MAGGIE AWARDS: The Storybook Vaulter and the Coach Who Lived Her Dream
Maggie Steele is a storybook vaulter. Brooke Rasnick is a real one, cut from the same Kansas soil.
This July the coach hands Maggie's story to the next generation of vaulters.
It reads like a chapter the book never had. Maggie Steele, the storybook heroine of Maggie Vaults Over the Moon, is a Kansas farm girl who teaches herself to pole vault in a hayloft and dreams of vaulting for Wichita State. Brooke Rasnick is the real Kansas girl who lived that dream, wore the black and gold for Wichita State, and now coaches pole vault at the University of Louisville. This July she will place Maggie's story directly in her own campers' hands.
Brooke Rasnick has coached a national champion and an Olympic medalist at Louisville. This July she hands a Maggie Award to each camper who earns one.
Maggie Vaults Over the Moon, by Grant Overstake, is the story of a Kansas farm girl who loses her brother and her boyfriend in a single accident and has to find a way to keep going. She finds it in the pole vault, teaching herself up in the hayloft where her brother's voice still seems to coach her, and in the steadiness of her grandmother Ruth. The sport carries the grief, and the grief gives the sport its meaning.
The book was written for the young reader trying to figure out how you go on after everything falls apart, and it has reached well beyond that. Kirkus Reviews called it a "fine YA novel about perseverance in sports and in life." USA Today's Christine Brennan praised it, and the Wichita's Catholic schools chose it for their Battle of the Books.
It carries a foreword by Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi and chapter discussion questions by sport psychologist Dr. Melissa White, and Audie winner Tavia Gilbert narrates the audiobook.
“Reading Maggie Vaults Over the Moon gave me excitement about the future pole vaulters that will explore our sport by picking up this book in their local library. Thanks so much for the encouragement and all you do for our sport!”
Maggie Vaults Over the Moon, by Grant Overstake. Coach Rasnick will hand signed copies as Maggie Awards. Learn more about Maggie Awards.
On the last page of the novel, after the fictional Maggie clears a state-record bar at the Kansas championships, Wichita State University offers her a scholarship. She finishes the book dreaming in black and gold, set on going to college to become a teacher and a pole vault coach.
Brooke Rasnick is what that storybook ending looks like in real life, and she comes from the same soil. Maggie is a farm girl from the Kansas prairie. Brooke grew up in the small Kansas town of El Dorado, in that same wheat-and-wind country, and when she read the book she knew Maggie's world because it was her own. She played softball first and took up the pole vault late, during her junior year of high school, in a family where her father and brother already vaulted. In the El Dorado gym, state champions get their picture on the wall. A coach told her to aim for it. She did, winning the Class 4A title in 2004 at eleven feet.
Her marks coming out of high school were modest. By her own account, "My marks coming out of high school weren't very good," but the coaches who recruited her saw an athlete who could grow into the event. Wichita State assistant Jenni Ashcroft recruited her out of El Dorado High, and head coach Steve Rainbolt saw the same thing.
Here the novel and Brooke's real life line up in a way no one planned. In the novel, the Wichita State coach who offers the fictional Maggie her scholarship is named Steve Rainbolt. In real life, Steve Rainbolt is the Wichita State coach who believed in Brooke and brought her to the program, and she stays close with him to this day. The coach on Maggie's last page and the coach who shaped Brooke are the same man.
She wore the black and gold from 2005 to 2009 and made it count, winning the 2005 Missouri Valley Conference pole vault title, qualifying twice for the NCAA Championships, captaining the team, and setting Wichita State's outdoor school record at thirteen feet, nine and a quarter inches. In 2009 the conference named her its NCAA Woman of the Year.
Rasnick still holds Wichita State's outdoor pole vault record. (Wichita State University)
After college she coached at Oregon and Kent State, then joined Louisville in 2013 and built the Cardinals' pole vault into a national power. She coached Gabriela Leon to the 2022 NCAA outdoor title, the program's first national champion, and was named College Pole Vault Coach of the Year. Today she coaches First Team All-American Ashley Callahan, who holds the program record, and Olympic silver medalist Sandi Morris, who joined the Louisville staff as a volunteer coach while training under Rasnick.
This July, she does something she has never done before. At her three-day camp at the University of Louisville, Coach Rasnick will hand signed copies of Maggie Vaults Over the Moon to her campers as Maggie Awards. The athlete is photographed with her book, and her moment is featured here on Maggie's blog.
Campers will train in top facilities under Rasnick and her athletes, the same coaching that built her All-Americans. The camp is open to any vaulter from rising seventh grade up, beginner to advanced, with more than 400 poles on hand.
The Maggie Awards have traveled all over the nation, and the world. Next stop, Louisville.
It is a fitting one. A storybook Kansas girl once dreamed of vaulting at Wichita State and growing up to coach. A real Kansas girl did exactly that. Now she gets to put Maggie's story straight into her campers' hands.
Bring Maggie Awards to your vaulters
The Maggie Awards honor a vaulter who showed courage, conquered a fear, or climbed higher than the day before, and put Maggie’s story in her hands. Coaches across the country host them at clubs and camps. See how it works and request books for yours. Learn more about the Maggie Awards →
Brooke (Demo) Rasnick, career at a glance
Wichita State (2005-09): Pole vault. 2005 Missouri Valley Conference champion. Two-time NCAA qualifier and four-time NCAA West Regional qualifier. School outdoor record, 13'9¼" (2008). Seven-time All-MVC, team captain, and the MVC's 2009 NCAA Woman of the Year and Dr. Charlotte West Scholar-Athlete Award winner.
Coaching: Oregon (2009-10), Kent State (2010-13), Louisville (2013-present). At Louisville she coached Gabriela Leon to the 2022 NCAA outdoor pole vault title, the program's first national champion, and earned College Pole Vault Coach of the Year.
The camp at a glance
Camp: Brooke Rasnick Pole Vault Camp, Day Camp #2, University of Louisville Outdoor Track, 2125 S. Floyd St., Louisville, KY. Dates: July 10 to 12, 2026. Who: Rising seventh graders and up, all ability levels. Cost: $500, sibling discount available. Register: elevateathleticrecruiting.com.
Background reporting on Coach Rasnick's Wichita State years from Paul Suellentrop, Wichita State Athletics (The RoundHouse).