Janice McClain, sophomore at CSU, pole vaults earlier this season at the Glenn Morris Invitational. McClain walked on the track team this year.

Janice McClain, sophomore at CSU, pole vaults earlier this season at the Glenn Morris Invitational. McClain walked on the track team this year.

Janice McClain is a sophomore at Colorado State University. She is studying health and exercise science with the dream of someday becoming a physical therapist or doctor. She isn’t unlike any other college student – she goes to class, hangs out with friends, spends time on Facebook and…pole vaults every weekend with the CSU track and field team.

McClain is a walk-on athlete on the CSU track team. She was not a hot-shot recruit out of tiny Bayfield High School. She is not on scholarship. She doesn’t get her books paid for. She even has to buy her own running shoes. But she gets to travel with the team and compete in a sport she loves.

After not running or jumping at all her freshman year, McClain got the itch to compete again in the sport and jumped at the idea of walking on the CSU team.

“I didn’t compete at all my freshman year; I didn’t do any sports and then I just missed it I guess,” said McClain.“I missed being around a team and being part of a team and representing the school and I love working out and being around people who have the same interests as I do. I went to a couple track meets just to watch and just missed track, so I just walked on and tried out.”

After watching CSU’s home track meets as a freshman, McClain contacted head track coach Brian Bedard and told of her intentions of walking on the team. She told the coaches her P.R.s and that she was interested in doing the pole vault – the event she excelled at in high school.

And so after talking with the coaches, they offered her a position on the team as a walk-on. She would not receive any money, but would be given a chance to compete at meets throughout the season. The first obstacle was going through the conditioning workouts – and earning the respect of the coaches.

“You show up to practice and go through the conditioning, which is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life; I almost died,” McClain said. “And the coaches treat you like you don’t belong on the team. Basically they’re trying to kick your ass, but you have to show them you’re serious about joining the team and earn that respect by busting your butt.”

McClain said the coaches then decide and have the final word on what event you’re going to do and can sometimes place you in an event you may have never done. Fortunately for McClain, the coaches placed her in the pole vault, which is her favorite event.

In four meets this outdoor season, McClain has posted a season-best height of nine feet and two and a quarter inches. She will wrap up her season at the Jack Christiansen Invitational in Ft. Collins this weekend.

McClain plans on running with the team next year and is willing to do whatever the coaches tell her.

“He might keep me on the pole vaulting; he might put me in another event, but I’ll probably stick with pole vaulting because pole vaulting isn’t part of the multi-events for the heptathlon or pentathlon for the women, so I’ll probably just stick with that for now unless he decides to put me in something else. Whatever the coach says goes, said McClain.”

The best thing about joining the CSU track team she says – the people she’s met.

“I love everyone on the track team; they’re the nicest people I’ve ever met,” McClain said.

Listen to this podcast as McClain explains a little more of the process of walking on the track team, the differences between the scholarship athletes and walk-ons and the transition from high school sports to college sports.