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Olympic hopefuls to train in Stockton
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By The Record
January 24, 2008 6:00 AM
Some of the top track and field athletes in the country soon will call Stockton their training home.

Tri-Valley Athletic Club is a new creation between professional athletes training for the Olympics and Tri-Valley Vault Athletics, a Northern California youth club. The professional athletes will train inside a 200-foot by 200-foot warehouse at Rough and Ready Island in Stockton beginning Monday, while the youths will continue to train primarily in Livermore, according to three-time Olympic high jumper Amy Acuff.

For about the past year, the professional athletes have trained at a remote location in Isleton for Tiger Bar Sports. The Isleton property is in the process of being sold, so the athletes struck a deal with the Port of Stockton earlier this week.

"It's a great situation and (Port of Stockton director) Richard Aschieris has been super helpful in welcoming our club," Acuff said. "It's a bigger building, it's going to be more stable and dependable. We're excited."

Tri-Valley Athletic Club includes six former Olympians and has the potential to generate 17 Olympic berths this year in Beijing. The training will continue to be overseen by noted track and field coach Dan Pfaff. The members include Acuff, her husband Tye Harvey, a renowned pole vaulter and Bret Harte High graduate, Suzy Powell-Roos, a Modesto native and the American record holder in the discus, and world champion pole vaulter Brad Walker.

We're moving starting tomorrow.

Well, actually, I'm stuck at work tomorrow but will go down to help Saturday and Sunday.

Tony has fallen upon some personal difficulties, and hopefully he will be able to concentrate on his stuff without having to worry about the athletes and Dan. Tri-Valley is under the direction of the Doggetts, who are incredibly well-organized, and should be a much more stable situation for the athletes.

Tye says we should be able to have a 90 meter straightaway and all the jumping can now be done indoors. The roof at Twitchell Island was too low for serious jumping and the rainy season was going to be a problem. The new place with have a 40' ceiling and the plans are for two vaulting pits.

If anyone has a runway surface they can spare, we could sure use it.

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... /802090317

Rough and ready for gold
Olympic dreams the latest import at the Port of Stockton


By Bob Highfill
Record Sports Editor
February 09, 2008 6:00 AM
STOCKTON - Past the security gate, down a series of pockmarked roads and across a strand of railroad tracks stands a dusty old warehouse with a corrugated metal roof.

Building 812 on the former Navy facility of Rough and Ready Island at the Port of Stockton might not look like much, but it's heaven on earth to 19 elite athletes and the coach who's training them for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

"This is a dream come true for us," said Tye Harvey, a Sonora High graduate and a silver medalist in the pole vault at the 2001 World Indoor Championships. "To have this facility available is worth a million dollars."

The athletes have been training in Stockton since late January after moving from their Tiger Bar Sports facility on Twitchell Island in Isleton. The remote site in the San Joaquin Delta had been their home for nearly two years, but when the land they were using went up for sale recently, they had to find a new facility fast.

"We were freaking out," three-time Olympic high jumper Amy Acuff said. "It was scary because we are so dependent on our training schedules. You can't afford to lose days."

With help from Andy Prokop, president and CEO of United Way of San Joaquin, and Richard Aschieris, port director, the athletes were able to relocate with minimal disruption. The group dropped its affiliation with Tiger Bar Sports, joined Tri-Valley Athletics of Livermore and signed a rent-free, one-year lease with the Port of Stockton. The athletes then moved truckloads of cumbersome equipment from Isleton on Jan. 25 and were up and running, literally, three days later.

"I'm extremely pleased that they're out there," Aschieris said. "It's a great opportunity for our community to have more of a stake in the progress of these athletes working toward the Olympics. They're a wonderful and refreshing presence."

Though not state of the art, their dank, 40,000-square-foot home is adequately equipped with a pole vault runway and pit, a high jump pit, weightlifting equipment, two 90-meter sprinting lanes, a throwing area and a heated tent where the athletes can receive treatment.

Besides Harvey and Acuff, who have been married since October 2004, the group includes Modesto native Suzy Powell-Roos, the American record holder in the discus; Canadian sprinter Anson Henry; 2007 world champion pole vaulter Brad Walker; and three-time NCAA champion pole vaulter Tommy Skipper.

Among the group, eight participated in the World Championships last summer in Osaka, Japan. Brock Krietzburg, a bobsledder on the 2006 Olympic team, is training at the warehouse for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

The athletes have been working with renowned track and field coach Dan Pfaff, who has tutored 33 Olympians, including seven medalists, while at Houston, Wichita State, the University of Texas-El Paso, Louisiana State University, Texas and Florida.

