Never Surrender A Recipe for Success By Jose R. San Miguel This is the athletic story of Sofia San Miguel, an average high school and collegiate pole vaulter who decided to re-write her personal history. Two years after her college
career ended, while working a full-time job, and coaching part-time at a local high school, in the midst of the pandemic, Sofia achieved her highest heights yet.
The most valuable bench warmer on her middle school basketball team, Sofia practiced hard, but seldom played. Not because she was not athletic, but because of the politics of coaches playing their friends’ kids. When Sofia was on the court, she scored. As a father, I was furious and vocal about the lack of rotating players in a middle school game. Whether the team was winning or losing by twenty points, the same five played. One day, my daughter was finally on the court, but three other athletes were being denied play time when there was no chance of victory. I started to chant from across the gym, “Play the bench! Play the bench!” With that, we knew the end of Sofia’s basketball career was eminent. I was thrilled! But she did not want to be a pole vaulter. In the early years of Pole Vault Carolina, we had a pit in our backyard and a handful of vaulters training with us. It was an excellent group! In 2012, three of our five vaulters made it to New Balance Nationals Indoors and Outdoors, including Harrison Booth, a 5th place finisher who was our first non-family member vaulter; our first New Balance medalist; and our first college recruit. Harrison convinced Sofia to join practice.
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As a freshman, Sofia jumped 9’6” before breaking her ankle while competing in the 100H. She fell on the first hurdle, got up, and cleared the next nine on her injured right leg. I raced alongside, yelling for her to stop. I was mad as hell and asked her why she didn’t. She said that I had always told her to finish the race. With her ankle broken in three places, I knew then Sofia had the fierce competitiveness it takes to be a pole vaulter.
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When she recovered, we worked on reinforcing her strengths and improving her weaknesses. Sofia jumped on big poles for a high school girl, 13’ 165, about 30 pounds over
her weight, because she was fast and had an awesome takeoff. She attended private sessions at a gymnastics club to learn to kip and swing over the high bar. Even though her hands dripped blood, she was not able to master it, nor how to do a proper back roll. But, she tried. In 2014, Sofia represented Puerto Rico in the Central American and Caribbean Junior Games placing fourth, and becoming the third pole vaulter in the family to compete for Puerto Rico. She finished high school with a PR of 11’6 tying for first place at the 2015 NCHSAA Indoor State Championships. Another injury ended her outdoor season, but not before she was given a walk-on spot at Appalachian State University. Perseverance paid off.
Three months after Sofia started at App, Pole Vault Carolina moved to an indoor facility, and attracted a new generation of vaulters. They accomplished great things using our new set-up, with 100+ poles, and equipment that Sofia and the others before her never had while in high school. Quickly, Sofia’s name was erased from the top 5 lists for freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. It was painful to watch as a father; as a coach it was thrilling to see the new vaulters benefit from what we now had. Sofia’s college career was as challenging as her high school one. Her coach changed her running mechanics and removed a skip at the start of her run, which resulted in many practices filled with run throughs and frustrations. She did not PR until her first meet of her junior year, after her coach agreed to let her go back to her high school run and skip. Imagine attending practice 5 days a week for 22 months - about 260 jumping practices with 15 jumps per practice equates to over 3,900 jumps without improvement at the bar. But Sofia was intent on working through the issues. She finished 4th at the Sunbelt Conference meet that spring. A concussion in the outdoor season
