Memories of Scully

[rainbowgirl28]

Edit: I split this into it's own thread for people to share their memories about Scully.

Scully came to Reno for the first time this year and had a blast. I think he was planning on making it a yearly thing.

Scully was the very first person to buy Beginner to Bubka from me. He was so excited. He bought the DVD too.

[Michael Dodd]

That last link is normally a closed forum with no public registration allowed.

Jeremy is one of the sweetest guys I've ever known.

http://binky.bgonet.com/2008/04/28/jeremy-scully/

http://gamers.bgonet.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=112&p=272#p272

[vaultwest]

I coached Jeremy at University of Oregon in the early to mid 90's. I am not very good at this but I thought I should tell a little of Jeremy's story, at least the part I know.

Jeremy was a soph. when I first started coaching at U of O in 1990. At that time at U of O in the vault you had to have cleared 16' in a meet to get the uniform and be on the official roster but we let anyone that was dedicated be on the unofficial squad as long as they followed the rules and made all the workouts. This is where Jeremy fit in. He was a skinny, weak, slow, technically challenged vaulter that was a long way away from clearing 16' he was more like a 14 footer. Jeremy was a great guy, a little nerdy, but he had a great heart, he worked as hard as anyone and he never missed workouts.

Sometimes I wondered why Jeremy persisted, not because of his work ethic but his vaulting ability. I always give an athlete what they give me so I worked very hard with Jeremy and frankly sometimes I would become very frustrated with him because every time we would finally make a breakthrough in technique and he would start to put his vault together and I would think well here we go, Jeremy is going to make it, the very next vault workout Jeremy would perform as though it was the very first day he had ever vaulted and all the work would seem to be for naught. At meets Jeremy would also get so uptight that he would never vault as well as he had in the previous weeks workouts so his dream of making 16' and thus making the U of O team would seem impossible.

We used to rope vault off of a scaffolding under the west grandstands at Hayward field with a platform that was high enough so that guys regularly cleared 18'. Jeremy wasn't the best at this but always gave it a good try. The only bad thing that can happen to you rope vaulting is if you don't let go of the rope and swing back. None of my guys ever had a problem with this except Jeremy and not once but twice he got up to the bar felt uncertain and did not drop off the rope. Well he would get his feet over the bungee and so when he swung back he would pull down both standards on top of everyone and crash himself into the scaffolding and I would get a little pissed and yell at him that he just couldn't do that and he would just look at me with his puppy dog eyes and say sorry, climb back up on the scaffoldling and do it again, but better that next time . It was a source of some laughs for all of us in latter years.

So it was a really great day during Jeremy's senior season when he finally put together a good day at a meet and cleared what I remember as 15'6" for a big PR. I was so happy for and proud of Jeremy and he was as happy and proud as any vaulter I have ever worked with. In my opinion that vault was as big an achievement for him as any vaulter I have ever coached has reached and to me it said it all about the character and heart of Jeremy.

I lost contact with Jeremy for about 10 years until just a few years ago when I ran into him at some meets and it made me feel so great that he was back out there giving back to our great sport by coaching the vault and helping out young kids. I think Jeremy's story demonstrates why the pole vault is such a great endeavor. So here it is to you Jeremy and our memory of you, Well Done
Vault On

[Robert schmitt]

He had really taken over a lot of what dick henrie started in the bellingham area running the summer/winter vault programs. He has probably coached to some extent every upper level HS to come out of the whatcom/Skagit county area. He was always just as excited to see anyone PR as much as if one of his kids pr'd, I don't know how many times I've had kids beat his athletes on poles I borrowed from them, and he was always happy to see them succed and never hesitated to loan us a pole. Tommorows meet with bellingham is going to suck b/c I'm sure Dick will be there and will be a deep undertone of the loss of Jeremy Scully.

[Michael Dodd]

Me and my friends gamed with Jeremy every Wednesday night.

Every time we got together the first thing he wanted to talk about was how his girls jumped and what was happening with the meets he was involved with. He was incredibly proud of you guys.

I really appreciate the stories about him- he never talked much about his past, and we all loved him like he was a brother.

He never missed a game if he could help. We'll be meeting at our usual time on Wednesday night to shoot the bull and trade some Jeremy stories. If you're interested in coming by to visit, email me off the list. We'll be meeting in Ferndale.

[rainbowgirl28]

Dan, thanks for sharing that. I posted it to the Facebook group as well for the Western vaulters to read. Scully was every bit as hard-working as a coach as he was as a vaulter. He still jumped for fun at the all-comers meets sometimes too. I am sure he never forgot how patient you were with him in college. He was one of the most patient coaches I've ever met.

[rainbowgirl28]

I mentioned that Scully went to Reno for the first time last January. He also vaulted there, went 11'6
http://www.polevaultsummit.com/OpenMen8_08.htm

[rainbowgirl28]

These are some of the images posted by myself and his vaulters on Facebook. I watermarked the heck out of them so that the media wouldn't steal them.

[Michael Dodd]

We're all actually here right now, and we just looked through those pictures. Thanks so much for sharing those, it means a lot.

