Bertoli Brothers Article (IN)

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http://www.tribstar.com/articles/2005/0 ... l/hs01.txt

Brothers setting bar even higher
Bertoli brothers could compete in eight events for Terre Haute South





On track to success: Ben (left) and Anthony Bertoli are timed during conditioning Wednesday on Terre Haute South's track by Coach Jeff Martin (right). (Tribune-Star/Bob Poynter)


By Andy Amey/Tribune-Star


Anthony Bertoli, the older - and perhaps more goal-oriented - brother, was disappointed by his recent indoor track season, despite the fact that it left him ranked 11th in the nation and first in the state among high school pole vaulters.

Ben Bertoli, the younger - but taller, he's happy to point out - brother, was tickled pink by his early spring competitions in which he achieved personal bests in long jump twice in a row.

Jeff Martin, the boys track and field coach at Terre Haute South, sits back and smiles.

There will be a few events at a South boys track meet this spring that won't have a Bertoli in them, but not many.

Anthony, who has already signed a national letter of intent to compete next year at Indiana State, is also a top 400-meter runner and relay participant for the Braves.





Asked about his fourth event, he noted that he's enjoyed the 300-meter intermediate hurdles. He also ran cross country in the fall, meaning longer distances could be a possibility. But his second-favorite event after pole vault, he said, is "probably javelin, even though they don't have it in high school [in Indiana]. I enjoyed that over the summer when I was competing in decathlons."

Ben's favorite event is long jump, where he's already nearing the 21-foot mark, but he's also a high jumper and runs the 200-meter dash. His fourth event this spring is still undecided, he said, but added, "Last year I was with the short sprinters [during practice] but this year I'm in the 400-800 group."

The brothers don't deliberately avoid each other's events, they said. If they both happen to run the 400 this spring, for example, they won't be tackling each other coming down the home stretch to keep the other from winning. ("He'd be too far away anyway," Anthony said of that possible scenario.)

But finding ways to use them won't be a problem, Martin promises.

"From a coaching standpoint, I couldn't ask for any more gifted athletes than these young men are," he said recently. "Anthony, right now, could be our No. 1 man in just about every event, and yet Ben has maybe even more athletic ability, with the potential to reach his goals and maybe higher goals.



Checking times: Ben and Anthony Bertoli look at the stopwatch with Coach Jeff Martin during Wednesday's conditioning at Terre Haute South. (Tribune-Star/Bob Poynter)


"And they're such team players, they will do whatever I ask and hardly ask why," the coach continued. "Their teammates feed off that energy; they can see [the Bertolis] sacrifice their personal goals to help the team."

Anthony's one-year cross country career is an example of that, Martin noted. "He'd played soccer for three years, but he went out for cross country to help [his teammates] win a sectional [which the Braves did]."

No good deed goes unrewarded, Anthony says.

"I think cross country helped me with the 400 and with my vault," he said. "My endurance is a lot better."

Even though he's a two-time age-group All-America who cleared a school-record 15 feet, 7 inches on March 19 at the NSR State Indoor Classic, Anthony is a relative newcomer to pole vaulting.



Taking a break: Ben (left) and Anthony Bertoli take a short break after some conditioning during track practice Wednesday evening at Terre Haute South. (Tribune-Star/Bob Poynter)


"Me and a friend walked by the pole vault during a meet my freshman year and said, 'We'll gave that a whirl,' " he said. "Since then Martin has really taken me under his wing. We've learned the vault together."

That's almost literally true. Since November, in fact, vaulter and coach have worked indoors at least two nights per week.

"Vaulting is something where the more you do it, the better you become," Martin said.

"It takes all kinds of strengths," Anthony said. "You have to be fast, have a strong upper body, be coordinated - it encompasses everything."

Ben has been a long jumper and high jumper since sixth grade, and anticipated progress this spring before surprising even himself.

"I figured I would jump better," he said of his first indoor competition of the season, "but I didn't think I would add seven inches [to my personal best] on my first jump."

Ben likes long jump, he says, because "it's more fun than high jump or pole vault [he's cleared 10-6 in practice]. There's no bar to knock off."

Not knocking the bar off is the key, his older brother said.

"It's a rush coming down from 15 or 16 feet in the air knowing you've cleared that bar," Anthony said.

Although disappointed with his indoor season - "I didn't hit my goal in either event," he said. "I wanted 16 feet [in pole vault] and a 50-second relay split." - Anthony has bigger goals in mind for the outdoor season.

"I'd like to go 17 feet at the state meet," he said. "That would break the [state] record by three inches. And just win every other meet."

Ben's goals, the younger brother said, are "22 feet [in long jump] this year, and just make it to state."

And Martin, as mentioned, keeps smiling.

