By chance, Barbe High’s Carter Hooks ended up at track practice to hang out with a friend competing in pole
vault. With his self-described fearless mind-set, he decided to give it a try.

“One of my friends, the coach made him do pole vault,” Hooks said. “He was bored so I came to have fun with him and took it from there.”

Three years later, he is one of the best in the state.

“I don’t really have a fear of heights,” Hooks said. “They used to call me kamikaze.

“They just put me on a pole and I would take it up good or bad. Then I started working on my technique and that is when I really started shooting up. It is challenging.”

The 6-foot, 170-pound senior cleared a personal best 15 feet on Thursday at the B.S. Walker Relays at Sulphur High School. That left him tied for third in the state and second in Class 5A behind Benton’s Miller Malley (15-7).

“The pressure of three of three meets not doing it was really building up,” Hooks said. “I wanted to get it over with.

“I have been doing it consistently for about three weeks in practice, but putting it in a meet has been something I have worked on and staying nice and calm.”

He tried for 15-3¼, to best one of his training partners, Catholic-New Iberia’s Elijah Parich (15-3). They train at New Heights Gym in New Iberia, which is known for producing many of the state’s top pole vaulters.

“I wanted to one-up him,” Hooks said.

In the brief time he has competed, Hooks has won two District 3-5A championships and will go for a third in two weeks. He was the indoor Division I state runner-up (13-11¼) and placed fifth at the Class 5A state meet last year. But there have been some downs among the success, especially with injuries. As a two-sport athlete, Hooks plays strong safety for the Bucs. He injured a hamstring in his junior season, but the worst was the broken right arm he suffered in a preseason scrimmage back in August that left him unsure if he would be able to compete in his final season of track.

With a sizable scar as a reminder, he battled to recover and improved by 2 feet over his junior season.

“When it first happened, I was really scared, especially with my plant and hitting the pole,” Hooks said. “But as I gradually started going into it, it felt pretty nice.”

Hooks is moving up to a 15-6 pole in hopes of clearing 16 feet.

“I have to get used to them,” Hooks said of the longer pole. “I have been trying to keep my run nice and calm and controlled and work on my plant.

“My plant is terrible. I have been trying to get my hands up and keep them in front of me and work on inverting. That is what I have been trying to fix.”