Pole vaulting a family event at White Oak (TX)

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rainbowgirl28
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Expertise: Former College Vaulter, I coach and officiate as life allows
Lifetime Best: 11'6"
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World Record Holder?: Renaud Lavillenie
Favorite Vaulter: Casey Carrigan
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Pole vaulting a family event at White Oak (TX)

Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Mon Apr 24, 2006 8:57 am

http://www.news-journal.com/news/conten ... 7&cxcat=13

Pole vaulting a family event at White Oak

By GEORGE WHITLEY
Sunday, April 23, 2006

WHITE OAK â€â€

User avatar
rainbowgirl28
I'm in Charge
Posts: 30435
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2002 1:59 pm
Expertise: Former College Vaulter, I coach and officiate as life allows
Lifetime Best: 11'6"
Gender: Female
World Record Holder?: Renaud Lavillenie
Favorite Vaulter: Casey Carrigan
Location: A Temperate Island
Contact:

Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Sat May 06, 2006 11:56 am

http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4868161&nav=1TjF

White Oak Pole Vaulters Keep It In The Family
A family that plays together stays together. But at White Oak high school, two families that play together helped lead their team to regionals, sending one to the state tournament.

"I've never had anything like this," said White Oak track coach Richard Burks.

"Two big brothers and two young sister, it's weird," added Cla Craven.

"All four of them to be related," said Burks, "it's a unique situation."

The White Oak pole vaulting team is made up of freshman Natalie Craven, junior Cla Craven, freshman Juliana Tuel and senior Jared Tuel. It's no concidence each pair shares a last name. These are two sets, of brothers and sisters.

"Watching my brother made me want to get into pole vaulting," said Natalie Craven. "It's the same for Juliana, watching her brother made her want to pole vault."

"She looks up to me," Jared says about his little sister. "I guess that's kind of what drives me on 'cause I don't want to let her down."

"It's pretty interesting," added Juliana.

As a team they made it to regionals. Jared qualified for state. So maybe there's a pole vaulting gene that runs strong in these siblings, or maybe it's the fact that anything one sibling does, the other just has to do better.

"He's more of a coach than my big brother," said Juliana. "After every match he's always there to tell me I did right, tell me what I did wrong."

"That's what they get mad at me about," explained Jared. "I'm nit picky. If she's doing something wrong I try to correct her, sometimes she'll get mad."

With all the sibling rivalry, Coach Burks has to seem more like a referee sometime.

"Usually when they go to bickering," Burks explained, "I let them deal with that. It's good because they're all competitive and push each other."

Despite the squabbles, it's all about winning for this group, and behind every criticism, there's always a lot of love.

"Whenever he does good," Natalie said, "Ii know it pushes me to do better."


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