Pfaff helped start Tiger Bar Sports with Harvey, Acuff and Powell. Other athletes who were anxious to work with him joined the club at Twitchell Island and have followed him to Stockton.

"Dan is the key for us to reach the level we need to reach," Powell-Roos said.

Said Pfaff: "I feel blessed the port has allowed us to come here to keep trying to get these guys to Beijing."

Most of the athletes have their sights set on the U.S. Track and Field Trials from June 27 to July 6 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. The Olympics are Aug. 8-24.

Beijing is only part of the athletes' mission. They hope to become involved with the community during their stay in Stockton.

"We have a chance to reach out to the local people and youth and be what Olympians are supposed to be about," Powell-Roos said. "We'd like to be an example to the youth."

Most track and field athletes have to fend for themselves once they lose support from their college programs. Some receive subsidies from sponsors, but most have outside jobs.

The athletes hope to raise funds to cover their costs and secure Pfaff's services beyond the Olympics. The club will hold fundraising events in the coming months.

More information is available from Michelle or Jim Doggett (925) 449-7966 or doggettfamily@comcast.net.

Contact sports editor Bob Highfill at (209) 546-8282 or bhighfill@recordnet.com.



TRI-VALLEY ATHLETICS

The nineteen athletes training on Rough and Ready Island for the upcoming Olympics in Beijing include former Olympians, world and NCAA champions.

• Amy Acuff, high jump

Born: July 14, 1975

Hometown: Corpus Christi, Texas

College: UCLA

Three-time Olympian (1996, 2000, 2004)

• Seun Augustus, long jump

Born: Nov. 6, 1977

Hometown: Lagos, Nigeria

College: James Madison

Nigerian national champion

• Stephanie Brown-Trafton, discus

Born: Aug. 13, 1979

Hometown: Sacramento

College: Xavier

2004 Olympian

• Joe Cebulski, decathlon

Born: Sept. 9, 1976

Hometown: Grand Rapids, Mich.

College: Taylor University

British Combined Events champion

• Brian DaCunha, pole vault

Born: May 20, 1980

Hometown: Lake Worth, Fla.

College: Florida

NCAA All-American

• Carly Dockendorf, pole vault

Born: Jan. 31, 1983

Hometown: Port Moody, British Columbia

College: Washington

• Tye Harvey, pole vault

Born: Sept. 25, 1974

Hometown: Sonora

College: Minnesota

2004 Olympic alternate

• Anson Henry, 100, 200, 400 relay

Born: Sept. 3, 1979

Hometown: Toronto, Canada

College: Washington State

2004 Olympian

• Becky Holiday, pole vault

Born: March 12, 1980

Hometown: Sparks, Nev.

College: Oregon

2005 NCAA champion

• Yoo Suk Kim, pole vault

Born: Jan. 19, 1982

Hometown: Seoul, South Korea

College: UCLA

2004 Korean Olympian

• Brock Kreitzberg, bobsled

Born: Feb. 16, 1976

Hometown: Akron, Ohio

College: Toledo

2006 Olympian

• Rachel Longfors, discus

Born: Feb. 3, 1985

Hometown: Erhard, Minn.

College: Florida

Five-time NCAA All-American

• Stephanie McCann, pole vault

Born: Aug. 22, 1977

Hometown: Surrey, British Columbia

College: Azusa Pacific

10th place, 2004 Olympics

• Nikki McEwen, pole vault

Born: April 1, 1980

Hometown: Medford, Ore.

College: Oregon

2007 World Championship team

• Suzy Powell-Roos, discus

Born: Sept. 3, 1976

Hometown: Modesto

College: UCLA

Two-time Olympian (1996, 2000)

• Tommy Skipper, pole vault

Born: Sept. 19, 1984

Hometown: Sandy, Ore.

College: Oregon

Three-time NCAA champion

• Brad Walker, pole vault

Born: June 21, 1981

Hometown: Spokane, Wash.

College: Washington

2007 World Champion

• Arend Watkins, 100 hurdles

Born: June 21, 1981

Hometown: San Jose

College: Washington State

Personal best: 13.23 seconds

NCAA All-American

• Jeff Ryun

Born: Dec. 8, 1980

Hometown: Huntington Beach

College: USC

2003 NCAA All-American

• Dan Pfaff, coach

Hometown: Dayton, Ohio

College: Wright State

Coached 33 Olympians, seven medalists

TV network segment on Tri-Valley Athletics:

http://cbs13.com/video/?id=30978@kovr.dayport.com

You may recognize some of the faces.

I will be picking up a copy of the segment from the station's engineer tomorrow and am looking forward to a tour of the studio.

that gymnastic drill that Tye does in this video is so cool...i really want to try it! lol