The RoundHouse | 1/9/2019 4:30:00 PM

Where are they now:
 
Brooke (Demo) Rasnick – Track and field (2005-09)
 
Rasnick won many honors as a pole vaulter for the Shockers and holds the program's outdoor record. Her quieter contribution – although it's one she and Shocker coaches still speak about – is as the captain who started the Yellow team's dominance in the intrasquad meet.
 
When coaches started the meet in 2007, they wanted captains who took the responsibility seriously. Each year, captains draft the three teams (Yellow, Black, White), who compete along with an alumni team (Gray). 
 
They chose Rasnick to draft the Yellow team. To start the series, captain drafted an entire team in 2007. In years since, the draft adds newcomers and returners stay on their original team.
 
"She was so into it that she was bombarding every coach on the staff with questions about everybody, about how their performances were going and what their potential is," said John Wise, assistant director of track and field. "I think she would take her intrasquad notebook to classes while she was working on it."
 
Yellow won in 2007 and owns nine titles after extending its current streak to five in December. Rasnick texts Wise when the Yellow wins to remind him who started it all. 
 
"I spent way too much time preparing for that draft," she said. "It was kind of the passion of . . . seeing the bigger picture of putting a team together, what that looks like and understanding how to put kids in the right events. I interviewed all the different coaches on staff, trying to figure out who was ready to run fast at that time of year and all those things."
 
That first glimpse into the coaching life accompanied a standout career.
 
Rasnick, from El Dorado, qualified twice in the pole vault for the NCAA Championships and holds Wichita State's outdoor record with a height of 13 feet, 9 ¼ inches in 2008. She won the 2005 Missouri Valley Conference title and, in 2009, was named the MVC's NCAA Woman of the Year and Dr. Charlotte West Scholar-Athlete Award, the MVC's top honor for academics, athletics and leadership.
 
Status update - Rasnick is an assistant coach at Louisville, where she coaches the multi-events and coordinates official recruiting visits. 
 
Before coming to Louisville in 2013, she coached at Oregon and Kent State. 
 
She got her start in the multi-events as a volunteer coach at Oregon, helping with video in the days when that required carrying a camera and dealing with slow download times. Well-known coach Harry Marra worked with two-time Olympic champion Ashton Eaton.
 
"I basically followed Ashton and Harry around with a video camera my whole time out there," she said. "Harry thought I was some genius because I knew how to distribute video. As a volunteer coach, you're trying to figure out how can I help and provide value to a program."
 
Rasnick knew she needed to coach more than vaulters and landed at schools, starting at Wichita State, that emphasized the multi-events.
 
"As a pole-vault coach, you kind of get pigeon-holed," she said. "I knew that's not what I wanted to be. I wanted to have more of an impact on a program than just one event. The mentality of the decathlete and heptathlete is pretty awesome and its very impressive athletes that can do it at a high level. It's been fun to help develop that here at Louisville."
 
She helped Louisville's Holly Hankenson to the 2017 NCAA Championships, indoor and outdoor, in the multi-events. In 2015, school record-holder Chanel Krause became the first vaulter to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships. In 2016, Krause earned All-America honors at the NCAA indoor meet.
 
Family - Husband, Robert; Knox (1)
 
Knox passed the 16-month mark this month.
 
"That's been a life-changing event for sure," she said. "I'm fortunate here at Louisville where it's a very family-friendly atmosphere and my boss (coach Dale Cowper) is very supportive."
 
Robert Rasnick pole vaulted at Tennessee.
 
"That's what helps make this work, too," she said. "He understands what Division I athletics are about."
 
Change of plans – Rasnick came to Wichita State thinking about coaching in high school. As she watched the Shocker coaches and observed the camaraderie and success on the team, college became her focus. 
 
"The coaching staff at Wichita State got me intrigued," she said. "The staff dynamic was great there, and the interactions with the athletes. I was fortunate to be a part of that and see the vision to help impact young athletes."
 
Former Shocker assistant Jenni Ashcroft, now at Michigan, recruited her out of El Dorado High School and helped her work at Oregon. Resnick remains close with WSU coach Steve Rainbolt and assistant Heidi Benton.
 
"Rainbolt is obviously a great leader and enjoys what he does and that resonates throughout the whole program," she said. 
 
On the wall - Rasnick took up the pole vault during her junior year in high school. She played softball before giving that up to focus on track and field. 
 
"I was big into softball growing up," she said. "I was a left-handed middle infielder, so I didn't have much future in it. I did track some in middle school and my brother pole vaulted and my dad pole vaulted, so I knew about the sport."
 
In the El Dorado gym, state champions are recognized with a picture on the wall. A coach told Rasnick to aim for that goal. She won the Class 4A title in 2004 with a height of 11 feet. 
 
"That resonated with me," she said. "I went out for track." 

She viewed track as her best chance to compete at an NCAA Division I school. Ashcroft and Rainbolt watched her compete and saw someone with the athletic ability to improve with the right training and instruction.
 
"I didn't have a lot of offers," she said. "My marks coming out of high school weren't very good, but they had seen my athleticism and knew I could better. That was a pull, just to be at the Division I level and with coaches who believed I could develop."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.