It’s a high-flying, acrobatic, push-your-body-to-the-edge kind of sport.

While the city of Helena has had its fair share of champions in other sports — from the high school and collegiate football levels to those duking it out on a soccer pitch — it has become a bit of an underground mecca for this one in particular.

Pole vault.

It’s that crazy track and field event seen on the sidelines of every high school and college meet.

The participants barrel down a rubber track, plant a fiberglass pole into a box and use their momentum, strength and recoil from the pole to propel themselves over a bar.

Montana’s top high schoolers reach over 15 feet before crashing down to the heavy mats below. Many people wouldn’t climb a ladder that high.

The sport certainly isn’t for the timid. There isn’t a pack to hide behind, a team to blame or runner to draft off. Every athlete faces this challenge alone.

“The environment’s a lot of fun,” said Capital High senior Kelly Wardell. “It’s your event, it’s all about what you can do.”

And local pole vaulters like Wardell have done extremely well.

Wardell alone has sailed over 14-6, tying the top Class AA mark of the state this year during the crosstown meet on Thursday.

His Helena High rivals, Justin Maes and Kurtis Gross, both cleared 13-6 on that same day.

Wardell’s height would have won state last year, and both of the Bengals would have placed in the top four.

The girls aren’t bad either. Helena’s Mandy Evanson has cleared 10-3, which made her the second-best in the state, while Sara Lubke cleared 10-0 at the meet. Former state champ, Alex May-Fraser of Helena High, is right below them.

It’s been like this for years in the Capitol City, and there is little doubt that it is thanks to an institution created by the two high schools’ pole vault coaches: Helena’s Doug LeBrun and Capital’s Todd Foster.

The two are very competitive, every year pushing to put their best pole vaulters on the winners’ platform at state.

“There’s only two head positions, there’s one at Helena High and there’s one at Capital High. He has one school and I have the other,” Foster said. “Doug has his way, I have a different one.

“Our behavioral differences as coaches ... I’d say I’m a little sterner and I have a more — I’ll use the word ‘disciplined’ — program than him.”

LeBrun, who has been coaching in Helena for nearly 35 years, is often referred to by his athletes as a truly heart-felt coach nn one who takes a caring approach to the sport.

“When you know him, there’s something about him,” May-Fraser said. “You just have to vault for him. Maybe it’s the technique he teaches you, but I just love him so much.

“I’ve never had a coach like him before. He’s like family.”

Foster’s kids would call him caring, sometimes tempermental, most certainly a mystery.

“I’d say all of the above. It depends whatever day you get him on,” Wardell said.

Foster has even joked that he has a tendency to be “bipolar.”

No matter how they get the job done, the two coaches have dedicated their lives to the sport, both owning their own pits and equipment and taking their athletes to meets across the country year-round.

They also have a storied past.

In 1988, LeBrun travelled to a factory in Carson City, Nev., and built his best jumper a pole. That athlete was Foster, then a senior in high school.

The pole, which was 16 feet (a foot longer than most high schoolers would use) and tailored for a person that was 165 pounds (more than Foster ever was at the time), was bigger and heavier than any he had used before.

It’s still a piece of lumber few prep athletes could manage.

When the state competition came around, Foster used that pole to set the state record of 15-6 on a sunny day at Vigilante Stadium.

Foster’s success allowed him to take a spot on the track team at Idaho State, home to other great vaulters. He was even a teammate of former world champion and world record holder Stacy Dragila, the first woman to clear 15-0.

Foster set the school record while he was at the university, clearing 17-5. It’s since been broken, but his high school record has not.

Years later, the former protege returned to Helena High and helped out LeBrun before taking the coaching position at Capital five years ago.

“It was disheartening for him when I went to Capital to coach,” Foster said. “He loves track and field and he loves pole vaulting.

“I put the heat on him.”

Foster said that the two have had their ups and downs.

A big hit came at the state meet two years ago. With buckets or rain falling, the pole vault event was moved to Foster’s indoor facility. It was the first time the event was ever held indoors for state.

Capital placed three male athletes in the meet while Helena’s fell out of contention.

There have been other tough times, especially when Foster went through a divorce years ago, but no matter what, he’s always looked up to LeBrun.

“He was an inspiration to me and my friendship to him has been important,” Foster said.

They’re still able to keep up with each other and Foster said he’s still getting Christmas cards in the mail.

Meanwhile the coaches have been able to maintain their friendly rivalry.

They both hope to put an athlete over the boys’ state record mark, which will be in its 20th year. There have been a few attempts.

During the unusual state meet two seasons ago, Capital’s Bobby Biskupiak cleared 15-0 to win the state title. He had two teammates, Eric Malstrom and Chris Crawford, who cleared 13-6 to take third and fourth place, respectively.

Their success is one of the reasons that Capital has become known as “Pole Vault High” in the track community.

Foster admits, though, that lately LeBrun has had the better crop of girls.

One of LeBrun’s prodigies, Shannon Agee, cleared 13-0, setting the state and national record for a high school girl in 1998.

“She was an OK athlete,” LeBrun said about Agee. “But what set her apart, she was a super individual that worked real hard.”

Many of the qualities he saw in Agee he has witnessed in Evanson, now a junior. The more times she fails, the more times she will pick herself up and try it again.

“That’s priceless,” LeBrun said.

Of course, Agee’s record makes LeBrun the coach of both of Montana’s record holders, something Foster wants dearly.

“I want to coach the kid that breaks my record. But it’s tough, because you have to find a kid that’s dedicated,” he said.

The coach said that Biskupiak certainly had the tools, but no one can control the weather.

Until then, the coaches will continue to dedicate themselves to the sport.

Both travel to the National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nev., each winter. Both have travelled to meets across the country, bringing their athletes along.

Foster also hosts the annual Street Vault each summer, which brings a number of professionals to Montana. Athletes from many of the Western States and Canada have participated, including NCAA national champion Ellie Rudy from Montana State University.

Right now, they’re simply focused on high school divisionals May 16.

It’s where the long take-off track has taken them.

“It’s a good time. Kids love to pole vault in this town,” Foster said. “Doug, he started that, and it went back before I was here.”

Reporter Jeff Windmueller: 447-4070 or irsports@helenair.com