Here’s a story about a small school that had not one but three pole vaulters that qualified for the state track meet this year. And they did it without a practice facility at their school. It’s also about an unofficial coach who provided a facility and expertise in helping these three. This story focuses on freshman Adlee Hicks who finished sixth in the pole vault at the Class 3A state track meet with a vault of eight feet.
“Adlee ran track for me in middle school and this was her first year to pole vault,” said her coach Ken Watson whose two kids, Kade and Kristin, also qualified for state.
Enter Robert McDonald who used to pole vault with Oklahoma’s premier name in the sport, Joe Dial. McDonald has an indoor facility in Coleman which Watson used as well as the outdoor facility at Atoka.
“Robert worked with Adlee, and she seemed like a natural starting out but then she had a leg injury and missed the first couple of meets. She bounced back and came on strong. I wasn’t really surprised at her performance at state because she was close to clearing eight feet when she first started. I knew her best was still to come but I just didn’t know when it would happen.”
For Adlee, it was just a matter of trying something different.
“I played basketball up until this year and ran in middle school, but this year decided I just wanted to try something new and once I tried pole vaulting, I just fell in love with it and it’s about all I think about.” said Adlee who is also in cheer and does tumbling.
The day of the state meet was a first for the young freshman.
“That day I was super nervous all day. I had a lot of family there that I wanted to impress. As the day went along, I gained more confidence and it was a wonderful experience to have as a freshman. I was over the moon being up on the podium especially since I really hadn’t planned on being there this year.
I’ll work with Robert a lot this next year and spend more time in the weight room to work on my upper body strength and next year I’d like to jump nine-and-a-half or 10 feet and be higher on the podium.”