Accident fails to stop pole vaulter> White again flying high in EMITL

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Hampden senior Jeff White had a life-threatening accident last summer. Miraculously, White survived the scare. Amazingly, he managed to forget it.

When the Hampden pole vaulter stalled out over the vaulting box at a track camp at Bates College in Lewiston last June, he fell headfirst, managing to turn his body and get his arm out, but ended up smacking his head into the metal box, which holds the pole.

White was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston where doctors rushed him to brain surgery. They pieced together five fractured bones in his skull, holding them in place by 10 metal-connector plates.

The plates will be with White forever. And he is left partially deaf in one ear. Yet White remains a passionate vaulter, which explains his bravery and his fearlessness, but not necessarily his devotion to the sport.

Today, White is not the least hindered by fear. What’s more, White is ranked second in the Eastern Maine Indoor Track League in the pole vault with a height of 12 feet. Orono’s Mike Pare leads the event with 13 feet.

“It’s fun. When you’re going upside down you fly, it feels like you’re flying,” White said. “I vaulted 12-6 outdoors. I’d like to break 13 feet.”

Words you might expect from a rock climber, a sky diver, an outback skier. But what is peculiar about White is that vaulting is his one fearless fix.

“I fish a lot,” White said. “When I started vaulting, I was really scared. It was hard for me. Now it is a lot easier.”

White said his return to vaulting four months after his accident had nothing to do with overcoming fear and everything to do with improving as an athlete.

“It’s something I still needed to pursue. I had to show myself I could do better,” White said. “To some extent it takes a lot of guts. When you’re up 12-13 feet it can be pretty hairy.”

Hearing White talk about his accident, he acts as though he merely sprained his ankle.

“That’s what he thinks he did,” Jeff’s mother, Veronica White, said. “I was very nervous when he started vaulting. But he’s healthy and strong and very athletic. I really feel if coach [David] King didn’t think he was 100 percent able to do it, I know he wouldn’t let him do it.”

Peter Slovenski, the head track and field coach at Bowdoin for the past 10 years, was the camp director and saw Jeff’s fall. A 1973 and ’74 Maine Class A state pole vault champion at Lewiston, the 44-year-old Slovenski has been vaulting for 30 years and has seen some scary spills, but none like White’s.

“During those 30 years, if you’re around pole vaulting, you see some dangerous landings, but most turn out all right,” said Slovenski. “Jeff’s is the worst fall I have ever seen.”

Slovenski said what caused the accident was White trying to do too much with a new pole with which he was unfamiliar. King, Hampden’s coach of 22 years, said now that White has learned he needs to go slow with a new pole, he knows to use an unfamiliar pole with greater caution.

“If he had not broken the pole the day before, he wouldn’t have used a different one and tried to do too much,” King said.

Slovenski said when poles started to be made of fiberglass in the mid-1960s, it changed the dynamics of the event and made it more dangerous. However, he said the one aspect of pole vaulting that is the most dangerous – and also the least likely to change – is the area where the pole is planted – where White landed.

“Even though the pits and landing mats are bigger and better, the areas in which vaulters will plant poles is still made of steel,” Slovenski said. “You can’t cover that up.”

Still, White has returned to the vault with a zeal, vaulting just six inches off his outdoor best vault of 12-6.

King said when White began high jumping in the fall as a tes King said when White began high jumping in the fall as a test to see if he should vault again, he showed no sign of having been in an accident.

“He had so much self assurance. He was not reluctant,” King said. “The only thing that surprised me was that his mother let him vault. If I was in the same situation given the same injury, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have bought him a Studebaker Avanti and have him drive that.”

One thing that has boosted White’s confidence is the fact the Hampden vaulters now use helmets when they vault.

“The helmet takes away a lot of stress. You’re not worrying,” White said. “It gives you an extra boost of confidence. It’s a lot safer. Mentally it boosts me up.”

Slovenski said the American pole vaulting community has been discussing helmets for the last three to four years. Slovenski said Bowdoin was planning to use helmets in the 1997 year, but Jeff’s accident solidified the decision.

Slovenski is convinced in a few years wearing helmets in pole vaulting will be as natural as wearing them for biking. But the event is not there yet.

White also competes in the long jump, the pole vault, the 4×220 and the high jump. He was the runner-up in the javelin last spring. But White wants to vault in college where he plans to pursue a degree in civil engineering. King has no doubt White will continue to improve as a vaulter.

A month after White began vaulting again, Veronica said it’s easier to watch her son now that he wears a helmet, though the potential for danger still haunts her.

“I’m more comfortable. But it really looks odd,” Veronica White said. “There are so many ways he could get hurt. He has those little plates in his head. He is a little more susceptible in his head. We talked about how lucky he was that it healed so quickly. I said, `My God, you could be in a nursing home for life.’ But he doesn’t remember the accident. He’s so laid back. It’s just his personality.”