Sam Nelson: Never stop improving

Utah State University pole vaulter Sam Nelson went from being a walk-on to a conference champion in his time dawning the Aggie uniform.

The senior from Boise, Idaho won the indoor and outdoor Mountain West Championships in 2018 and earned three All-Mountain West honors. He holds the sixth-best pole vault mark in Utah State history at 5.17 meters. But his most cherished memories in his time with the Aggies are not the first place ribbons he won, but what he was able to accomplish amidst adversity and what he learned from it. 

“My best accomplishment, even though it’s not first place or anything, I took third last year, and I was dealing with an injury,” Nelson said. 

Despite not being at his best physical ability at the 2019 Mountain West indoor championships, Nelson managed to jump 5.10 meters, good for third place and 6 points for his team. 

Injuries continued to plague the high-flying vaulter and kept him from the competition in the 2019 outdoor season. He then redshirted the 2020 indoor season in preparation for a final outdoor season that would never come.

Throughout a difficult stretch of fighting through injuries and trying to keep his focus on track, Nelson began to have some doubts. 

“There were a lot of times where it was just like, is this kind of a sign I need to throw in the towel and start focusing on other things?” he said.

But Nelson’s love of track persevered. 

“I just felt like it was an opportunity for me to grow and learn that just because there’s obstacles or hurdles that I need to overcome, it’s not a reason for me to find something else to do,” he said. “It’s a way for me to get stronger and figure out how to deal with things.”

Nelson also found strength in advice from a friend who is a pole vaulter at the Air Force Academy: “I am in charge of how I direct my attitude toward situations.” 

The advice from his buddy was something Nelson took to heart, on and off the field. And it may have been good preparation for what was to come, as he soon found out that his final season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A lot of stuff went through my mind when I heard about all of this,” Nelson said. “When you think about it, I’ve spent the last 10 years just (pole vaulting) and working towards something — it was my last year to finish off with that.”

“He really wanted to break the school record and we both believed he could do it this season,” USU track and field’s multi events and  jumps coach Erik Rasmussen said in a recent interview. “For him to lose those opportunities is heartbreaking.” 

Nelson had trained so hard to return for his final season, all for it to be taken away. But something happened that made him put things in perspective. His friend and teammate, Roman Ruiz, suffered a life-threatening brain injury on March 7 — just days before the spring sports season was canceled.

“That was another big eye-opener for me to know that there’s a lot more to life than track and field,” Nelson said. “Although I’ve learned a lot of life lessons from track and field, there’s a lot of other things that I can learn from.”

Though his final season was cut short, Nelson’s lasting legacy at Utah State will be what he was able to accomplish despite the roadblocks. 

Before Rasmussen was hired in 2017 to coach the jumpers, none of the coaches knew how to pole vault, so Nelson was essentially his own coach. 

“It took a lot of YouTube and self-training,” he said.

Nelson worked his way into a scholarship and won the two conference championships, and then he continued to be a leader on the team while fighting his injuries.

 “It is amazing how far Sam came as an athlete,” Rasmussen said. “He only jumped 14 feet, 6 inches in high school. He improved by over three feet. That’s pretty remarkable and very rare.”

The team captain hopes that his efforts have had an impact on his teammates. 

“I’ve just tried to show that everything you do in life, whether it’s track or school or working or things like that, just try to be the best, give 100% in everything that you do,” he said.

And according to Rasmussen, this attitude has been crucial for the team’s success.

“His experiences as an athlete allowed him to share valuable insight when others were struggling with performance, injury, and how to be successful,” Rasmussen said. “He is a great leader, friend, and one of the best people I ever had the opportunity to work with.”

@jacobnielson12

— jacobnielson12@yahoo.com