by Sara Carlson
“You’re either really brave or a little bit crazy to pole vault,” says Coach Mike Wagenveld, who has been teaching the sport to athletes in San Diego County and beyond for over 30 years. He is the founder and director of North County Pole Vault Club in Escondido, and his prolific success in developing young athletes in the sport of pole vault was recently recognized at the 2024 National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, NV, where he was awarded National Coach of the Year by USA Track and Field.
That’s one of the highest honors that exist in the world of pole vault. Tom Martin, the Pole Vault Coach at Rancho Bernardo High School who received the award in 2013, said, “This the is ultimate honor for us in our coaching career.” Coach Mike’s decades of pouring into the San Diego community with attentive training and a holistic approach to developing young people, now recognized on a national level, kicked off at Mar Vista High School in Imperial Beach. Since then, he has coached pole vault at Poway High School and Calvin Christian High School and is currently on the coaching staff at Maranatha Christian High School.
Coach Mike founded North County Pole Vault Club (NCPV Club) in 2015, and being separate from high school competition, he opened the doors to kids from all different high schools and areas, bringing together a wide range of athletes hungry to learn more. Due to its unique nature, the pole vault is a sport that many schools do not have the equipment, resources or expertise to give kids the greatest chance for success. That’s where the club comes in — kids from all over San Diego County have a place to receive expert training and to develop alongside other like-minded athletes who may not attend the same school as them. It gets really fun when those club teammates go on and compete against one another during their high school seasons. The level of competition flourishes, the camaraderie between vaulters deepens, and the sport is elevated as a whole.
Coach Mike Wagenveld has built quite a résumé in the pole vault. He has coached several CA State medalists and coached the all-time best High School girls squad in U.S. history, with three girls over 13 feet in one year at Poway High School. He recently retired from teaching after 30 years, and now he spends a lot of time coaching Elite-level girls and helping athletes with college recruiting. He got his start in the sport as a collegiate decathlete, specializing in the pole vault. Coach Mike’s successes include:
CA State Meet Champion and medalists
2023 - 3 in top 5 at CA State Meet
2022 – 6 of to12 Finalist at CA State Meet
Arcadia Invitational medalists
USA Junior Olympic medalists
Canadian Junior and Senior Olympic Trials Qualifiers
NCAA National Championship Qualifiers
NCAA All-American athlete
An important part of the club’s operation is helping aspiring athletes make their way to the next level of competition: collegiate track and field. Coach Mike has more than 30 athletes who have gone on to compete at the collegiate level. Those schools include: Cornell, Dartmouth, MIT, Penn, UCLA, SDSU, GCU, APU, Cal Poly SLO, Cal Poly Pomona, UMass, UCSB, Oregon State, University of Michigan, Dordt University, Northeastern, William and Mary, Bowdoin, TCU, Samford, Mt. Saint Mary’s, Hillsdale, Calvin University, Claremont McKenna, Mt. SAC.
More than just the athletic achievement of earning a spot on a collegiate track and field squad, NCPV Club vaulters have had doors opened to them to universities that they may not have been able to attend, for various reasons, without their accomplishments in the pole vault. The training and development that young athletes receive at the club level can set them on a trajectory for great things, even beyond the sport. The accessibility of learning the complex sport that NCPV Club provides for up-and-comers in San Diego has launched them to new heights all over the country.
Coach Mike and his coaching staff work hard to develop their athletes, no matter what level they are at: from a robust elementary/junior high-age group learning the foundations early, to a wide range of high schoolers at every level of proficiency, to collegiate vaulters who train as a group while back home for school breaks, all the way to Masters-level vaulters whose love for the vault has them competing into their 40s, 50s and 60s.
Coach Mike has poured so much time, effort and care into the pole vaulters of San Diego County, and it has not gone unnoticed. NCPV Club’s mission is stated on its website: “NCPV Club focuses on quality pole vault training and building young men and women of character.” It excels in producing not only quality pole vaulters, but also young women and men who have the integrity and grit to pursue grander ambitions beyond the pole vault runway.