Jackie Rodgers trying to qualify in pole vault, bobsled
Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 3:09 pm
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07346/840877-123.stm
Baldwin graduate trying to qualify in pole vault, bobsled
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
USOC photo
Jackie Rodgers, serving as the brakeman for Phoebe Burns, has a goal of qualifying for the Summer and Winter Olympics.
If nothing else, Jackie Rodgers is not shy.
"I want to be famous," the Baldwin High School graduate said as simply as someone might express a notion to change shoes.
If she can pull off the double she's attempting, she's certain to attain some level of notoriety.
Rodgers, 24, was a WPIAL and state champion pole vaulter at Baldwin and a two-time NCAA All-American at Kent State. She would like to add a Summer Olympics appearance to her resume.
On the flip side of that resume, Rodgers hopes to list Winter Olympian one day. She's in Lake Placid, N.Y., preparing to compete in Europe later this winter as a bobsled brakeman.
What's the common ground between pole vaulting and bobsledding?
Not much beyond athleticism and the type of personality that wouldn't allow someone to be overwhelmed by the prospect of balancing the two.
"Double sport is so cool," Rodgers said.
During tryouts in Park City, Utah, in late October, she qualified for the World Cup circuit and will join that or another circuit in mid-January. For now, she's back in Lake Placid rehabilitating a minor back and hip injury she got while braking hard in Utah. She's also working with some of the men's bobsled drivers as they test sled runners.
"She has tremendous athletic ability," United States women's bobsled coach Sepp Plozza said. "I expect her to do very well this year."
In a roundabout way, pole vaulting led Rodgers to bobsledding.
After she left Kent, she followed her coach, T.J. Pierce, to Nebraska, to help him run camps in his home state in summer 2006. She then was offered a recruiting job with the Cornhuskers while she continued to train.
"I don't want to grow up yet, so I said sure," Rodgers said.
One day last summer, she met U.S. bobsled team member and Nebraska native Curt Tomasovicz.
"I was working out and saw this beastly guy walk in," Rodgers said.
They talked, and Tomasovicz recommended she try the sport.
"So I did," she said. "I don't know why. That's kind of how I am. Sure, I'll try anything."
Rodgers was put through several tests and attended a camp in September, then was invited to start training with other national team hopefuls. She quit the job at Nebraska and, in October, went to Lake Placid along with several other women.
Within a few days, she had been down the track from the top and had endured a crash with 17 turns to go at 70 mph.
"It's a crazy, crazy ride," Rodgers said.
At 150 pounds, Rodgers doesn't necessarily fit the prototype for either of her sports.
"I'm usually called 'Big Mama,' but with bobsled they call me 'Peanut,' " she said. "I don't necessary have to get bigger, but I have to find a happy medium."
After her winter training for bobsled, Rodgers will switch back to pole vault. She hasn't met the qualifying standard for next summer's Olympic trials and last summer cut back to just working on her short approach.
"I would love to [make the trials], but it will be hard in three months," she said.
Not that she'll stop trying over the coming years.
Rodgers is the only athlete who has won three WPIAL girls' pole vault titles and cleared a top height of 12 feet, 2 inches in high school. She won a state title in 1999. Her days at Baldwin were important enough to her that she was a few days late reporting to Lake Placid in October so she could attend her induction into the school's hall of fame.
She proved her resilience during her career at Kent. As a freshman, she crashed on the plant box and badly tore tendons in her left leg, leaving her on crutches for nearly two years. Doctors told her she would not be able to sprint well enough on the approach to resume vaulting.
"It was tough, but I never thought that I wasn't going to do it," said Rodgers. She came back to set a school record of 13-91/2 and was fifth in the 2005 NCAA championships with a height of 13-91/4.
Rodgers sees no reason she can't also overcome the long odds of conquering bobsledding by winter, pole vaulting by summer.
"As long as it's working," she said.
Baldwin graduate trying to qualify in pole vault, bobsled
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
USOC photo
Jackie Rodgers, serving as the brakeman for Phoebe Burns, has a goal of qualifying for the Summer and Winter Olympics.
If nothing else, Jackie Rodgers is not shy.
"I want to be famous," the Baldwin High School graduate said as simply as someone might express a notion to change shoes.
If she can pull off the double she's attempting, she's certain to attain some level of notoriety.
Rodgers, 24, was a WPIAL and state champion pole vaulter at Baldwin and a two-time NCAA All-American at Kent State. She would like to add a Summer Olympics appearance to her resume.
On the flip side of that resume, Rodgers hopes to list Winter Olympian one day. She's in Lake Placid, N.Y., preparing to compete in Europe later this winter as a bobsled brakeman.
What's the common ground between pole vaulting and bobsledding?
Not much beyond athleticism and the type of personality that wouldn't allow someone to be overwhelmed by the prospect of balancing the two.
"Double sport is so cool," Rodgers said.
During tryouts in Park City, Utah, in late October, she qualified for the World Cup circuit and will join that or another circuit in mid-January. For now, she's back in Lake Placid rehabilitating a minor back and hip injury she got while braking hard in Utah. She's also working with some of the men's bobsled drivers as they test sled runners.
"She has tremendous athletic ability," United States women's bobsled coach Sepp Plozza said. "I expect her to do very well this year."
In a roundabout way, pole vaulting led Rodgers to bobsledding.
After she left Kent, she followed her coach, T.J. Pierce, to Nebraska, to help him run camps in his home state in summer 2006. She then was offered a recruiting job with the Cornhuskers while she continued to train.
"I don't want to grow up yet, so I said sure," Rodgers said.
One day last summer, she met U.S. bobsled team member and Nebraska native Curt Tomasovicz.
"I was working out and saw this beastly guy walk in," Rodgers said.
They talked, and Tomasovicz recommended she try the sport.
"So I did," she said. "I don't know why. That's kind of how I am. Sure, I'll try anything."
Rodgers was put through several tests and attended a camp in September, then was invited to start training with other national team hopefuls. She quit the job at Nebraska and, in October, went to Lake Placid along with several other women.
Within a few days, she had been down the track from the top and had endured a crash with 17 turns to go at 70 mph.
"It's a crazy, crazy ride," Rodgers said.
At 150 pounds, Rodgers doesn't necessarily fit the prototype for either of her sports.
"I'm usually called 'Big Mama,' but with bobsled they call me 'Peanut,' " she said. "I don't necessary have to get bigger, but I have to find a happy medium."
After her winter training for bobsled, Rodgers will switch back to pole vault. She hasn't met the qualifying standard for next summer's Olympic trials and last summer cut back to just working on her short approach.
"I would love to [make the trials], but it will be hard in three months," she said.
Not that she'll stop trying over the coming years.
Rodgers is the only athlete who has won three WPIAL girls' pole vault titles and cleared a top height of 12 feet, 2 inches in high school. She won a state title in 1999. Her days at Baldwin were important enough to her that she was a few days late reporting to Lake Placid in October so she could attend her induction into the school's hall of fame.
She proved her resilience during her career at Kent. As a freshman, she crashed on the plant box and badly tore tendons in her left leg, leaving her on crutches for nearly two years. Doctors told her she would not be able to sprint well enough on the approach to resume vaulting.
"It was tough, but I never thought that I wasn't going to do it," said Rodgers. She came back to set a school record of 13-91/2 and was fifth in the 2005 NCAA championships with a height of 13-91/4.
Rodgers sees no reason she can't also overcome the long odds of conquering bobsledding by winter, pole vaulting by summer.
"As long as it's working," she said.