Brothers keeping it all in the family
It takes a certain combination of skill, athleticism and competitive drive to be a collegiate athlete. It takes the right coaching, philosophy and goals for an athlete to truly thrive and excel at such a high level.
In a sport where competitors outperform each other by bending a 15-foot fiberglass tube and hurling themselves over a 17-foot standard, it takes balance and gymnastic prowess. After sprinting at top speeds to obtain the force necessary to bend to pole dangerously close to the breaking point, the slightest shift in balance will either throw athletes skyward and onto a cushy pad, or out of safety and into the hard, unforgiving runway. It takes a certain level of fearlessness and insanity to attempt this once, let alone do it over and over again, or do it well. This is pole vaulting.
This is the track event Joel Johnson has been coaching since 2004 at Utah State University. Before his coaching career began, he was an athlete at USU doing the same drills he now puts his own vaulters through.
“Joel went through it,” said USU head track coach Gregg Gensel. “He knew what needed to be done to be great.”
The value of a coach can be measured by how well his athletes perform in competition, but there is far more to being great than being able to jump over a bar. As the commercials say, most collegiate student athletes will “go pro” in something other than sports. Over the years he has spent coaching at USU, Joel has touched the lives of many, including former Aggie vaulter Kirsten Flesher.
“He’s helped me grow up in so many ways besides track,” Flesher said. “I think he’s an awesome coach to begin with pole vaulting, but I learn a lot of life skills just being around Joel. He’s still helping me.”
Joel comes from a family of several siblings, who according to Gensel are all competitive with each other. Aggie junior vaulter John Johnson is one of those competitive brothers.
“I’ve known the Johnson family obviously for a long time,” Gensel said. “Joel’s the oldest brother and John’s one of the youngest … they’re competitive in everything that they do.”
So who is the better pole vaulter?
“I think I was actually,” John said, remembering his high school mark. “But (Joel) jumped much higher than I am right now in college; I’ve only jumped 16-foot-3. Hopefully I’ll beat him this year though.”
“He’s still got a little ways to go to beat me in college,” Joel said of his little brother. “My collegiate mark was 5-meters-15, which is 16-feet-10-and-3/4, and I don’t consider myself a pole-vaulter, I was a decathlete, so I can always razz him about that.”
Competitive spirit is the thing the Johnson brothers bring to the track program at USU, which Gensel said he really likes.
“They bring out the best in each other,” Gensel said. “They don’t ever say ‘I can’t do this.’ They’re always like, ‘What can I do more to make me better at this?'”
John said he always had help in sports. In high school he won three state championships; two in the pole vault and one in wrestling.
“I have five older brothers and they’ve always helped me in all sorts of stuff from the time I was little,” John said. “I did lots of sports so different ones would help me with wrestling and track and football.”
The help and competitive fuel the Johnson brothers give each other might have ended after high school. After graduating from Box Elder High School in Brigham City, Utah, John wanted to become a collegiate wrestler. After opportunities with schools he felt good about fell through, John had a talk with his brother that “most definitely” influenced his decision to attend Utah State.
“(Joel) told me that he felt like I could be a pretty good vaulter in college,” John said. “Probably if I could have chosen anywhere besides a ridiculously good track school, it would have been here just because he’s a coach and I’m comfortable with him.”
“Well I mean obviously you want to coach the best athletes that you can coach,” Joel said. “It’s kinda cool that he decided to come to Utah State … He’s just a really good athlete. I’m happy to coach any really good athletes. So yeah, it’s really fun to have him on the team.”
But is it weird to coach a brother?
“It does give me some unique ammunition to tease him a little bit more,” Joel said. “Because I know a lot about his history and family life and how things have gone. If I really want to get him motivated I can bring up stories from the past and really get under his skin and help him to understand what he needs to do. It’s all in good fun.”
“Really he’s been my coach the whole time,” John said. “I guess if we weren’t as close it might be a little awkward, but the way that Joel coaches, he kinda treats everybody like a sibling. I do think in some ways he might be a little harder on me, but I kinda like that, so it’s not a big deal. It’s mostly me asking him like, ‘what else I can do.'”
John is currently USU’s number one pole vaulter. Last season he took third place at the Western Athletic Conference championships and was named first-team all-WAC. At the Washington State Invitational in Pullman, Wash., earlier this year, John took second place overall.
“We want to see him as one of the top vaulters in the country,” Joel said. “Anytime you can make it to the national meet then I would consider that that goal has been realized. That’s definitely one of the goals that we talk about a lot, is getting to the highest level of competition, which is nationals.”
To qualify for the national meet, John said he will have to consistently jump 17-feet, about a foot higher than his current personal record.
“It’s possible, but I’m not quite where I want to be right now,” John said. “When the WAC championships are happening that’s when everyone comes together, ‘cause we all want to do really well. We’ve prepared a lot for it and then we just want to win.”
Track and field athletes at Utah State have won national championships in five different events. Out of the many pole vaulters produced at USU, three have been named all-American a total of six times. The top eight American finishers at nationals are named all-American.
“We’ve won a lot of championships both the men’s and women’s side in the last 20 years,” Joel said. “We have a good history of being and doing really good things. I’m just excited for what the season has to offer us and I hope a lot of people come out and support us.”
“We win a lot, so it’s nice,” John said.
–tavin.stucki@aggiemail.usu.edu