Stacey competes in USATF Juniors

Competing at the USATF Junior Nationals in Greensboro, N.C., July 28-Aug. 2 was recent Glenbard North graduate Tommy Stacey, who placed third in pole vault at the IHSA Class 3A state meet last spring.

Stacey triumphed over adversity, but his height of 15 feet, 3 inches - same as the winning vault but a third-place finish based on number of missed attempts - was less than satisfying.

"It's nice to place high at the meet, but I should have won," said Stacey, whose eighth-grade sister, Annie, tied for seventh in the Youth Girls division with a personal-best vault of 7 feet, 101/2 inches. "It wasn't like the top, top people (such as) the number one kid (Jack Whitt of Norman, Okla.).

According to both Stacey and his father, former vaulter Tom Stacey Sr., the younger Stacey easily cleared 15-9 twice but hit the bar with his chest on the way down.

"I was over," said Stacey, who earlier this summer set a meet record and tied his personal best of 16-0 at the Grand Haven Beach Vault. "I would have won by a foot."

He had to scramble to achieve what he did. In his first warmup run he broke the largest pole he had, a 15-foot, 175-pound carbon model.

"I was kind of freaking out wondering what to use and what was going to happen," he said.

Indiana competitor David Volz, who finished behind Stacey, lent him a Fiberglas pole of similar size. Stacey missed his first attempt at 14-9 on the unfamiliar pole - "Like another test jump," he said - before clearing it and proceeding toward third place.

Stacey will compete at North Central College under the tutelage of vault guru Tim Winder.

"This will be like the first year I've ever really trained, so I'll do good, hopefully," Stacey said. "This'll be the first year I'll be in good shape."

Now hear this: Naperville North will welcome Chicago Bears public-address announcer Jim Riebandt for a public address clinic at 9 a.m.-noon Saturday in the school auditorium.

Sponsored by the National Association of Sports Public Address Announcers and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association - on whose board Naperville North athletic director Doug Smith sits - some 30 PA announcers have signed up for the event.

"It's to improve their game, so to speak," Smith said.

Some such as Naperville North's own Jeff Howard and Jeff Farson won't travel far. Others are coming in from Georgia and Ohio, in addition to local veterans Bob Zinke of Winfield, Mike Popela of Aurora and Jim Mizener of Downers Grove.

Also making presentations at the clinic will be Illinois High School Assocation executive director Marty Hickman and Naperville resident Octavio Herrera, an IHSA-certified football and basketball official.

Announcers obviously take pride in getting athletes' names right, Smith noted, and those in attendance will hear the "do's and don'ts" of play by play, some set to game film in the auditorium.

Smith said p.a. announcers can also aid administration in cases such as evacuating a stadium due to lightning, for example.

"It's more than just broadcasting a game," Smith said. "You don't think those things count for a lot, but they do. And they have to know how to handle it."