, while Gregory Portland’s Kaleb Sharder won the 4A Region IV meet with a leap of 16-3.5.
Nationally, just one high school pole vaulter has cleared the 17-foot mark according to DyeStat: Nico Weiler of Los Gatos (Calif.) who has recorded a leap of 17-4.
"I think if I have a really good day, I can jump 17," Rodriguez said. "I’ve had some good practices.
Working in Rodriguez’s favor, Weaver said, may be the circumstance for tonight’s competition: a prime time start at 6 p.m. and just seven other pole vaulters to go up against.
"Jeffrey shines on the big stages," Weaver said. "His best meet this year was at the Texas Relays, and there were people there all eyeing on him."
With just eight finalists competing for the state title tonight, instead of the more than 20 vaulters that Rodriguez had to wait for at the regional and district meets, Weaver said the Panther should be able to get in more of a rhythm and get some momentum going.
Family affair
Rodriguez, however, won’t be the only Keller ISD pole vaulter competing for a state title this weekend.
Keller’s Taylor Theodore will be fighting for a medal in the Class 5A competition Saturday afternoon.
Like Theodore, Rodriguez comes from a pole vaulting family. Aside from his brother, Rodriguez’s father George competed in both high school and at the University of North Texas.
George Rodriguez helps run Elite Vaulter Sports Complex in far north Fort Worth, while Theodore’s father Hal runs the Polecats Pole Vault Club in Keller.
Jeffrey Rodriguez said he has been pole vaulting since he was in sixth grade, and starting young was key for him to becoming successful at the sport.
"It’s such a technical thing and there’s so much to it," Rodriguez said. "It’s really hard for somebody just to come in and learn it."
To put together his best meet of the year, Rodriguez said everything will have to come together.
Whether Rodriguez breaks his brother’s school record or not, Weaver said the athlete has a really good pole vaulting future ahead of him.
Rodriguez said he’s interested in pole vaulting at the collegiate level, but has yet to decide on a school to attend in the fall.
The University of Texas, Texas Tech and the University of Houston have all shown interest in Rodriguez, Weaver said, and the higher he’s able to jump, the more attention he’ll continue to get.
Ridge’s other state qualifier, the girls 1600-meter relay team of Precious Tutt, Blair Hawthorne, Hanan Saafir and Morgan Pettway, will also be competing under the Friday night lights this evening.
The 4A 4-by-400 is the second-to-last event of the night, scheduled to begin at 9:05 p.m.
The Class 4A boys pole vaulting finals will be at 6 tonight, while the 5A girls event will be at 3 p.m. Saturday.
All events are to be held at the University of Texas’ Mike Myers Stadium.
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