Emily Enders has never let fear dictate who she is or what she does. She’s stared fear down, and kept pushing, always looking for the next challenge, even if it scared everyone else.
“I remember when I was little we’d go hiking and my dad would freak out ’cause I’d get so close to the edge. But I just wanted to see how high up I was and it never scared me,” Enders said. “Roller coasters and all that kind of stuff, I lived for that sort of rush of my stomach twirling and being at the edge.”
Enders, who has pole vaulted since her sophomore year of high school, knows intimately what it takes to be a elite pole vaulter.
“You can’t let doubt enter your mind – ever,” the Snohomish, Wash. native said. “You have to be a good sprinter. You have to have a lot of strength and coordination and mostly, just a desire to do the sport and that fearless, I’ll jump off a cliff sort of mentality.”
The senior is participating in her last home meet in an Oregon uniform this weekend with the NCAA West Region Championships. She is coming off a fifth place finish at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships two weeks ago and is looking to secure her spot at the NCAA Championships in two weeks at Sacramento, Calif.
Enders holds a season-best mark of 13-foot-6 1/4 which came in the indoor season and an outdoor best of 12-foot-9 1/2.
The no-fear mentality fits Enders, who has lived her life always eager for the next challenge. Her competitive appetite led her to gymnastics at the age of three.
Enders and her two brothers -Daniel, who is younger, and Mark, who is older – expended their energy in the house and left their mom, Tammie, with broken furniture. Tammie saw a television broadcast of an interview with Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton’s parents during the 1992 Olympics and it was eerily similar. Retton’s parents decided on gymnastics as a release and Tammie did, too.
“When she was little, she would run across the room and vault over the back of the coach,” Tammie said. “She was always so active and athletic.”
Enders started at age three and did it off and on until she got serious about the sport when she was seven. Enders dedicated herself to the sport and trained 4-5 hours a day for six days a week.
“It was a perfect fit,” Enders said. “It was a good outlet to release some of that energy and so I was flipping at the gym instead of on the couch.”
By her freshman year of high school, she was level 10 on a scale of 1-to-10 with 10 a step below elite level, where athletes have the opportunity to qualify for a spot in the Olympics.
But in eighth grade she broke the growth plate in her left ankle just before nationals and had to watch her teammates for Cascade Elite compete in nationals in Florida. Enders had to wear a hard cast for about a month and spend two weeks in a soft cast. That injury, nagging aches and pains and other reasons moved her to leave the sport.
“I think if I’d stayed in it, I definitely would have gone elite but I kind of lost my passion for it,” she said.
Her schedule suddenly wide open, Enders searched for a new athletic pursuit and considered swimming, but didn’t enjoy it. She joined the track team in the spring of her freshman year and competed in long jump and triple jump.
She joined the dive team her sophomore year and began pole vaulting in the spring. Enders made state her first year pole vaulting.
“After that, I just kept rolling,” Enders said. “I got first my junior year and then second my senior year.”
She loves the feeling of flying through the air.
“That’s what it’s all about,” Enders said. “That’s why we do it – just that thrill of being able to take yourself off the ground and launch to different heights and do it gracefully.”
Enders’ wealth of experience and low-key manner has allowed other track athletes to rely on her for advice and leadership.
“I’ll usually play the follower role but if someone gives me a position of authority, especially amongst the team, I’ll just adopt it … and I really like being there for my teammates and I like that they can come to me and feel comfortable and safe talking to me about things,” Enders said.
Tara Rhein, a sophomore teammate and fellow pole vaulter, joins freshman Eniko Eros in following Enders’ lead.
“She’s not that talkative to people she doesn’t know, unlike me, I talk to everyone I don’t know,” Rhein said. “When she does talk to you, it’s definitely worth hearing what she says. It just takes a while for her to open up.”
Enders, during her junior year, used her gymnastics background to work with preschool children at the National Academy of Artistic Gymnastics in Springfield. She would drive a 15-person bus to preschool, take them to the NAAG for a short class and then drove them back. Enders helped with a gymnastics summer camp and continued teaching through the beginning of 2007.
“It was so much fun,” she said. “Those kids are so adorable.”
Enders enjoys cooking and has track teammates over occasionally for dinner. Rhein highlighted Enders’ barbecue chicken pizza, which Enders calls her trademark.
Enders says she finds strength in Christianity, and when she can, prays with her teammates before track meets. She attends Cross Training, a college ministry for athletes that started through Athletes in Action and branched off and is now operated through the Calvary Fellowship at the Onyx House on Tuesday nights.
“I think it’s good to have your foundation in something other than your sport because sports let you down. Life lets you down but for me, my faith never lets me down,” Enders said. “God never lets me down. If I can take this gift that He’s given and give it right back and say thank you by doing my sport, I don’t think there’s anything greater.”
Enders, who is majoring in digital arts, says she hopes to work for Wieden & Kennedy, an advertising agency that works closely with Nike. Enders, who plans to go on a vacation to Europe after graduation to see Paris, Switzerland, Italy and Greece, realizes the end of her track career looms and the real world awaits.
“I’m scared. I’m going to go crazy not having an outlet,” Enders said. “I’ve all these sorts of plans. I’m going to snowboard again. I want to start rock climbing. I was thinking about trying to find an ultimate frisbee team – just anything to stay active.”
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