These five local athletes are sure to capture your attention at this summer’s Olympic Games

by Jamie Menaker

“Achieving success and personal glory in athletics has less to do with wins and losses than it does with learning how to prepare yourself so that at the end of the day … you know that there was nothing more you could have done to reach your ultimate goal”

-Jackie Joyner Kersee, Heptathlon and Long Jump three-time gold medalist

It’s one of the most well-known international images in the world. An Olympian stands on the top-most tier of three levels of platforms, representing gold, silver, and bronze medals respectively, to the soundtrack of his or her country’s sacred anthem broadcast for the world to hear, both the millions of ardent fans at the Olympic Games and the billions of viewers the world over. This conjured image sometimes includes Olympic torches, and possibly olive leaf head wreaths, thunderous cheering, and tears, but what is constant is the beaming pride of the Olympian, who for that moment in time is the very best in the world at an event in which she has spent most of her life training.

To most of us, this image is one of dreams and scenes from the silver screen, but to the select few, this top honor is a reality possible in their lifetime. Right here in Stockton, we are lucky enough to have some of these impressive athletes training in Track and Field events in our own backyard, currently eighteen athletes at the Stockton facility. These elite and emerging elite athletes spend their days at the Port of Stockton, at their warehouse training facility, under the tutelage of Head Coach Dan Pfaff, whose has mentored a laundry list of Olympians past and present. The emerging athletes are some of the best in the U.S., but it isn’t until an athlete has become competitive in the world scene that he or she is truly considered an elite athlete.

With the 2008 Beijing summer Olympic Games on the horizon, five of these elite athletes of Tri-Valley Athletics are anticipated to be making appearances at this summer’s games, Amy Acuff in the High Jump, Suzy Powell-Roos in the Discus Throw, Brad Walker and Niki McEwen in the Pole Vault, and Yoo Kim representing Korea in the Pole Vault (Coach Pfaff is so well respected that Kim came from abroad to train with him in Stockton). Even as this story is going to press, the athletes are in Eugene, Oregon competing in the Track and Field Olympic Trials (June 27 to July 6), to secure their spots in Beijing.

In fact, it has been said that our Tri-Valley Athletics facility here in Stockton boasts more Olympic athletes in Track and Field than the official Olympic training facility in San Diego, and we undeniably sent more Track and Field athletes to the most recent 2007 Outdoor World Championships.

With a setup like that just described, it may seem that these athletes are sitting pretty; but the reality of an elite athlete training at the Olympic level isn’t necessarily an easy one. “Other countries see great value in their country representing them at the Olympics and other public events,” says Tye Harvey, an elite pole vaulter, and the go-to guy for Tri-Valley Athletics, also married to Amy Acuff, one of this year’s probable Olympians (see sidebar, pg. xx). “The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) divvies up what they can to the Olympic athletes, but they are based only on donations. They have to pay their staff and their overhead—it’s frustrating that the athletes don’t get a lot of the money that’s coming in. The U.S Track and Field (USATF) even has less money.”

With plenty of travel expenses for competitions all over the globe, the abundance of athletic equipment that’s needed and worn through so quickly, and cost of living, in addition to a rigorous training schedule that doesn’t leave much time to hold a traditional job, this lack of government supplied funds can mean that some of the best athletes in the world are barely making ends meet while they train and dedicate themselves to representing our country. Some are lucky enough to have sponsorships that provide athletic gear and compensation, but these are the exception to the rule.

The answer used to be that athletes would use the pre-built training facilities at universities where the collegiate level athletes train, but that has been brought to a halt in the past five years with academic concerns about liability issues and the athletes benefiting from money that should be going to the students.

“You end up with little pods or groups of athletes that band together,” says Harvey, of the scarce training resources in the U.S.In fact, the Olympic Training Center in San Diego is the only one in the U.S. for Track and Field, and only a limited number of about twenty athletes are allowed to stay there. With cost of living so high in San Diego, and so many athletes vying for the attention of the same coaches, the setup is less than ideal.

Enter Tiger Bar Sports, the original training facility for our local elite athletes before Tri-Valley Athletics came to be what it is today. At the time, Suzy Powell-Roos, this year’s Tri-Valley Olympic pick for the Discus Throw (see sidebar, pg. xx), was one of the lucky few, who in local real estate developer Tony Rosenthal was able to find an employer willing to work around her demanding training schedule. Rosenthal witnessed her repetitively being kicked off training facilities, and decided to help out.

