Former Orangefield Grad Named Big 12 Athlete of the Week

[Cat22]

Former Orangefield Pole Vaulter Eric Eshbach was named Big 12 Athlete of the week. He set a new school record and personal best at the Texas Relays with a vault of 18' 4 1/2". He is also the former National High School record holder at 18' 2 1/4". He has qualified for the Olympic tryouts. It would be good to see him representing the USA in Greece this summer. Good Luck to him.

http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=92&SPID=32&DB_OEM_ID=100&ATCLID=35416

[Old Cardinal]

Wow, Have you seen Monte and Edgar Eshbach(parents) and Dot(his Grandmother). The whole of Orange County are very proud of this athlete! 22, what is the status of Melissa E., she was going to accept a softball scholarship, is she playing somewhere?....Coach Joe Hester, Eric's Coach and Coach of many other great stars in pole vault from OF is susposed to be writing a book on that great period of years of athletic phenomenal accomplishments. It's certainly a compeling story that needs to be told!

[kaorder1999]

congrats...hes amazing

[Cat22]

Originally posted by Old Cardinal
Wow, Have you seen Monte and Edgar Eshbach(parents) and Dot(his Grandmother). The whole of Orange County are very proud of this athlete! 22, what is the status of Melissa E., she was going to accept a softball scholarship, is she playing somewhere?....Coach Joe Hester, Eric's Coach and Coach of many other great stars in pole vault from OF is susposed to be writing a book on that great period of years of athletic phenomenal accomplishments. It's certainly a compeling story that needs to be told!
I have not seen Monte or Edgar in awhile. They do not come around much since both of their kids have graduated. I'm not sure what has happend to Melissa, she was a good athlete too. I'll try to find out something and let you know. As far as Coach Hester, he really know his PV. I will be the first to buy his book. He really got all out of his pole vaulters. I hated to see him leave OF.

[Gasilla]

Hey Cat, when did Hester leave? Did he retire or did he go to another school? He's had some great Vaulters over the years, that's for sure.

[Cat22]

Originally posted by Gasilla
Hey Cat, when did Hester leave? Did he retire or did he go to another school? He's had some great Vaulters over the years, that's for sure.
I think Hester left in 2000 or 2001. There was a big stink over the reason he left. Too much to go into detail on here. When he left OF he went to Coldsprings then Livingston. I'm not sure if he is still coaching or not. I think someone told me he retired, but I'm not sure.

[ALLSPORTSGUY]

I saw Hester at the Regional Gulf USATF track championships in Houston Last year, he had a whole team of vaulters with him. I would venture to say he is coaching privately now.

[Bobkat]

I talked to one of his ex-vaulters, Wayne Guidry now coaching the vault at Vidor. He told me Coach Hester was still in Livingston. I noticed that Livingston had a vaulter at the Texas Relays that did pretty good. So it looks like he's still spreading that magic. He had a hell of a run at Orangefield. I've seen some incredible feats in high school athletics, but none like a kid vaulting over 17ft. You just don't know till you see it in person.

[Old Tiger]

good luck to him at the olympic tryouts