When Leah Pasqualetti was in fifth grade, she was a committed gymnast running in her school’s spring field day for fun.
That day would change her life.
The Orchard Park High School track coach was there, and a big idea struck him:
Pasqualetti certainly had speed, he saw. He knew that as a gymnast, she had great body control.
And those things, he thought, could make her a great pole vaulter.
By seventh grade, she tried it for the first time, and she was competing on the high school varsity team.