Shadow Ridge’s track team has amazing pole vaulters, but their pit is so old that it makes it dangerous to vault on it. The pit is made of the pit itself, the standards, the base pads, the pole box, the runway, the crossbars and an additional protective pad on top of the pit. The pit itself is made out of three little pits that are next to each other. The corners of it are so soft that the athletes need to turn them around very often. It takes a lot of energy and time that could be put in something more productive. 

Sophomore Ellie Fisher explains, “I think we should get a new pit because ours is getting pretty old, we have to fix the holes in it all the time, and after every jump we can’t see because of the pit dust, I think a new pit would be easier to handle.” 

The pit is ripped off at multiple places, but that is not the only problem. The bar that athletes jump over is held by standards. Standards can be moved from 18 to 32, depending on the jumper’s preferences. Usually, the athletes helping out can stand next to them and move them around. But Shadow’s pole vaulters need to get in the box next to the pit and push them with their legs. It makes it harder to get a precise number and could make the vaulter’s jump even harder. When it gets really hot, the surface starts burning, and it’s difficult for athletes who have been doing that for hours, to stay motivated. 

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Shadow Ridge's pit

“During our home invite, Adam, Chloe and I stayed at the standards from 7am. to 4pm. pretty much non stop. Coaches from other teams were mad at us because we were not going fast enough, even if we were pushing as hard as we could. It was also like 90 degrees and we were exhausted,” tells junior Irene Pastor Perez. 

Sophomore Aidan Waite and Devin Curtis even got designed to fix the pit, creating very weird ways to do it, but the only effective ones. They sprint for around 10 meters and then push the pit, diving in it and moving all the pollen and dust in it. There is also a foam in the protective pad that needs to be put back pretty often, that is freshman Allie Reynolds’s role. 

Waite confesses, “It would be super nice to get a new pit since our pit is kind of falling apart and has a hole in the middle that Devin and I need to fix all the time.” 

But no matter how destroyed the pit is, athletes are attached to it, and prefer it compared to some other high schools’ pits. 

Sophomore Sonya Pineda explains, “I enjoy our pit, it’s very comfy and I hate Arbor View’s pit, it’s way too high. I really hope that our new pit won’t be like theirs.”