Kiro7 came and talked to us, I think it'll be on at 11.

We've got a family contact, we'll keep you guys in the loop.

[rainbowgirl28]

This is from Dani Juarez, former WWU vaulter. She gave me permission to repost it here.


[quote]In 2000, I first began vaulting at WWU. Things weren’t off to such a great start when our coach Mandy quit through half the year. Dick Henrie came to save the day a few times but we were pretty much dilly dallying around out there on our own at WWU with ANCIENT poles. PeeWee actually had something like a 13’ 210 lb pole he got for a “great dealâ€

[VLR]

I only knew Jeremy (I knew him as his first name) for about a year. I was going through a VERY hard time, a bad divorce and have three boys. He helped me through that time...talking to me at all hours of the night, texting me and joking with me. He lifted me up and made my spirit higher. When I was faced with what to do with my life, he suggested I become a Sub~Teacher. It is kind of strange... today I recieve word it was him they found AND I got my Sub~Teaching Certificate in the mail. I could have not made it through the last year without him. I will find it hard to make it the rest of my life without him. He was a wonderful soul.
Thank you Jeremy for being there for me... I only wish I could have been there for you in your time of need.

[rainbowgirl28]

I'm not entirely sure what my first memory is of Scully. I first met Dick Henrie in the spring of 1999, my first year pole vaulting, when I was a 6' pole vaulter with no clue what I was doing. The next summer, 2000, I started coming up to Bellingham for all-comers meets and spending more time with that crowd. In the following summers, when I would visit from college, I'm sure Scully was around, I just don't remember that well.

In the summer of 2003, I lived in Bellingham for 6 weeks or so to train with Dick and the Bellingham Track Club. Dick was very busy and had a lot of vaulters to coach, so sometimes it would be Scully that helped me. I was skeptical, but I remember being pleasantly surprised that he had solid advice to give me, and was able to give me useful feedback. I remember one time that summer we went up to Canada for a meet (Raptor!!!) and Scully ended up not being able to come because he didn't have his passport or copy of his birth certificate on him, and we didn't want to risk getting stuck at the border. He had the saddest look on his face because he couldn't come.

At some point in there, I had a garage sale as a fundraiser for something, and Scully was nice enough to donate some stuff.

In the following years, I would always try to make some trips up to Bellingham when I was home for the summer. Scully was becoming more and more an integral part of things and I could always count on him being around.

In 2006 I graduated college, moved back home, and started coaching. My involvements are fairly similar to Scully's. I also coach high school, volunteer at a college (in the same conference as WWU too) and do clinics. We'd always see Western at the indoor meets at UW, and many of the same outdoor meets as well. Scully and I had lots of chances to sit and chat about how our kids were doing. He had a good memory about my vaulters and was always quick to make compliments when they were improving. He was so proud of all of his athletes, it didn't matter if it was the college guys going 15'+ or his high schoolers clearing 7' for the first time.

Aside from being a great coach, Scully was just one of the most helpful, selfless people out there. We've held a few small DII meets at UW over the past two years, and he was always willing to put the bar up and move the standards. I came up to two of the all-comers meets in Bellingham last summer when Gabriella was in town, and Scully was working tirelessly as always as the official and coaching anyone who needed help.

He went to Reno for the first time last January and had a blast. Reno was crazy busy for me and it's all a blur, but I remember getting his cell phone number, so maybe he picked up a t-shirt from me or something. I do remember we were on the same flight back to Seattle, and we got to sit and chat for awhile before boarding.

Even just a few weeks ago, my track club hosted its annual meet at my high school. I was running around rather frantic because I was the facility coordinator and had no clue what I was doing. Fortunately, my friend Molly was there to run the pole vault clipboard and Dick and Scully were there, so I knew I could leave the pole vault area and not have anything go wrong.

I think the last time I saw Scully was a few weekends ago at UPS. I missed the meet because I had class, but we got out of class early enough to make it worth my time to go down there and get the poles. The pole vault was over, but I ran into Dick and Scully in the parking lot and Scully let me know my guy had PR'd.

He should have been there last Friday at Western. It was one of those meets with a ton of downtime for me, and the weather was unusually perfect. Sunny and warm, and most amazing of all there was almost no wind. If he had been there we probably would have spent a lot of time catching up on how our high school kids were doing. One of his kids from Ferndale vaults for WWU now and she got like 2 PRs that day. I know he would have been so proud and would have given anything to be there.

I feel truly blessed to be living in Washington again because of the wonderful pole vault community we have up here. Scully was just one example of the great coaches we have who put the athletes first and are willing to help others no matter what.


I think if there is anything I'd like kids who didn't know Scully to take away from this, it's that you should always be sure to let your coaches know how much you appreciate them. Scully was the type of coach that was easy to overlook because he was always there and so reliable and dependable. He never hogged the limelight, he was more like one of those behind the scenes guys that made everything work. I am sure if we could all say one last thing to him, most of us would just like to let him know how much we appreciated everything he did for us.