HUBER'S VERTICAL ASSAULT

The Carroll County Times
Thursday March 20th, 2008
By Patrick Stoetzer

Jess Huber and her father Bob climb into the family car around 10 a.m. and hit the road for Bethlehem, Pa.

It’s a two-and-a-half hour trip, one way. About 130 miles. But father and daughter make the trek every Sunday.

They’ve been doing it for two years, ever since Huber decided her success with North Carroll’s track and field team would come through pole vault. The Panthers’ senior helped her cause with weekly excursions to a top-notch camp, and it led to Huber earning her third consecutive indoor track and field state championship and this season’s Times Girls Athlete of the Year.

Huber, now 18, came to NC four years ago as a hurdler, and only after prodding from a friend and teammate did she think about picking up a pole. She thought the idea of getting vertical over a bar 10 feet in the air was “weird,” and at first struggled with her form and technique. But once Huber decided she wanted pole vault to be her top track and field priority, she knew she needed to get better.

Along with daily practice at North Carroll and time spent learning through the locally-based Excel club, Huber discovered Vertical Assault, a pole vault club out of Bethlehem designed to teach beginners and hone experts through drills and practice. The sessions run five days a week at different skill levels.

The Hubers found out about Vertical Assault while Jess competed at a meet in Kutztown, Pa., and Bob said he knew then his daughter was hooked.

“She knew she was in pole vault heaven,” he said. “That seems to be a section of Pennsylvania … a Mecca for pole vaulting in high school. The girls up there are way ahead of the curve.”

Jess knew what she was in for just from watching the others at Vertical Assault. The club boasted a list of accomplished members — state champions from along the East Coast — who went on to star at the college level, and some rose to Division I All-America status.

Her Sundays would consist of riding to Bethlehem and back.“All the major girls that I saw were all coming from this club,” Huber said. “There was no

deciding. I knew I wanted to get better, and they were going to help me along. I wanted to kind of get in on that.”

Huber won her first indoor track state title as a sophomore by clearing 9 feet, 6 inches at the Class 4A-3A meet, then she matched that height the following season. This year Huber consistently reached 10 feet, and twice she set North Carroll records along the way.

She won gold at the Clear Spring Invite on Dec. 15 after reaching 10-6. One month later, at the Chesapeake Conference meet, Huber cleared 10-9 and broke her school record. She tied a county meet record the week before at 10 feet as the Panthers won their third consecutive team title.

The MVAL crown gave her the top seed in 4A-3A East, and she won a regional title (9-6) as a warm-up to the state meet Feb. 19 in Landover.

Huber cruised to her third straight indoor state title by reaching 10 feet, six inches clear of the field and a 4A meet record.

Soon after, on Vertical Assault’s Web site, someone posted a photograph and newspaper article detailing Huber’s state championship. Her achievements were the result of countless hours at the prestigious pole vaulting camp.

“That’s the part that most people don’t know about Jess,” Bob Huber said. “It takes dedication and hard work, and a whole hell of a lot of it. She’ll run down that runway about 100 times in one day, easy. But it pays off.”

Jess is continuing her pole vault career at Mount St. Mary’s — despite a knee injury that will keep her out of North Carroll’s upcoming outdoor season — and while her college schedule might force her to scale back the trips to Bethlehem, Huber said she won’t be a stranger to Vertical Assault. She’ll still find time to keep up her studies and show horses, one of her passions away from track and field.

But Sundays will always hold be special to Bob and Jess Huber.

“I joined the track team because of hurdling. Pole vaulting just kind of fell on me,” she said. “I really just stumbled upon it, but I’m never going to stop. I know it’s going to help, so I don’t mind doing whatever it takes.”