There’s never a good time to come across a disaster. 

In the early hours Tuesday morning, arsonists set the Glacier High School pole vault pit ablaze, leaving nothing but a smoldering pile of foam rubber. 

“I got to school about 6 o’clock,” Glacier coach Arron Deck said. “It looked like a tornado had went through the area. It’s kind of shocking at first. 

“It was still kind of smoldering a bit ... You could still smell the burnt rubber.”

The blaze, beyond causing an estimated $50,000 in damage to equipment and the surrounding track, was a setback for the Wolfpack just a week before they are set to host the divisional track meet and vault for a chance to go to state.

Glacier has a history of sending top talent to the state meet in the event, finishing second and third two years ago and fourth the year before that. 

This year is no different, as Wolfpack senior Lonnie Sherman entered this week with the top vault in the state. Sherman cleared 14 feet, 6 inches at the Missoula County meet earlier this season, a mark only seen by one other athlete. He has even changed to a longer pole in the last few weeks in an attempt to get even higher as he closes the season. 

With the unfortunate events of Tuesday morning, Sherman’s options for practicing those attempts to reach his higher goals became severely limited. 

“I don’t know if there’s ever a good time for that to occur,” Deck said. “It’s one of the lessons you can teach about adversity.”

But, pole vaulters aren’t quite ones to stay down when something doesn’t go right.

A close group of athletes and coaches that typically spends countless hours together each weekend perfecting one of the hardest disciplines in the sport, the local pole vaulting community wasted no time in offering their help. 

As soon as news spread Tuesday, Flathead and Whitefish high schools, each coaching state championship hopefuls of their own, offered to make room at practice for a few more students. With a pared down group, the Wolfpack was able to get in a few reps later that day at Legends Stadium. 

“It’s a pretty tight-knit club, that pole vault group,” Deck said. “They kind of take care of each other. 

“They develop such close friendships from other schools and the coaches are so close. They spend so much time together at meets. Right away we were able to work some things out.”

Aside from equipment, the only casualty of the catastrophe was the vaulting time of the younger Glacier athletes. The team practiced with only the vaulters that will compete at divisionals.

All the athletes were safe and the most important equipment, the poles themselves, were safely tucked away in the school’s storage shed. With low winds on Tuesday night, the fire in the pole vault pit never threatened the area that could have truly crippled the team in the last few weeks of the season.

So, with three weeks left in the season and a world of hopes in the future, the team is as back to normal as possible, even as their practice habits have changed. 

And let it be noted that there’s not much that can stop a motivated pole vaulter. Not even a devastating inferno.