In fall of 2006, Rosenthal donated his ranch to build a training facility, close to Isleton, on Twitchell Island in the Delta, and donated money to hire a trainer. Acuff and Harvey, friends and fellow athletes of Powell-Roos, were frustrated with the unsuitable conditions at the Olympic Training Center in San Diego, and decided to make the move up here to start the center with her and Rosenthal. Luckily the San Diego facility had just secured some new equipment, and Harvey was able to bring a truckload of the existing equipment up here. This is still the equipment that they are using today.

Acuff had been working with Coach Dan Pfaff since 2000, long distance coaching over the phone as much as possible, and Powell-Roos had also worked with him and liked his coaching style, and asked if Rosenthal would hire him as a coach. Pfaff has worked with over thirty Olympians, including seven Olympic medalists, and emphasizes a holistic approach of equal focus on mind, body, and spirit for success. “This is unheard of, that Dan would just pick up everything and come out to teach in the Delta, that we would have enough money to support his coaching,” says Harvey. “Tony [Rosenthal] was really responsible for that.” As the real estate market took a turn for the worst, Rosenthal could no longer support the facility and had to put the ranch up for sale, leaving the athletes unsure whether they were going to have a place to train.

Through fundraising appearances in and around Stockton, the athletes had previously worked closely with Andy Prokop, CEO and President of the United Way of San Joaquin County, and a prominent philanthropist in the community. Prokop agreed to help raise money to continue paying Head Coach Pfaff, and started to introduce them to community leaders in an effort to make some helpful connections. It was Rich Aschieris, Director of the Port of Stockon, who was finally able to find the athletes a training facility, giving them a home in one of the Port’s unused warehouses.

At this time, the athletes also combined efforts with a non-profit youth pole vaulting club in Livermore, through high school clinics they were holding to raise money. The club was already established, and suggested that the elite athletes join up with their organization. The result is a unified Track and Field organization that gives the athletes the opportunity to work in the community with up and coming talent, and combine resources for fundraising efforts, as well as benefit from the established non-profit designation, which entices donors further by allowing them to claim the tax reduction on their tax returns.

As local community leaders have begun to realize the excitement of having such great talent right in our own backyard, and witnessed the financial state that these top athletes are in, they are making efforts to start a grassroots movement in our community. Kristen Birtwhistle, also a prominent philanthropist in the Central Valley, first encountered Tri-Valley Athletics during a clinic at Lodi High School for her son’s pole vaulting team. Birtwhistle contacted Prokop, who had already taken an interest in the athletes, and between the two, they rounded up some of the most influential community leaders in San Joaquin, all in one room.

  “We need to identify what the needs of the athletes are and see what we can do,” says Birtwhistle. “It’s a great opportunity that we have these world-class athletes here. The team as a whole is very community-minded, giving back to the Stockton community. To give back to them would be great.”

Says Prokop, “These are the kind of people that we need to represent America. They are focused on being the best that they can be. I just believe that this is Stockton and San Joaquin County’s opportunity to stand up and be a part of how they achieve those goals.”
Currently, Coach Pfaff’s salary is paid off until after the Beijing Olympics this summer, due mostly to a $15,000 donation from Tri-Valley’s sports psychologist, Michael Anthony, who works with the athletes on the “mind” part of Pfaff’s triad of mind, body, and spirit. This is the largest donation to date to the new training facility under the name of Tri-Valley Athletics, but once the Olympics are over, if Tri-Valley doesn’t raise any money leading up to the Olympics, the future of the training facility is unsure.
Harvey explains that if Coach Pfaff has to leave, some of the athletes will stay and some will try to follow him to wherever he is coaching.

            “A bunch of our athletes will follow Dan, but there really aren’t that many other places to go. We’re gonna keep this baby going, there will always be a contingent of athletes here.”
           
For now, Tri-Valley’s elite athletes are focusing all their energy on the upcoming summer Olympic Games, training harder than they ever have. All we can say is come summer, when the Olympics are broadcast, you better believe we’ll be watching.

For more information, visit Tri-Valley Athletics at www.trivalleyvault.com.