Kelly Vaults His Way To Success
Kelly Showing Why He Was One Of The Best Pole Vaulters In The Hampton Roads Area...
Photo By: Wire / 757Gameday
Kings Fork Senior Allen Kelly Shows His Talent At Local Track Meet This Spring...
Photo By: Wire / 757Gameday
SUFFOLK, VA - Allen Kelly, a senior at Kings Fork High school, joins the track team as a freshman preparing for the upcoming soccer season. Not aware of the opportunity he was receiving, Kelly started running mid-distance, 1000, and 800 meters indoor and outdoor track.
When asked when you realized you may have a future in track and field, Kelly said, "It was my sophomore year when I really started pole-vaulting. I wanted to do that, but I really couldn't start jumping till before, because we didn't have a coach."
Pole-vaulting coach, Kerry Carter from Oscar Smith, came to Kings Fork High School, and that's when Kelly got his shot.
Coach Carter laid out the foundation and basically taught him from ground zero to where he is now.
After placing third during his sophomore outdoor season, he knew that pole-vaulting was the sport for him. Coach Carter worked on his strength, speed, stride-length, bigger pole, and technique for his upcoming junior and senior season.
When asked what his highest jump was, he replied "It really was in practice at 16 feet, but the recorded was 15'8 feet" at the Reno Pole Vault Summit on January 2nd, 2009.
When asked what he liked so much about pole-vaulting Kelly responded, "Pole vaulting is not a team sport, it's an individual sport, and if you mess up, it's on you. If you excel it's on you and on your coach, basically it's fun, it takes every single muscle in the body to actually do it, and it's just exciting."
Kelly has accumulated plenty of hardware throughout his high school stint, and will be attending Virginia Military Institution in the fall of 09'.
Starting in 2007, as a sophomore, he won the Southeastern District Championship for outdoor pole-vaulting. During his junior year in the 2008 indoor season, he won district and regional accolades and was runner-up in states.
However, his outdoor season in 2008 was a different story. Kelly swept District, Region and State Titles. His senior season he started where he left off, winning District, Region, and State indoor pole-vaulting.
We asked head track and field coach Tony Johnson what it means to have a kid like Allen Kelly on the team? Johnson , "Well, he has meant a lot to the team, he's shown a lot of senior leadership this year. He had started out last spring winning a state championship outdoor and came back the following winter to win states again. However, he was runner up this spring. He had a good shot of winning, but had back spasms which kept him from getting to the next height."
Kelly started a new trend at Kings Fork High School, starting out with one or two pole-vaulters which now has grown to 6 male and about 4 female pole-vaulters. Coach Johnson went on to say, "These pole-vaulters all want to be the next Allen Kelly."
Make sure to follow up on Allen Kelly, who will be pole-vaulting for Coach Darrin Webb and the VMI Keydets.
