Kyle Mills-Bunje
(St. Francis,
Mountain View)
Vaulter and All-Around Star
Kyle (right) with teammate Casey Roche as both cleared
16-07 on May 4th in a dual
May, 2006 - Doug
Speck
He's one of the great all-around athletes in the nation. He
can compete at
the elite level in the sprints, hurdles, horizontal jumps, and vault.
Kyle Mills-
Bunje is one of a super group of vaulters at St. Francis, Mountain
View in
the CCS this spring. Just off a personal best 16-07 vault in a dual,
a height
also cleared by teammate Casey Roche in the same competition, we
turn
to an interview that we did with Kyle earlier this spring, not too
long after
he impressed with a 16-06 indoor clearance in the event.
1) Why the big improvement already since last track
season in the Pole
Vault with the 16-06 effort?
Well I have been pole vaulting all off-season and reworking my whole
approach and plant. I knew I was going to put up some good marks once I
started competing again. But 16'6" was a shock to come as early as it
did,
now my coaches are rethinking my goals for the vault this year.
2) What other sports have you done along the way during your high school
and pre-high school sports career?
Not much, as a freshman I played football, basketball and track, then
my sophomore year I did basketball and track, then my junior year and this
year I trained for track year round.
3) Describe your evolution from a jumper to a vaulter?
The summer after my sophomore year I started to learn to pole vault
so that I could compete in decathlons over the summer, than as a junior
I kept with the pole vault and I kept progressing in the event and now it is
my
favorite event to compete in.
4) What is the atmosphere like at St. Francis vaulting practice with so
many good male and female vaulters?
Well I feel that having such a strong team really helped me progress
as a junior when I was new to the sport. Now it is a lot of fun because we
will have different fun practices like short run competitions. Also the
whole group of us go to big invitationals instead of just a couple of us, so
we all see each other a lot, its a good thing we like each other.
5) What events do you see yourself competing in at college--decathlon
possibility?
I was recruited for decathlon and U.C. Berkeley was the only school
that said I could be either a vaulter and/or decathlete, I think I am going
to try
to be both and see where that takes me.
6) Why the choice of Cal to continue your education?
I want to go into engineering and Cal has one of the best engineering
departments in the nation. Also I really like the team and coaches, I have
been
to several of their track camps and always had a great time. They also gave
me
that choice of the vault and decathlon.
7) Funniest thing ever to happen at practice or in a meet to you?
We have a lot of good times jumping together so it is hard to pick out
one moment. At one all comers meet in Los Gatos, I was jumping and the
pole flew out of my hands and recoiled into my groin area. I couldn't
walk for and
hour but afterwards it was great to watch on video tape. My teammates say
they are
going to put it on the internet.
8) General advice you would give to a beginning vaulter who is out for
the sport their first year this spring?
Work hard and put a lot of faith in your coach, there are a lot of parts
of the vault that feels like it would be counterintuitive to the vault but
it
really is not. For example, always have your arms extended--you may feel
like you want to pull yourself up but it does not work that way.
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