Neither Sam Smith nor Jake Platel thought that they were going to be doing track on their first day of freshman year at Bethlehem Central High School.
But through a fortunate series of events, the two seniors are not only on the track team, but they are also the stars of the team.
My parents made me join the team freshman year says Platel, the state indoor track champion in the pole vault. `How I got into pole vaulting is that it was the only event where you didn’t have to run. So, it was just me being lazy again.`
`I did the musical in 10th grade,` explained Smith. `I was going to go out for the baseball team, and one of my rehearsals conflicted with the tryouts. So I said, ‘Man, I am gonna miss a day of tryouts; this stinks. Maybe I’ll just try a different sport.’ And I went out for track.`
Platel and Smith met at a high jump relay in their sophomore year. It was the first time the two would compete together.
`We needed a third high jumper,` Platel remembered. `So, they just found the next, biggest, goofiest looking kid on the team after Mike McManus and Sam, and they just decided they would make me do high jump.`
Since then, Smith and Platel have trained together, and they admit there is some one-upmanship going on.
`He (Platel) pushes me to train harder so that I can beat him, eventually ` and then, maybe beat some other people,` said Smith, who won the Section II high jump title this past indoor season.
According to Smith, there are three things that help accelerate one’s ability at track and field: `a good work ethic, a person to train with and a good coach.`
Besides pushing each other to be better, each of the two track stars sing the others praises.
`We all knew Sam was going to be a beast because he jumped 6 (feet), 4 (inches) sophomore year,` said Platel.
`To see him (Platel) flying 15-1, 15,-4 now, it’s unreal. I think it’s great,` states Smith.
That level of effort has brought Platel and Smith to the forefront of state track and field. Both of them have placed in the top 10 of their respective events at state meets the past two years, with Platel grabbing the pole vault title in March.
What makes Platel’s first place finish even more impressive is the immense difficulty of his sport.
`There are like a million different motions in the pole vault that you have to learn. If you screw one of them up, the whole jump will fail,` said Platel. `If you don’t run down the runway correctly, you’re not going to jump high; if you don’t plant the pole correctly, you’re not going to jump high; if you don’t do any one of the small little aspects correctly, everything else is going to fail.`
It took Platel some time to learn and perfect all of these parts of his vault.
`Everything you do in steps,` he explains. `You don’t just go out there and do everything 100 percent every single time. You have got to work on the individual little motions within the jump itself, or else it’s not going to work out.`
Although Platel’s sport is one of the most difficult in the realm of track and field, Smith is certainly not lacking in the difficulty department. Besides being one of the best high jumpers in the state, Smith also does the pentathlon, which is made up of five events: 110-meter high hurdles, long jump, shot put, high jump and a 1,500-meter run.
`That’s my bag of tricks, I think,` said Smith `I think it’s my favorite too, because it’s the most fulfilling.`
But Smith’s most fulfilling moment was one last year when he and Platel each won their events at states.
`We were walking by the awards table and they had these huge trophies, and they had tons of them. And I asked, ‘Coach are those for every event?’ He said, ‘Yeah, they are.’ And I said, ‘Wow, it would be cool to get one of those big trophies,’` he said. `We were both doing one event each. I did the high jump and everything came together. The second place guy got out at 6 feet, and I was just jumping against myself. I kept going and kept going, and I hit my personal record at that time (6-6) and came home with one of those big trophies. And then I went over and watched Jake clear 14-6, and then he came home with one of those trophies. It was just a great day because you see how your hard work is coming along.`
Platel and Smith have one last outdoor track season to go through before they head off to college. Platel will be pole vaulting for Binghamton University, while Smith will compete for the University of Connecticut.
`I can’t ever see myself not doing something with the pole vault,` said Platel.
`I agree,` added Smith.“