Opinions divided on use of private instructors

Coaches try to strike right balance between individual, team needs for top athletes

Olivia Gruver won the NCAA pole vault championship last spring with a vault of 14 feet, 9 inches as a sophomore at Kentucky.

Her ascent began at Franklin, where she won three state titles, but it also received something of a boost during that time. Preseason girls and boys polls as well as athletes to watch for varsity indoor track and field Indians girls coach Paul Hannsen said Gruver also regularly trained at DC Vault — a company that prepares pole vaulters in the Washington area — throughout the winter and spring seasons for about two years.

Gruver was doing something that more track and field athletes are trying — taking on a personal or private coach. This is happening in different ways throughout high school sports. There are shooting coaches in basketball, pitching or batting coaches in baseball, and fitness coaches all around.

But it’s a concept not all coaches are comfortable with.

Hannsen said what many coaches appear to think: Just don’t upset the team dynamic. Franklin won the Class 3A indoor state title for girls last winter, and Hannsen said there’s a delicate balance a coach must keep.

“You just have to make sure it doesn’t affect the team,” he said. “The obligation is to the team.”

Anibal Gonzalez is a private coach. He will be working with six middle-distance and distance runners this winter. His two daughters, Ellie and Bridget, both ran for Catholic during their high school days.

Ellie won The Sun’s Female Athlete of the Year honor in May 2013, and her father always took an active hand in both of the daughters’ training. Anibal Gonzalez works in real estate construction but ran in high