"You couldn't ask for better kids, athletics-wise and as people too," he concluded.

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Runaway winner:
South's Anthony Bertoli finishes high school career as 2005 McMillan Award winner



Runaway winner: Terre Haute South Vigo High School senior Anthony Bertoli is the male winner of the 2005 McMillan Award. The announcement was made Sunday at Vigo County commencement exercises. The 2005 female winner of the award will be announced later this week. (Tribune-Star file photo)
By Andy Amey/Tribune-Star

Pole vaulting had never given him a sensation quite like this one, Anthony Bertoli must have been thinking.

The Terre Haute South senior was sitting in Hulman Center at his high school's graduation, expecting a classmate's name to be called as the winner of the 2005 McMillan Award.

"At first I figured [the winner] was Armon Bassett, for everything he's accomplished in basketball," Bertoli said later, referring to the 2005 Indiana All-Star player in that sport. "But then they started reading out soccer and cross country, and I got a little lightheaded."

Soccer and cross country were his fall sports - he gave up soccer his senior year to help the Braves win a sectional in cross country - but Bertoli's honors came mostly in track and field.

He placed fourth in both pole vault and the 400-meter dash at Friday's state championship meet, and he was nationally ranked in pole vault after his performances around the country in the summer of 2004.


He'll be attending Indiana State University, where he's expected to compete in the decathlon - the 10-event test of strength, speed and endurance - among other events. The 2001 male winner of the McMillan Award, Steve Weatherford of Terre Haute North, is currently a decathlete at the University of Illinois, incidentally.

"He's the type of athlete who could probably be one of my best discus throwers if I tried him there," Coach Jeff Martin of the South track team said recently. "In every event except possibly the two-mile [3,200-meter run] he could have been in my top two [during the recently completed season] Å  and any other year [except this one, in which the Braves had some outstanding distance runners] he might have been one of the best two-milers too."

Indeed, last fall's success at cross country hints that Bertoli's range of track and field talent is virtually limitless. His two state-finals events required speed, strength and balance for pole vault and speed maintained over a long period of time for the 400 meters, but running long distances for time was something new to him.

Ironically, it might have been a decathlon during the summer that caused him to make that switch.

"He ran the final event in the decathlon [which is the 1,500-meter run] in Oregon, and he kind of reached the decision [to run cross country]," Martin explained. "He did it for his teammates. He sacrificed his love for soccer and helped his teammates win a sectional championship."

Bertoli was quite a bit of help, too. At the start of the season, he was probably no better than South's seventh-best runner, Martin said, but worked his way to the top three by the time the season ended.

"Obviously he's a hard worker," Martin said. "Everything he does, he does 110 percent. And he doesn't like to lose."

His performances and work ethic also made him a natural leader, Martin added.

"They see him working hard and they see his willingness to do any event, and that energy is transferred to many of our young kids," the coach said.

Winning the McMillan Award hadn't been something he'd been thinking about lately, Bertoli said Sunday.

"I thought about [the award] at the beginning of the year," he admitted, "but recently I've been concentrating on the state [meet] and doing well in track and I haven't been thinking about it.

"Now I'm really looking forward to competing for the Sycamores. I just want to continue doing the best I can, and hopefully that will be enough."

Martin is confident that it will be. He's not sure Bertoli might not have a future goal similar to that of 2004 female McMillan Award winner Katelyn Bishop of South - the Olympics.

"When he goes to school, I think he'll really shine in the decathlon because he can excel in so many events," Martin explained. "He's got the body type and the work ethic that could carry him a long way."

How long?

"The sky's the limit," Martin said. "I could see him scoring 8,000 points or more [Olympic champions typically score about 8,600 points, Martin said].

"You definitely don't want to say he won't do it, because everything I've said he can't do, he's turned around and done it," Martin concluded. "I'm the one who told him he'd struggle in cross country."

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Terre Haute South's Bertoli, Twitchell receive track honor



Tribune-Star staff report

Terre Haute South seniors Anthony Bertoli and James Twitchell were selected to the Indiana All Star Track and Field Team.

Team Indiana will compete in the Midwest Meet of Champions at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, on Saturday. They will be competing against other top seniors from Michigan and Ohio.

Bertoli, who finished fourth in pole vault and the 400-meter dash in the state championship meet, will compete for Team Indiana in the pole vault and 1,600-meter relay. Twitchell was a state competitor in the 800 and 3,200 relay. He was also a member of the eighth-place 1,600-meter relay for the South Braves along with Bertoli.

Twitchell will compete in the 3,200 relay for Team Indiana.


Coach Jeff Martin of Terre Haute South will be joining his athletes, as he was named head coach of the Indiana All Star Team in January by the Indiana Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches.