Call Brandon Bray the code cracker, because this is one kid who has unlocked the secrets of the vault.
The China Spring junior has ascended to unforeseen heights for a pole vaulter his age, as he set a national record for 16-year-olds earlier this season by clearing 17-6. Entering this weekend’s UIL state track and field championships, Bray is clearly the guy to beat, the one in the “pole position,” so to speak.
Then again, the harsh reality of the state meet is that one’s past is not necessarily prologue to success. It may be an indicator, but you’ve still got to go out and perform one more time against the toughest competition in the state and some of the fiercest in the country.
“First of all, I just want to win the gold,” Bray said. “After I win it, then I’ll try to break records.”
Most people trace their lineage through family trees, passed down through the generations or by scouring Ancestry.com. For the Brays of China Spring, the family tree resembles a pole.
Brandon’s father Jeff Bray is an assistant track coach at China Spring and one of the founders of Waco’s Zero G Elite Pole Vault Club, along with former Midway and UCLA star Brandon Richards. Jeff won a pair of high school state titles in Elk City, Okla., before moving on to an all-conference career at Florida State, where he set three ACC records in the event.
So perhaps it’s something genetic that explains why Brandon gravitated to the anti-gravity, skydiving game of vaulting.
Even if he’s a little ahead of his pop at this point.
“My senior year I was the national leader, I jumped 17-7. I jumped 17-7 my senior year and I was 18 years old,” Jeff Bray said. “Brandon jumps 17-6 his junior year, but he’s only 16 years old. He’s two years younger than I was. And he’s leading the nation and the world right now. I would have never expected that at the beginning of the year. But developmentally, he’s as good as any vaulter I’ve ever seen at his age.”
Jeff Bray began teaching and coaching at China Spring some nine years ago, when Brandon was in the third grade. During the high school varsity’s track practices, Brandon would amble over and observe the proceedings. Before long, he had a hankering to belly up to the bar himself.
“I was young, and I’d come out here and see everybody else, the older guys who were in high school then,” Brandon said. “I’d pick up a pole and kind of start going at it. (My dad) didn’t really coach me much then, but it was fun. I caught on to it. Right from the beginning I was hooked on it.”
As a fourth grader, Brandon cleared 7-6, and he began making incremental growth as the years progressed and he grew bigger and stronger and learned more of the technique of the event. He was up to 11-6 by his eighth grade year, but then suffered a setback his first year of high school when he was sidelined by a stress fracture in his knee.
Brandon missed an entire year of competition and training. When he returned he kind of had to start over from scratch, especially in rebuilding his strength. He ended up qualifying for state last year as a sophomore, but admittedly didn’t have his best day and finished ninth in the 3A competition.
In a quest to soar to new heights this season, Brandon doubled his efforts. He topped 15 feet at a meet last summer. He surpassed 16-2 at this year’s Texas Relays. Then, just a couple of weeks before a meet in Mexia, a shipment of new poles arrived at China Spring. They made a difference too, setting up a breakthrough performance at the Blackcat Relays.
With sharp technique and a gymnast’s innate sense of aerial acrobatics, Brandon cleared 17-6, breaking a nine-year-old national record for 16-year-olds of 17-2 1/4 set by Scott Roth of Granite Bay, Calif. More than a month later the vault still stands as the national and world best for any high school athlete in 2014.
“Before Mexia, we’d been working the week before on some technique up at the top, and it all of the sudden came together,” Jeff Bray said. “He just blasted bars. He probably could have even made 18 (feet) at that meet.”
Brandon said the level of expertise he receives from his dad, still FSU’s school record holder at 18-6 1/2, and Brandon Richards over at Zero G makes all the difference in the world. The two-year-old club produced 10 regional qualifiers this year, and several of the facility’s regulars will compete at the state meet as well, including the likes of Gatesville’s Nick Meadors, Bosqueville’s Greyson Gonzalez, Whitney’s Samantha Redding and Mart’s Savannah Freeman.
Another club member is Riley Richards, a China Spring freshman who will join his teammate at the state meet. Riley is the son of Brandon Richards and the grandson of Bob Richards, who won a pair of Olympic gold medals in the pole vault.
Brandon Bray said having Riley in the field at state only adds to the enjoyment.
“It’s just fun, because all season we’ve been pushing each other to get better,” Brandon said.
It’s actually the second straight year that China Spring has sent a pair of vaulters to the state meet, as Hunter Webb, now at Tarleton State, won the 3A title last year for the Cougars.
A state title is what Brandon Bray chases now. Sure, he’d like to clear 18 feet. No doubt he’d love to set a national high school record. And, by all means, he’s quite interested in the initial contact he’s received from the 15 Division I schools who have come calling.
But when he goes springing into the air Saturday in Austin, his only concern is that he lands on top of the medal stand.
“I don’t think it really matters how high you jump,” Jeff Bray said. “I told him, looking back to when I was in high school, I won state twice and the first time I won it, I can’t even tell you what I jumped. But I know I won state. I think that’s the big thing.
“The focus is, if he doesn’t jump 17-6 but he wins it, it won’t matter in 10 or 15 years what he jumped. The Texas state title is harder than any other state in the country to get to, and to win it is a huge accomplishment.”
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