Jenny Foegen Article

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Foegen's career comes full circle


By CRAIG OTTO/Staff writer
Anyone who doubts the importance of athletics on the lives of college and high school students hasn't met 2001 Holmen High School graduate Jenny Foegen.

It hardly seems like it's been four years since Foegen almost single-handedly was able to get the WIAA to institute girls pole vault as an event at the state meet. So it also seems hardly possible that Foegen will begin the final run of her career as a vaulter at Winona State University with a meet at UW-Eau Claire tonight.

Foegen has had a decent, but certainly not overwhelming, track and field career at Winona. She has been plenty competitive in regional meets and in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference meets, including earning honorable-mention all-league outdoor honors in her sophomore.

On the other hand, Foegen has not qualified for an NCAA Division 2 national meet. But the success of Foegen has been measured in many ways other than on the track.

For those who don't remember, Foegen was assured in the spring of 2000, at the end of her junior year at Holmen, that pole vault would be a state meet event the following spring. When she found out that October that making the event part of state would be delayed until after she graduated, she petitioned the WIAA.

A letter from Foegen was read at a meeting of the WIAA Advisory Council in November, where it received a standing ovation. Less than three months later, girls pole vault was a state event, with WIAA officials specifically citing Foegen's letter as crucial in the change. Four years later, Foegen is happy will all the effort she put into the crusade.

"Girls all over the state are getting the chance that many girls didn't back then. They get to vault and have it be recognized. In turn, it is producing greater athletes and it is also better preparing athletes for the next level," Foegen said. "I do look back on what I did and apply it to current situations. Whenver I think that I can't do something or that one voice won't make a difference, I think back and realize that you won't know unless you try. It also makes me encourage others to go after what they believe in because I know first hand that things can be changed."

Former head coach Kim Blum, who left the program to become the assistant AD at UW-La Crosse, named Foegen one of the program's captains for this spring's season. Foegen isn't taking her responsibilities lightly.

"I have met and exceeded many of the goals I had for myself entering college," Foegen said. " I am extremely happy with all of the effort I have put in over the past four years. It has been hard and definitely time consuming, yet worth it."

Foegen is on target to graduate this spring with a degree in marketing and a double minor in business administration and communication studies. She already has a post-graduation job secured. Foegen is the daughter of Roger and Pam Foegen of the town of Onalaska.