June 10, 2009
| NCAA Outdoor Championships | Wed.-Sat., June 10-13 |
Championship Central | Live Results | Meet Notes  |
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – In the second year under Coach Lawrence Johnson, the Gamecocks advanced a program best three pole vaulters to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The three – senior Liza Todd, junior Elliott Haynie and freshman Marvin Reitze – sat with GamecocksOnline.com to chat before competing Wednesday.
So as you know by now, this is the most pole vaulters to qualify for nationals in South Carolina history. Each individually, how does it feel to you to be a part of that history?
Liza Todd: It’s pretty exciting to make history and to start a legacy here at SC. It’s my last year here pole vaulting and I wanted to end it on a good foot.
Marvin Reitze: As a freshman, I think it’s a great thing to see what you can achieve in your first year. Then to have two other teammates to come and represent South Carolina as well is pretty cool
Elliott Haynie: For me, I’m more happy for Coach Johnson, someone who does so much for us. Just to qualify three people – you don’t have many schools qualifying three people for one event, especially and event like pole vault. For him to get three qualifiers shows the dedication that he has on his part. We’re grateful and I’m just happy we’re producing for him b/c he puts all his efforts into us.
It all started with the hiring of Coach Johnson last year…what is he like as a coach?
LT: He’s great. He’s real intense, especially during the meets. He’s so focused on everything he’s doing. He knows so much about the vault and he’s so educated, and I’ve learned so much the past two years about not only the technique but also mentally how to compete and be a good vaulter.
MR: He cares about a lot of things. He wants to make everything perfect. In a meet there are so many small things you have to take care about, and he just wants to make sure that everything is right for us so we can just go out and compete without worrying about problems on the track.
EH: He gives us the motivation and he helps us to believe in ourselves. Every competition we go to, he lets us know that no matter what the weather condition is, we can win it. It’s not just him saying that, it’s the training that we put into it. He knows the training we’re putting in and what we do behind closed doors. We might not be first on paper, but that doesn’t matter. He knows what we’re capable of doing, and he gives us the insight to make ourselves believe we’re capable of doing what we’re doing.
Are there ever moments of: I’m being coached by an Olympic medalist and the NCAA record holder?
LT: Last year when they were interviewing for coaches, the pole vaulters got to go in the process and talk to the coaches. I remember he came up and everyone was like “it’s Lawrence Johnson! It’s Lawrence Johnson!”. I was thinking he was never going to come here. He does come and he’s so down to earth about everything. You know he’s an Olympian because of how knowledgeable he is about the vault and how focused he is.
MR: He was a professional athlete and went through the ups and downs of an athletic career, so he knows a lot about pole vault, being an athlete and being a champion.
EH: He was the reason why I came. Looking up to him as a younger pole vaulter and then actually sitting down during my recruiting process and him going through things with me, it showed me he wasn’t just a good athlete but that he knows a lot of things about this event. Having him there as a coach is awesome. Every weekend we get asked by other vaulters, “how does it feel to get coached by Lawrence Johnson?” Every meet – and we give the same response that he’s great.
MR: He’s a normal person and he’s just a friend to us. It’s nothing extremely special; we just believe in him and know that we’re doing the right things to achieve what we want.
What’s one of the most memorable things he has told you or you’ve learned from him?
MR: For me it’s more the part of the mental things he teaches us. Psychological things like your mind is right to compete. Actually often it’s not your athletic ability that shows what you can do, it’s your mind that leads your performance. You can strengthen your mind and become a better athlete.
LT: I’ve grown so much the past couple of years mentally, like Marvin was saying. I know how to compete and how to go out there and use all that I have and work with what I do have to compete at my best level. He’s been really good at helping us all get through the competition mentally, even if we (uses her hands to emphasize quote, unquote) “shouldn’t win”, he tells us that we can win. We just need to break through the competition.
EH: It’s the things that he’s been through and the stories he tells us. The weather conditions and his injuries while competing, it just gives us insight on how to compete during the weather conditions or when we’re feeling hurt. We can still win, and just to give us that confidence is big because you’re not going to have any other coach, especially in the pole vault, that has been through the things that he’s been through during his career. That’s something that not every coach can have to give to an athlete.
