Watching Emily Tea pole vault, it’s hard to imagine the Kentridge High School senior is afraid of heights.
The girls track and field captain soared to a personal best and school record of 11 feet, 6 inches earlier this season.
“I was terrified…,” Tea said of learning to pole vault. ” I don’t know how I did it.”
Over time, it has gotten easier for Tea to overcome her nerves.
“I try not to think too much (before each vault),” Tea said. “If I think too much, it will mess up everything”
Tea started pole vaulting her freshman year.
“One of the captains from my gymnastics team said, ‘You look like you’d be a good pole vaulter,’ so I was like, ‘Oh sure, I’ll try it,'” Tea said. “So, I did and I turned out to be all right.”
Her gymnastics background has helped Tea succeed in pole vaulting,
“It helps a lot with body control and it gave me a lot of upper body strength,” she said. “It gives you the sense of having to keep your body tight.”
In addition to setting the school record, Tea set grade-level records each year, except for her sophomore year which she missed due to an ACL injury, surgery and recovery.
Tea competed in the Class 4A state track and field meet her freshman and junior years, placing 12th and 10th respectively. She said she hopes to compete at state again this year and hit the 12-foot mark.
“Just being able to do that would be amazing,” she said.
Kentridge pole vault coach Jake Philpott knows Tea as both a coach and teammate. Philpott, who graduated last year from Kentridge, returned this year to coach his former team.
Philpott discovered it’s been an easy transition from Tea’s teammate to coach.
“It’s not too different, because I have always helped her along the way,” he said.
Philpot finds Tea easy to coach.
“You can just tell her what to do and she’ll do it rather than having to really show her,” he said. “I think she does a really good job of adapting.”
Philpot said he has enjoyed watching Tea progress as a pole vaulter.
“She picked up on it pretty quick,” he said. “All the girls who were here before her were only going 7 feet and she went 10-foot-6 (her freshman year). She beat our (freshman) record by 3 feet. She was super tiny and she wouldn’t run very fast, but somehow she would just fly over the pole.”
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