Success can be defined in a number of different ways. No matter which definition you choose, Katie Utley, a Tift County senior pole vaulter, has had a successful career with the Blue Devils. A relative latecomer to the sport of pole vaulting – she didn’t start until the eighth grade – Utley is leaving Tift County High with three state titles, a state runner-up, and the 6A state record.
Growing up, Utley tried a number of different sports. Her mother suggested that she add one more. She knew Charlie Polhamus, an accomplished pole vaulter and coach who lives in Fitzgerald. Utley obliged and within a year of taking up the sport, she had a state title to her credit. “Pole vaulting was always fun, from the first time I tried it. Then when I won that state title, I realized I was pretty good at it,” she says.
Entering the state meet that year, Utley was ranked third in Georgia. The top-ranked vaulter had a bad day while Utley had the best day of her career. “After that,” she says, “my goal was always to win state. I was shocked when I won that first championship. After the shock wore off, I was very proud.” Utley met her goal in the tenth and eleventh grades, winning state each of those years.
How did she maintain focus and stay on task after experiencing success so quickly? “My parents have helped me along the way. They encourage me to go to practice every day. We also have a good group of vaulters there and we motivate each other,” she says.
If you’re going to work with Polhamus, you’re going to work hard every day. There aren’t any days off and he doesn’t accept excuses. His system is uncompromising; at the same time, his results cannot be ignored. Throughout her career, Utley bought into Polhamus’s system and she’s done exactly what he asked of her. “He always told us that hard work pays off. That’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned from him,” she says.
That lesson will continue to pay dividends over the next four years. Utley has signed a scholarship with Georgia Tech, where she will study biomedical engineering and compete for the Yellow Jackets track team. “There were a lot of schools offering me scholarships. I chose Georgia Tech as much for the academics as anything else. They also have a great track team and I have family in Atlanta. I wanted to stay in state and I liked Tech,” she says.
Utley has worked year ‘round for five years to become and remain one of Georgia’s best high school pole vaulters. As a result, she has received a scholarship at one of the top universities in the country and in the process, laid a foundation for a bright future. Yeah, that’s a successful career.
Growing up, Katie Utley enjoyed the typical menagerie of sports available to young ladies: softball, soccer, basketball, just about everything she could play. When she discovered pole vaulting, everything else became secondary. She ran cross country as a freshman, but other than that, it’s been all pole vaulting all the time. It’s been a grueling schedule, but it’s also been quite rewarding.
Special Feature/South Georgia/June 2014
Katie Utley
Tift County High School
Tifton, Georgia
Robert Preston Jr.
Tift County senior one of the state’s best pole vaulters
