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Into the air with the greatest of ease, Shawn Francis, the daring
young man without a trapeze. |
Pole vaulters are optimists, says Shawn Francis, Hastings High grad, MSHSL champion in the pole vault, and an avid promoter of his event. "I'm trying to pump up our sport," he says of his whirlwind Summer of vaulting. From a runner-up slot at the USATF indoor championships to a seemingly endless tour of traditional meet vaults to street vaults, mall vaults, beach vaults, and finally a pub vault at Brits Pub in Minneapolis on August 30, Francis has deliberately used this year as a time to jump and learn.
He's immersed himself into all sorts of different environments and competitions. He's done it with a certain flair, a showman/promoter's approach that serves the dual purpose of exposing sports fans to the event while giving him the chance to compete in varying conditions.
"I'm just telling my story," says Francis, who accidentally created a character, a persona that somehow fits the spirit of vaulting--Shawn Danger Hoot. "Pole vault people are a different breed," Francis says. They're risk takers, not afraid of exploring boundaries.
In high school at Hastings, Francis was a vaulter and ran the 110 high hurdles. He was also a swimmer and diver. He holds the Hastings High record in the vault, having cleared 15' as a senior in 2004. In his "spare time" he mountain bikes and sky dives, appropriate adventure activities for a vaulter.
Less risky, but equally adventuresome, Francis also produces a regular vlog, a video blog, about the sport, his exploits, and an education on the world of pole vaulting. It fits his undergraduate degree at NDSU in education with an advanced degree in exercise science where, Francis says, he tries to keep thing simple.
To survive financially Francis moved back home in his parents' home in Hastings. He takes on coaching assignments, provides long distance coaching for others and this year began selling merchandise to help finance his travels. Prize money from competitions "bonus dollars," says Francis because you can't always count on performance driven cash as his event is in a sport where the only significant revenue stream remains endorsement contracts.
A steady paycheck that few in the sport of track and field get, let alone field event athletes who are dwarfed in earning potential by sprinters and other event marque performers. Enter Danger Hoot. "By accident me and my brother had these really ugly owl shirts," Francis says. The shirts, as well as horse head masks and other performance art devices Francis trots out at events, caught the attention of his vlog viewers, and Shawn Hoot and Team Hoot were born.
Believing that those monikers needed a little something extra, Shawn Danger Hoot became his official online persona. Francis had shirts made up to sell at the vault events. His vlog has provided a steady stream of questions about vaulting, training, and achieving. Like many elite athletes Francis coached once he got his undergraduate degree from North Dakota State. Now he coaches athletes online. "Vaulters ask me to send them my workouts," he says. "I say no...It took me ten years to get where I am so what I'm doing now isn't going to work for them."
Instead Francis keeps it simple. The emphasis being on the other athlete, not on Francis, his needs, his accomplishments. Francis knows the value of good coaching and praises his own coaches, the husband and wife team of Steve and Caroline White, who coach at the University of Minnesota. He's due for a sit down conference with them soon that will focus on future goals and how to achieve them. There are "top secret" marks that the trio believe they can achieve based on Francis's talents and progression.
In a sort of "good cop, bad cop" style Steve pushes Francis while Caroline makes sure he stays healthy, avoids injury. She says when he's in danger of overdoing it, as most elites are seemingly hardwired to do, she "puts me in the hospital," not literally, but figuratively inactive for his own athletic heath.
The White's believe Francis has the ability to go "much higher" than his current PR of 5.5m/18'2.5". None of the trio is after instant success. It has been a process, incremental changes, polishing technique. The result of all this work being the ability to soar higher when it counts.
Ultimately, Francis says, he would like to make the Olympic team, possibly a second Olympic team if all goes well, before hanging up his pole and spikes. Like other things, he's doing it his way. Unlike other vaulters who either grew up in or have moved to climates more conducive to an outdoor field event, such as the pole vault, Francis believes Minnesota has its advantages. "Minnesota's awesome because you can do about anything," he says. Because of the weather here "we have some of the best indoor facilities in the US."
That, coaching, and "a good community of vaulters" and those who assist the athletes to reach their goals makes the area conducive to success. Bell Athletics, based in Arkansas, has served as the model by being probably the most prolific vaulting "factory" in the US in recent years. "Grandpa" Bell still vaults at age 92, while his son Earl, once a world recordholder and an Olympic bronze medallist in 1984, founded Bell Athletics in 1991.
Minnesota has Flight Deck Athletics and Fuzion Athletics that, like Bell Athletics, cater to vaulters of all ages and abilities. The tight knit community that these groups have generated helps everyone, says Francis. It allows the athletes a camaraderie and like minded individuals who can compete together, bounce ideas off of one another, and encourage one another to achieve great things, he says.
So if you see a guy laying in the infield with a horse head on or his New York Yankees hat(Francis' father was drafted by the New York Yankees, but never made it to the "Big Show." A fact which, Francis believes, is a reason his dad supports his son's efforts to follow his athletic dreams), laying on the grass on top of Brits August 30, you'll know he's looking up at the sky and plotting how to launch himself up into the stratosphere and over the bar. Or he's thinking of quotes from Einstein, who he frequently quotes on social media, or other people who thought big and went on to make those dreams a reality.
