OXFORD, Miss — This is the true story of how a Mississippian came to be one of the best pole vaulters in the world. There’s another story, one Sam Kendricks will tell people. It’s shorter, more direct and perhaps saves a little face. But the reality is that his athletic career began as a kid just trying to make his father’s Oxford High School track and field team. But as Kendricks can admit, he wasn’t very fast as a seventh-grader. Nor was he very athletic. His twin brother Tom was, and Scott Kendricks just couldn’t bear the thought of one brother making the team and the other not. They always needed specialists, though, and girls’ pole vault had just become an event in Mississippi. They now had a pole for a 90-pound girl — or, in this case, a 90-pound seventh-grade boy. “He thought if I worked hard enough at it and he worked with me, we could excel,” Kendricks said. And that’s the thing that has propelled Kendricks from humble beginnings to two-time state champion to NCAA champion to contender on the world scene: He is not adverse to the kind of dedication it takes to improve at a sport where an inch can be everything. more at Jackson Clarion Ledger
