Doug Sparks, Millennium Hall of Fame

A former world-class pole vaulter whose best Olympic hope came

during the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games, Doug Sparks turned into an

overweight Wall Street investment banker who lived on the run.

Then, one day in 1988, he read an ad in the Daily Pilot promoting a

Masters Track and Field Meet at UCI, so he showed up and watched from the

stands.

“I can do this,” Sparks told himself, while desiring to return to top

physical condition.

Sparks blew off his yuppie job, entered the physical therapy business

with his wife, Kay, and gave UCI track and field coach Vince O’Boyle a

proposition.

“I’ll coach your (pole vaulters) for free as long as you let me jump

there,” Sparks said to O’Boyle, who gladly accepted the terms and hasn’t

let go of him since.

In the last 11 years, any athlete who has pole vaulted for Corona del

Mar or Newport Harbor high school has probably come across Sparks, who

coaches all levels, including past and hopeful Olympians. In 1996, Sparks

was one of two coaches selected to work with pole vaulters in preparation

for the Atlanta Games.

A year later, Sparks decided he wanted more jumping and less coaching,

so he went out and won the 1997 indoor national championship in the

Masters division in Boston. In July 1997, Sparks placed third at the

world championships in South Africa.

Sparks, the reigning honcho of all things pole vault, coaches, at no

charge, about 10 elite vaulters at UCI, including Long Beach State’s

Borya Celentano, an 18-foot 6 1/2-inch vaulter who has already qualified

for next year’s Olympic Trials.

“When I first got (Celentano), he was jumping 12-6, so it’s pretty

exciting (to see the progress) and he’s not done,” said Sparks, who also

trains former NAIA champion Lesa Kubishta (Point Loma), who expects to

compete in the first Olympics for women pole vaulters at Sydney in 2000.

As a physical therapist, Sparks works with top athletes and even opens

his home in Corona del Mar to prospective Olympic pole vaulters -- all at

no charge.

“We learn a lot from them, because they tell us everything they’ve

tried, so it’s a great mutual exchange of information, which I can use

for anyone else,” said Sparks, whose generosity has paid dividends in the

long run, with his business growing from $120,000 in 1993 to over $3

million this year.

“It has certainly been fun, and I was given some good advice (about

entering the health care industry). The other thing is that (the

business) has given us a way to work with athletes, especially at this

higher level. We attract a lot of elite athletes who want to work with

us.”

Sparks, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame,

celebrating the millennium, grew up in Houston and began pole vaulting at

age 12 with bamboo sticks from a nearby housing development (used to

carry rolls of carpeting) and piles of old netting for a landing pad.

He saw Bob Seagren compete on television at the Sunkist Indoor Meet

from the Los Angeles Sports Arena and immediately went out with his

younger brother, Bill, to find a suitable runway. Both became world-class

competitors, with Doug going just a little higher (18-1 in 1978) than

Bill (17-4 1/2). A Web site for pole vaulters has them listed as the

10th-ranked brother combination of all time.

A football wide receiver and safety in high school who was recruited

by several colleges in Texas, Sparks turned down full-ride scholarship

offers in order to pole vault. At the time, Sparks was vaulting 14-6 and

some thought he was crazy to pursue it rather than accept a football

scholarship.

“I’d always played football my whole life,” said Sparks, who accepted

a new athletic challenge while attending Southwest Texas State, where he

became a three-time NAIA All-American, including indoor and outdoor

national championships in 1976.

“When I realized we weren’t going to the Olympic Games in 1980 because

of the boycott, I decided to retire rather than starve for two more

years,” said Sparks.

Sparks attended Scarborough High School in Houston and pole vaulted

with a guy named “Buddy” Swayze, who would later turn up on the silver

screen in films like “Dirty Dancing” and “Point Break”.

“(Patrick Swayze) was our star of the team,” Sparks said. “He was a

10-foot vaulter and that was huge for us. After junior high, he gave it

up. He had a big dance background and his mother (operated) the Patsy

Swayze School of Dance. He’d point his toes over the bar -- so his

vaulting was not only high, but near perfect in form.”

Sparks, 46, has lived in the area for two decades. Kay, his wife, had

three grown children: Krista, Kevin and Kara. Krista has two children.