How Coincidence Revitalized Pole Vaulting at CCHS
After a few years of dwindling participation, Culver City High School’s pole vaulting program is making a strong comeback in 2025, thanks especially to the two coaches who joined the team by chance and have now become its driving force.
Pole vaulting is a relatively new sport at Culver City High School. The earliest record on Athletic.net that included pole vaulters from CCHS dates back to a 2006 varsity meet at West High School. In the years after, the pole vaulting program began gradually improving. The boys' record was broken at 12 feet 6 inches in 2015 and tied again in later years, and the girls' record was broken in 2017. While those were the strongest years for the program, vaulters continued to compete and set records until early 2020. Unfortunately, participation dropped after COVID, and by the year 2022, the number of pole vaulters had returned to zero again.
The program’s resurgence began with the arrival of Coach Karim Sene, founder of the non-profit Spread Pole Vault Academy and the 2002 African pole vaulting champion. Sene, who began pole vaulting at age twenty-two and competed professionally at twenty-nine, says coaching was the natural step after retiring as an athlete. In his twenty-five years of experience, he has coached athletes at all levels, including some who have gone on to compete and win professional medals. “I was walking near the football field”, Sene recalls, “And I noticed the pole vaulting pit abandoned, so I reached out to the track coach, telling him I could start a pole vaulting program”. After that encounter, Sene visited the PE classes at the high school, offering students a chance to try pole vaulting. Despite not attracting many lasting athletes, it set off the beginning of a new era in Culver City pole vaulting.
Co-coach of the present pole vaulting team, math teacher Heidi Eberle also joined unexpectedly but ended up contributing significantly to the rise in participation throughout 2025. Eberle, a young gymnast and track athlete, became the first female pole vaulter at her high school and college after regulations changed to allow girls’ pole vaulting during her freshman year. After moving to California, however, she planned to stay away from competitive sports and focus on her family. “Last December, though,” Eberle says, “I had a period when I wasn’t giving a final, so I went to walk around the track, and one of my geometry students was out there learning pole vault”. When she shared that she had been a pole vaulter, Coach Karim immediately approached her. Eberle learned that the student had joined after participating in the PE demonstrations, and she soon spread the word to students in her own classes, successfully recruiting a handful of new athletes.
Today, a consistent group of four students regularly trains after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. One of the pole vaulters, sophomore and CIF qualifier Luna Mizorogi, joined to have a new experience and ended up falling in love. During the off-season, Luna’s team focuses on technique and precision, but once the season starts, the main goal becomes height. “It was frustrating when I kept messing up at first,” Luna says, “but as soon as I got the hang of it, I felt so happy”. Luna encourages new people to try vaulting, describing it as freeing and satisfying once an athlete can overcome the initial anxiety of competing.
To support the team members’ efforts, both coaches have had to personally fund or fundraise for most of the equipment, due to a lack of external support. Eberle and Sene hope that increased visibility will draw more students, and hopefully sponsors, to the sport. “The pole vaulting community is really special,” Eberle says, “It’s a fun and technical event, and it’s worth keeping alive at our school”. Additionally, Sene encourages any interested students to stop by the pit after school. “Pole vaulting helps you become fast and strong, but it also teaches you humility, perseverance, and confidence,” Sene says, “And you get the crazy feeling of being able to fly”. His long-term goal, he says, is to help the team achieve more than the years before and to solidify pole vaulting as a thriving sport at CCHS.