by Andrew Pentis - Mar. 12, 2009 02:30 PM
The Arizona Republic

Desert Vista pole vaulter Shaylah Simpson began second-guessing herself. Just after her name was called at meets last season, she would halt midmotion, filled with doubt.

"Don't go," Simpson remembers thinking to herself. "Your steps don't feel right."

Now a junior and giving up her spring break this week, she was out on the track planting her feet, working on her takeoff and, yes, thinking good thoughts.

Egged on by Arizona State pole-vaulting coach Ron Barela and older sister Laryssa - who still jumps for the University of Utah - Simpson gravitated to her event early on.

She has worked with Jeff Guy, Barela's successor at Desert Vista, since the sixth grade. Simpson has also competed in the USATF National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships since the eighth grade.

She cleared 12 feet as a freshman, setting a state record. Even though she finished in the top four at the state meet for the second straight year, she and her coach considered her sophomore season a "disappointment."

"I put a lot of pressure on myself to do better," she said. "I let it....