MR: Another important aspect is that you will never have perfect conditions to jump in a meet, whether it’s the weather or the runway, the pit or the box. Maybe you’ll have a small injury or just don’t feel good, but it’s not a good excuse to not perform good. It’s what your mind can do for you to step over it.
We’ve got three different profiles: local senior that has been through two coaches, junior transfer and the international freshman. What is the atmosphere like between all of the vaulters on the team?
MR: We definitely have a big group of pole vaulters with so many different individuals, but what makes it amazing is practicing with this group. Every day there’s a different atmosphere in our group, whether it’s more competition or just talking together. Every practice is different.
LT: We all mesh pretty well together. We definitely have had to sort of work through some things at the beginning of the year because of so many people and personalities, but right now we have the perfect dynamic between everyone. We have a good time together.
EH: I came in as a transfer and the school I was at before, there weren’t many of us. There was maybe one person I would train with at a time. Coming here and having that team type of training was very new to me. At first, I wanted to get myself where I needed to be. I had been through so many struggles, so the team thing wasn’t in my mind, but being with them and seeing everybody want you to do well and cheering you on through your workouts and vault sessions, you have no choice but to fall into the team aspect and to help one another out.
Are there any crazy stories or funny stories you can tell me about each other?
LT: Let me filter!
MR: Maybe one thing is that pole vaulters do crazy things. We once went to the lake to do a rope swing. Together with the group, not everyone will do things but we have a lot of stuff that we do together in our free time.
EH: We’ve barbecued before, we all went swimming together.
LT: We try to get the team together a lot. We always get together.
EH: I think the craziest times come from Coach Johnson. He’s so animated. He can talk about Star Wars for an hour, then he’ll start talking about games.
LT: He always wants us to get together and play games and compete. Guitar Hero, Mario Kart, any type of game. We had field day one day which was fun where we had partners and did wheel barrel races and had hand stand competitions.
Pole Vault is one of those special groups on the track… why and when did you start vaulting?
MR: I started doing different events from throws to sprints to jumps. I was pretty good in every event so I started with decathlon. You actually need pole vault in the decathlon and it was the most difficult event. I just tried it out and my first session was pretty good, and eventually it was my best event in the decathlon. After some time you have to specialize. I love the practices too because there’s so much variety with gymnastics, sprints and jumps. It’s just fun to compete and people are excited about pole vault.
LT: I started the first year it was an official high school girls sport. Me and my sister were both gymnasts. My aunt was into track and she told us that we had good body awareness and were strong. I just started it and ended up being pretty decent at it. I wasn’t sure if I was going to do it in college or not, so I tried it out for a year to see how it went and it was well.
EH: I picked it up a little later in high school. I picked it up when I was 17 years old as a junior midway through the season. I really, really liked it. That’s how I got into it. We needed someone to score points at regionals and I decided to do it and put a lot of time into it. My next year I was state runner-up, then went to Gardner-Webb where I went form a 14-foot pole vaulter into a 17’08” vaulter which is a pretty good jump. So that’s how I got here. At an all-black high school you didn’t really see too many pole vaulters!
What has been your most exciting pole vault moment so far in your career?
LT: This has been it. Making it to nationals has been a pretty big step for me. I was a long shot at regionals. I was ranked 13th and had to come in top five, but I knew I could make it here. So really just being here right now, and hopefully I can make it to finals and have some more pretty big moments.
MR: Probably when I qualified and knew I would go to the U18 Championships in Morocco. It was my first big international meet. You put so much time into it and then get to go to another country, it’s just the atmosphere being in a world championships and competing against guys from other countries that you’ve never seen before. It’s just wonderful to represent your country. These nationals are also like an international competition for me as a foreigner. To compete at the American national championships as a German is a great pleasure, and I just want to be good and also perform for my country.
EH: My most exciting moment came a year ago indoors where I really stamped my ticket to go to nationals. I’ve hit provisional marks before, but I never stamped my ticket to go to the meet. I stamped it at Clemson University where it was my first time jumping 5.35-meters. That mark made it to nationals every year that indoors started, so I knew I was going. First of all I didn’t practice the entire week, so when I got off the mat I sprinted around the whole entire track. Everyone thought I was crazy. That was probably the best moment, especially being at a small school that no one had heard of. That has to be the best experience so far.
