PoleVaultPower.com

As most of you know, Brian Mondschein has been competing for PoleVaultPower.com for the past 2 years. Although I have a very limited ability to help him out financially, the goal is to connect him with the Pole Vault Power community, and that if we all help a little, it will add up to a lot. The support we have all provided so far has helped Brian make the transition from college athlete to professional.

His most immediate need right now is a pole!

In his words:

Hey All! This is my first fund raising effort for the year. I am looking to help cover the cost a pole I need to purchase. For those curious it is a 5.10 13.7 pacer carbon pole. Gill Athletic supplies 99 percent of my poles however, due to some circumstances this pole they cant supply me with. This is looking like a one time deal, and I want to say again how greatful I am to them for their continued support of me and the pursuit of my dreams!

My goal here is to raise 400 dollars which whill help cover the cost of this pole. Any additional money raised will go towards my training and traveling funds to get to meets this year! Thank you so much for any and all donations!!!

You can help in two ways:
To make a one time donation, you can go here and click the "Donate Now" button: http://polevaultpower.com/brian/fundraising.htm
To make a commitment to donate to Brian every month, go here: http://polevaultpower.com/brian/mysponsors.html if you want to donate a monthly amount other than what is listed, let myself or Brian know and we will get it set up for you.

Once he raises enough money to buy this pole, he will start saving up for his indoor season expenses.

Brian's 2008 Indoor Schedule
Dec 6 - Arkansas State, Jonesboro, AR
Jan 2 - National Pole Vault Summit, Reno, NV
Jan 9 - Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Jan 31 - Penn State, State College, PA
Feb 7 - Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Feb 21 - Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Feb 28 - USATF National Championships, Boston, MA

Thanks in advance!

I forgot to mention that Brian has been posting updates from his practices on his YouTube page at: http://www.youtube.com/user/aim4beijing

He's looking good!

Look with all do respect to Brian, he is a incredible vaulter and has great things going for him. But come on, if he needs a new pole that bad, get a job. I mean split some wood, mow some lawns or something. I jump with a vaulter whos up there in Brians league and his poles cost close to 600 bucks sometimes but he's gotta work his a** off for them and then let alone find somewhere to practice in the winter. Im not trying to be mean im just saying you gotta work for somethings.

Gravity23 wrote:Look with all do respect to Brian, he is a incredible vaulter and has great things going for him. But come on, if he needs a new pole that bad, get a job. I mean split some wood, mow some lawns or something. I jump with a vaulter whos up there in Brians league and his poles cost close to 600 bucks sometimes but he's gotta work his a** off for them and then let alone find somewhere to practice in the winter. Im not trying to be mean im just saying you gotta work for somethings.

If you don't want to support Brian, then don't make a donation. There's no need to bash him. Brian does some part-time jobs as well as taking grad school classes and of course training. There's nothing lazy about using the resources available to you to fundraise. I don't know any emerging elite vaulters who aren't working hard to make ends meet. If you have people who want to support you, there is no shame is asking for help. Working too many jobs isn't very conducive to performing well at a high level.

Yeah I do tend to be pretty full of work actually. Typical semester includes 18 hour of coursework and research per week, 20-30 hours of Graduate Teaching Assistant Responsibilities, 5 hours of seminar, 25-30 hours of pole vault training, and this is all before I even begin to sit down and do my homework and study. I dont know a single pole vaulter out there who hasn't needed a little help here and there. In fact, i know vaulters that have received donations in excess of 30,000 dollars. As your probably aware this isn't exactly the NBA. M y goal is to when my career is over, put myself in a position where I can return some of the favors Ive been given and help the next group of vaulters push towards that next level.

Next I have too extend a HUGE thank you to all who have supported me. A special thank you goes to Paul Doyle on behalf of Doyle Management Group (http://www.doylemanagement.com/) who picked up the entire cost of the pole!!! From all accounts Paul Doyle does a incredible job representing his athletes, and also just a great guy. Jeremy Scott, Daniel Ryland, and Bubba McClean have all been represented by Paul and have had nothing but great things to say about him!

Also thank you to Simon Arkell, Gerald Roh, Becca Gillespy, and Jordon Scott (what a crazy world), for their contributions which will now go towards paying for travel in the upcoming indoor season!!

My son is a high school vaulter. We raise around $5000.00 a year so he can go to the elite meets. There is nothing wrong with that, no matter how you do it. There ae athletes even auctioning themselves on E-Bay to raise money. And also there are alot of good people willing to help. I also highly endorse Bell Athletics, thanks Earl for your help with Jack.

As Brian mentioned, Doyle management has stepped up to cover the cost of the pole, so we are going to go ahead and shift the fundraising to his estimated travel expenses for the indoor season. He is keeping costs pretty low by mostly sticking to local meets, but there are still a few expenses he could use help with.

Another big thank you to Douglas Sparks for his contribution!!

My pleasure Brian. I proud be known as a supporter of you!! Keep up the great work and never stop chasing your dreams!! Bubba

opportunity cost and America's rising elite vaulters

Another thing to keep in mind here is what America's up and coming vaulters like Brian give up. He has an engineering degree from VT and could be making 80K a year and driving a nice BMW but has given that up (and drives a hand-me down Dodge Caravan with 200,000 miles on it) to take a shot at the Olympic Games. That is the right way to do it. You can't work full time and train full time in this era and be competitive. This is not 1920 when people did athletics for a hobby. Those at the top are farily well supported and end up making some money. But it is the future vaulters in the U.S. that most need our support. The best college football players sign a nice NFl contract at the end of their college career but the best college vaulters, unless then have jumped 19'+, enter the starving artist phase of American vaulting... just ask Tim and Toby. There has been alot posted on the board about our coaching system and that warrents discussion for sure, but more than anything we need to figure out a way to support our young athletes, especially in events like the vault and the hammer, where most poeple don't peak until they are in their late 20s or early 30s. The part time jobs these kids have barely pays their living expenses.