Being a little crazy helps in pole vaulting. On that, Cassidy and Walter Mooneyhan agree.
"Everything has taught you that your feet are supposed to be below your head. And this tells you otherwise."
"It's not natural," the elder Mooneyhan said.
And he should know. Thirty years ago, he was one of two top male high school pole vaulters in the state of Arkansas. He won state and a Meet of Champs title and eventually soared to 16'4" as a high school vaulter. Competitor Morry Sanders went a bit higher with a 16'8" mark that 1988 season.
Cassidy, daughter of Walter and Stacey Mooneyhan, a junior at Pea Ridge High School, has cleared 12'6" in pole vault and tied all high school women vaulters in the state. Only five have cleared 11-feet this season among all six high school classes.
Monday, Cassidy won the District meet in Pea Ridge. She heads to state with fellow Blackhawks Tuesday, April 30.
Interestingly, she's following a path set by her father three decades ago, but one with which she was not initially familiar. And those paths are intricately interwoven.
In addition to qualifying for state, Cassidy has the 13th best all-time jump in state history in all classifications, is an inch and a half from ninth place (12'7.5") and is a foot off Edie Murray's best jump of 13'6" last season which is third all time.
Walter Mooneyhan is currently ranked 12th all time, with Andrew Irwin of Mt. Ida (a Sanders' protege) holding the top all-time mark of 17'9". Interestingly, Cassidy's 12'6" jump indoors erased Stephanie Irwin's (the sister of Andrew) old indoor state record of 11'6". The current 4A outdoor record is 11'6" set by Stacy Yahn of Mena in 2006.
Cassidy is neck and neck with Murray, a senior at Lake Hamilton.
It was a former Lake Hamilton pole vaulter, Sanders, who battled with her father, Walter, for boys' vaulting supremacy 30 years ago. Sanders coaches Murray, the top large school girls vaulter in the state and runs a vaulting camp which has produced a good chunk of the top vaulters in the state's history. The younger Mooneyhan attends Sander's camp.
Walter Mooneyhan, a native of Heber Springs, played football and ran track in high school then went to Arkansas State University to run track where he set a record as a junior in college. He said ASU has an excellent pole vaulting program and it was there he worked with Earl Bell, now a retired American pole vaulter who competed in the 1976, 1984 and 1988 Olympics, winning a bronze medal in 1984 and placing fourth in '88 and sixth in '76. In 1976, Bell briefly held the world record.
Interestingly, Mooneyhan did not set out to participate in pole vaulting. He has elder brothers, twins Andy and Allen, who were competitive jumpers.
"Andy was a state champion before me," he said. "They were in ninth grade. I was in seventh grade. I distinctively remember coming home from school and they were pole vaulting and told me I was going to. I said it didn't sound like fun at all, but older brothers have the ability to make you change your mind.
"I tried it in seventh grade and the rest is history," he recalled. "It was a really good time in my life. I walked away from in in 1991. It was a fantastic time in life, I just didn't talk much about it."
Daughter Cassidy didn't really know the stories of her father's athletic prowess as a youth.
"In seventh grade we got a pole vault pit. That was my first year," she said. "I knew he (her father) had done it. I didn't know he was good."
So she started working on pole vaulting and went home telling her parents she wanted to try it. The previous year, the Mooneyhan family had attended a celebration to see Walter inducted into his High School Den of Honor. "I guess he was pretty good," Cassidy said, but she hadn't really considered all the trophies and awards shut away in a chest downstairs.
As soon as she began pole vaulting, Walter began coaching her.
"Speed and upper body strength ... and being a little crazy," are the necessary ingredients to success. "I think every pole vaulter in the world knows that," Walter said. "The sport is inherently dangerous. When you include an apparatus, it's more dangerous. And, when that apparatus is used to propel you through the air, it's even more dangerous."
The pole vault community is a tight community, the family states. They attend state meets and several years ago, during Cassidy's elder brother Nicklaus' senior year, the family attended the state meet when Michael Carr broke Mooneyhan's state record set so many years before. "He's still jumping at Arkansas State," Walter said.
"Every record breaker likes to meet the person whose record they broke," Walter said. He said he was honored to be at the meet when Carr broke his record. "We did a handing down of the record and took pictures. It's noteworthy that his coach was Earl Bell's son. We used to babysit him," Walter said.
The pole vault community is not based on gender anymore. Girls have been jumping for 20 years. It's not based on age; there's a master's series. It's not based on race, social status, economic status, Walter explained, adding that when they attend meets, almost every single parent or coach is ready and willing to cheer on, coach and support each athlete who we would consider competitor.
"I spend a lot of time, kind of from a distance helping students that Cass competes against," Walter said. "It's an incredible competition."
To be continued.
Sports on 04/24/2019