It all started freshman year when Josh Sibyan went to track practice and saw unfamiliar, long poles on the ground. It’s gone from taking up pole vaulting as a way to get out of competing in multiple events with the Monache High School track team to getting to the point this year where he’s coaching fellow vaulters and shooting for the MHS record height of 14 feet. Plus, the senior will continue jumping with a long, bendy pole at Long Beach State next season, where he’ll study Civil Engineering with the help of an academic scholarship. He’s already visited the track team and saw how the pole vaulters practice, and it made him want to get even better.“I loved it,” he said. “It would be really awesome to vault there. They’re jumping 16 feet, and it would be a goal to be that good. It’s something to push for.”Though the two-time East Yosemite League pole vaulting champion is nursing a strained hip flexor he aggravated a day before last Wednesday’s Porterville City Relays at Rankin Stadium, that doesn’t mean he can’t help out his teammates. He’s been using videos to study and analyze the form and technique of professional vaulters, and it’s worked. more
