Coach Kyle Bishop is a native of Prince George County Virginia. His love of sports began at an early age; inspired by his father who had been an accomplished baseball/fast pitch softball player during the 1940s and 50s.
Coach Bishop began as a multi-sport athlete in the early 1970s, but after viewing the 1976 summer Olympic Games on television, he was motivated to give track and field a try. Which brings us to the now well-known story of a teammate remarking that Bishop didn’t “look like a pole-vaulter”; the statement was as good as a challenge to Coach Bishop, who set about from that day to prove him wrong.
Unfortunately, the lack of experienced pole vault coaching in the immediate vicinity made it difficult to accomplish this goal.
Bishop didn’t give up. The first step was to gather as much information on the subject as possible. He began with the very limited resources provided by the local libraries. This was actually the beginning of a lifelong quest for knowledge of everything related to the pole vault.
While attending high school, he worked in order to raise the necessary funds to purchase his own poles and be able to pay the attendance fees for summer pole vault camps.
By the end of his high school career, Coach Bishop held the school record, was All-Region, and had competed in the State Championships several times.
Also during this time, while still a student-athlete himself, Kyle began to coach his teammates in the pole vault, thus launching his coaching career. more
