Mooneyhan benefits from father’s experience
Editor’s note: Continued from April 24.
Being a little crazy helps in pole vaulting. On that, Cassidy and Walter Mooneyhan agree.
Cassidy, a junior at Pea Ridge High School, is the state champion women’s pole vaulter and has cleared 12 feet 6 inches to tie all high school women vaulters in the state.
Walter, who coaches his daughter and her teammates, both girls and boys, is currently ranked 12th in the state. He set a record in 1988.
Like father, like daughter
“I think I jumped 6’6” in my first meet,” she said. “When I started getting points and winning, I thought it was so fun. I always knew I wanted to stick with it.”
For several years, Cassidy also played other sports including volleyball, basketball and cross country. During her freshman year she injured her heel and couldn’t walk. She said she focused on pole vaulting after that.
In addition to her practice with her team, Cassidy also trains with Ben Witcher in Pea Ridge.
“I would know nothing without Dad. He is definitely my support. They (parents) have not missed one track meet I’ve ever been in,” she said.
“In no other sport do you get to fly through the air!
“How fun is that? I think it’s so fun! You compete against yourself,” she said enthusiastically. “I like competition with others. I try to do the best as I can do and fix things I can fix.”
Walter said he ebbs and flows between being dad and being coach.
“Harold Wilson was my high school track coach. He was a legend. I can hear him when I’m yelling at her, some of the things he yelled at me.
“I want to coach. I want to catch a step, look for the position in the air … just watch and be happy. I want to jump up and down and cheer and clap. There is a fine line between being dad and coaching. I don’t want to be disrespectful to other competitors,” he said, looking proudly at his daughter. “She’s being modest. She’s incredibly coach-able. Not all kids are. Their opinion may be impressively more important to them than their coach. She’s pretty stubborn — which is a compliment. I think she’s a gamer. Which means that even if the series are not awesome, when it’s track time, game time, she gets on the back of the runway and kind of morphs into somebody different.”
Stacey recalled one meet during Cassidy’s junior high years when she went to a meet, but admitted she didn’t feel well. She left with a high fever and strep throat. “It’s the only competition she ever missed,” Stacey said.
“A big part of it is mental preparedness — readiness. That is big in other sports,” Cassidy said. “It’s just you on the back of the runway and you focus on what you have to do on the next jump.”
She said that if you’re not confident in your mind, you won’t succeed. She said she likes to listen to music, warm up, think positive —“that’s how I prepare myself.”
“Second is the first loser,” Cassidy said ruefully recalling her earning second place at indoor state her freshman year, loosing by 6 inches.
Pole vaulting is a very technical event, Walter explained, differentiating the indoor and outdoor meet conditions.
“The weather affects competition,” he said.
Cassidy said the wind direction and speed, the size of the pole she’s using, the temperature all affect the results of a jump.
“You start from a very prescriptive distance — 77’6”. I want her right toe to be on 31 feet when she’s four steps away from the plant pole. She holds onto a specific height on the pole,” he said. Cassidy warms up on four or five different poles, each of different lengths and stiffnesses.
“You use a smaller pole when warming up from 20 feet. On a short run, eight steps, you use a bigger pole. As you keep backing up, the pole gets longer and stiffer,” she said. “In competition, you keep blowing through poles because they get too small when it gets higher.”
Cassidy said she has started practicing with short runs, using a smaller pole and working on form. “That’s what’s made us so good this year,” she said.
“The more I got back into it, the more I remembered from centuries ago when I was in it,” Walter said.
Cassidy ultimately would like to set the world record which currently is 16 feet 7 inches.
“Track and field is the second most popular sport in Europe just behind football (soccer) but only seventh or eighth in the U.S.” according to Walter.
So, she practices. She runs. She lifts weights and does drills. And experiments.
Cassidy credits her mother not only with support and encouragement, but making healthy dinners and encouraging her to sleep enough.
“We can’t leave Stacey out,” Walter said. “She has never missed a meet. Cass and I get to do what we do all the time. She takes care of us. She does everything on our behalf, when it’s meet time, it’s even more, if we’re at a meet and we need it, she has it. She videos. She gets us there on time and brings snacks, water, sleeping bag, ace bandage, encouragement — she’s got it. She runs the place so Cass and I can do what we do.
“I get to watch Cass do what she loves,” he said.
“I love watching their interaction,” Stacey said.
“I think it comes naturally to me,” Cassidy said.
“She’s not sedentary. She does eat healthy. She is really blessed with some good genetics,” Walter said. “It was given to us. We gave it to her. She comes by it naturally.”
“I am incredibly appreciative of Heather Wade and the school system,” Walter said. “When Cass and I first started, I asked how I could be involved. She (Wade) educated me on the registered volunteer program that AHSAA has. I took 30 hours of online required courses which includes first aid, that allows me to work with the kids in a certified fashion.
He said Wade has allowed him to be involved and opens the gyms on weekend afternoons for them to practice.
“Heather is the architect,” he said. “We continue to be incredibly blessed by access. We try to be smart on which poles to buy.”
“The reason that Pea Ridge track is successful is because of her,” Cassidy said, “since track is not as big a thing as football and baseball. She’s thinking all the time about strategies. She really cares about it. That’s why we’re so successful.”
The track program got bigger when Cass was in the ninth grade, Walter said, emphasizing that it’s not because of any one particular athlete as Pea Ridge regularly scores in the upper 150s. “Coach Wade has built a winning culture around track and field. She’s the bomb.”
“She’s being a little modest,” Walter said about his daughter, as he recalled her current record — four times state champion in pole vaulting, member of the 4x400-meter state champion team, state runner up in 4x100-meter team, third in Meet of Champs for pole vaulting, runs the 100-meter and 200-meter. He said she usually competes in four or five events in every meet and carries a 4.125 grade point average. She is on Student Council, is secretary of the Student Council, is in the National Honor Society and in the Science Club.
Cassidy said she is interested in sports psychology or management. “I know I want to do pole vault.”
Walter believes the ingredients are there for Cassidy to be both the indoor and outdoor champion.
She loves it. She works hard.
And, she’s not afraid of heights. He, on the other hand, is.
They both laughingly recalled vacation years ago, when Cassidy begged to go para sailing but they didn’t. She said this past summer, he agreed but then backed out at the last minute because “he’s always been afraid of heights.”
Walter said being willing to go high upside down is essential for a good pole vaulter.
“It’s a staple. You need to be perfectly inverted,” he said.
“Pole vaulting is a platform,” Walter said. “The time she’ll be doing it is finite, certainly at high levels. It’s obviously fun. She needs to value it as a platform to do whatever else she wants to do.”
“It’s the mark you leave on life — your legacy,” the father said to his daughter.