SPEAKER PRESENTATIONS HERE!

Thank you everyone for attending the 2025 ITCCCA Clinic.  We appreciate all your support and look forward to providing you with quality speakers in the future!

Please check out our Summer Clinic on June 26-27 at St. Charles North High School.

Next year the clinic will be held on January 9-10, 2026.  We look forward to you attending again!

Upcoming Events

• Friday, May 16:  ITCCCA Coaching Grant Deadline: Apply Here
• Thursday-Friday, June 26-27:  ITCCCA Summer Clinic
• Friday-Saturday, January 9-10, 2026:  ITCCCA Clinic

Jan Johnson—Not Like Everybody Else

By Jim Lonergan

Jan Johnson, who passed away suddenly last week, was truly one-of-a-kind. His
broad-spectrum influence on the teaching, training, equipment, safety, and athletes of
the pole vault was expansive. But what really set Jan apart was his infectious
enthusiasm, novel communication techniques, and his never-ending involvement and
love for the sport.
With his jump of 15’3/4, Jan was the 1968 Illinois State Pole Vault Champion
from Bloom High School. He continued his competitive vault career at University of
Kansas, where his 17’7” jump earned him the 1970 NCAA Champ and the Indoor World
Record, followed by competing for the University of Alabama, and then earning the
Bronze Medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
His countless coaching clinic presentations, Sky Jumpers Pole Camps across the
country (SIU, Illinois State University, Olivet Nazarene University, Maine South and
Bloom high schools being among the sites), and Sky Systems Pole Vault videos
cultivated his method of safe pole vaulting reaching thousands of coaches and vaulters
including dozens of Illinois coaches. The Sky Systems videos were a completely novel
approach to coaching videos of the time. They contained two hours of instruction, along
with clips of drills and historical, elite and “newbie” vaulters jumping over a background
of rock music, outtakes, campers telling jokes and doing goofy stunts, surfing, and shots
of Jan’s family. His teaching style kept the attention of the clinic attendee, camper, and
video viewer who had to always be vigilant for what might be coming next.
He advocated for the addition of the women’s vault as early as the 1980s. In
1992, his article in American Athletics “Women’s Pole Vaulting, or Why My Sister Played
in the High School Band” ended with, “…my brother [Tim] was two-time Illinois state
champion, I made the Olympic team, and my sister played in the school band.” The
article reached every state. Jan was an active consultant for those in Illinois who
successfully lobbied for the inclusion of the girls vault, realizing that goal in 2001.
There was much more to Jan than his California-surfer-dude-via-the-Southside-
of-Chicago pole vault persona. Regularly, he would remind campers that pole vault “will
not last forever” and “it could all go away with one bad jump.” Therefore, Jan would
encourage campers to keep their minds open to everything. Jan was a daily cover-to-
cover reader of the New York Times and maintained a comprehensive interest in and
knowledge of local, national, and world history and politics. He was always willing to
listen to you and debate a topic, but the discussions were never contentious.
Jan’s memoir, published in 2019, The High Flyer and the Cultural Revolution”
includes a lyric from a song by the Kinks:

Won’t take all that they hand me down
And make out a smile though I wear a frown
And I’m not gonna take this all lying down
‘Cause once I get started I go to town
‘Cause I’m not like everybody else…
Jan Johnson definitely was not like everybody else…he was truly one-of-a-kind.