Johnson Catches Up With Family Tradition

If there’s a teenager enjoying life more thoroughly than Clay Johnson of Atascadero, please speak up.

A week ago, on a Sunday, Johnson left home at 7 a.m. to surf at Morro Bay. He returned to practice pole vaulting for an hour in his backyard. Then he went with friends to Lake Nacimiento in Paso Robles for four hours of wakeboarding.

He’s 6 feet 1, 145 pounds and a free spirit in every sense. He has been pole vaulting seriously for only two years and just might be good enough to win a Southern Section Division III championship May 22 in Cerritos, if he doesn’t get lost making the more than four-hour drive from Atascadero or doesn’t stop to surf along the way.

Johnson’s sister, Chelsea, a sophomore at UCLA, became the first female collegian to clear 15 feet in the pole vault March 27.

You’ve heard of families made up of plumbers. The Johnsons are a family of pole vaulters. Their father, Jan, was a 1972 Olympic bronze medalist.

The three-acre family home in Atascadero is a training site for pole vaulters. More than 70 athletes from Jan Johnson’s club program train in a backyard that includes four pole vault pits, two trapezes, a rope vaulting pit, a ring vaulting pit, a skateboard ramp and a weightlifting area.

“People come over and they’re amazed with all the stuff we have,” Clay said.

What’s stunning is why Clay took so long to become a serious pole vaulter, considering what surrounded him on a daily basis.

“I grew up on skateboards and surfing,” he said.

Jan and his wife, Jani, the track coach at Cuesta College, encouraged their children to try many things. Jan loves to surf, so Clay followed.

“It’s one thing to be a free spirit,” Jan said. “It’s another thing to be productive. Philosophically, I believe in both play and work.”

Not until his junior year at Atascadero did Clay start to train and focus on pole vaulting. At a league meet last month, he cleared between 15-10 and 16-2. The exact height is unknown because of a problem with the standards. On Friday, he won the Pac-5 League championship at 15-0. He figures to keep going higher and higher.

“I think there’s a lot of gas in his tank,” Jan said. “He’s tall and very rangy, and he’s fast.”

Clay was so enamored with surfing that in his first two years of high school, as soon as the last bell sounded, he headed to the beach. Every day. There was little time for high school sports.

He’s still into surfing, along with fellow Atascadero pole vaulter Nick Downs.

“It’s not unusual to have them all come and pole vault, then head to the beach and go surfing,” Jan said.

Surfing and pole vaulting require a little bit of fearlessness.

“You definitely have to want to do it,” Clay said. “It can be scary, but when you get good at something, you get past the fear.”

There could be some long trips in the next few weeks competing in track prelims and finals, but Clay’s poles are packed, his surfboard is waxed and his attitude is, “Dude, let’s soar.”

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USC football Coach Pete Carroll visited North Hollywood on Friday to evaluate running back Marlon Lucky, voted the top player at a Nike combine last month.

While Carroll was sitting in the North Hollywood Physical Education office, golf Coach Steve Miller, who is a UCLA graduate, walked in and proceeded to do his rendition of the UCLA eight-clap, leaving Carroll a bit flustered but smiling.

“He reminds me of a guy who you want to invite to a Bar Mitzvah because he’s such a good guy,” Miller said.

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There’s an exciting 16-year-old sophomore athlete beginning to blossom at Woodland Hills Taft. Jamere Holland ran 100 meters in 10.63 seconds at the West Valley League prelims Friday, the fastest time in the City Section this year.

“I’ve been fast for a long time, but training got me here,” he said.

Holland is also a cornerback and receiver for Taft’s football team.

“There’s tremendous upside potential,” football Coach Troy Starr said. “By the time he’s a senior, wow.”

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Cary Harris, a Sherman Oaks Notre Dame defensive back, has received scholarship offers from USC, UCLA and Notre Dame, making him one of the most sought-after football prospects in the Southland for 2005.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.