HIGH SCHOOL MOURNS DEATH OF POLE VAULTER.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Classmates, teammates, teachers and coaches wrestled with their grief Wednesday following the death of pole vaulter Heath Taylor, who suffered head and neck injuries during a Hart High track team practice.

Dozens of teens, many of them hugging and consoling each other, gathered at the pole vault runway Wednesday morning. Principal Laurence Strauss announced the sad news of the 17-year-old junior's death at the beginning of school. ``We held a moment of silence,'' he said.

The rest of the day, school officials kept reporters and TV cameras off campus. ``We're going to protect the kids' privacy. They're grieving,'' Strauss said. ``It's very somber here. Lots of kids at our crisis center are meeting with counselors.''

Taylor, who turned 17 five weeks ago, had cleared a vault of about 10 feet at practice Tuesday afternoon. As is the norm in pole vaulting, Taylor landed on his back on the pit - but the teen's momentum carried him to the back of the landing pad and he partially fell off the edge, his head slamming on the ground.

Taylor was breathing but unconscious after the fall, and paramedics flew him by helicopter to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, where he died more than two hours later.

Strauss said the pole vault landing pad is 3-1/2 feet thick and measures 20 feet by 22 feet. ``We bought it last year,'' he said.

The pit, he added, is set on grass but its back side was next to an old asphalt runway. Strauss wasn't certain, however, what Taylor's head had hit.

The national requirement for pole vault pits is 16 feet by 12 feet, said Dean Crowley, commissioner of athletics for the California Interscholastic Federation's Southern Section, the Cerritos-based organization that oversees athletics at 503 high schools. ``It exceeded minimum standards,'' he said.

Since the 1993-94 school year, there have been six high school pole vault deaths in the nation. Before Taylor's fatal vault, the most recent death had been one in Illinois this school year, Crowley said.

CIF Southern Section officials will ask Hart High and the Hart school district to forward a report on their investigation into Taylor's death. ``We'll review them to see if there are any recommendations we can make,'' he said.

Initial information, he added, leads him to believe that Taylor's death was a ``tragic accident.'' CIF Southern Section high schools have been competing in the pole vault since 1913, Crowley added, and ``to my knowledge, this is the first fatality'' in that sport.

Taylor's track coaches were unavailable for comment Wednesday. On Tuesday, track coach Larry David described Taylor as a youth who was popular with his teammates and a good leader.

The teen is survived by a mother and younger sister who live in Camarillo, and his father, whom he lived with in Valencia, Strauss said.

An autopsy was expected to be conducted today, said Los Angeles County Coroner's Office spokesman Scott Carrier. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Strauss said Taylor had played football as a freshman and sophomore, and was in his second year of competition in the pole vault. ``He loved it. He was planning on going to a pole vault camp this summer,'' the principal said.

Taylor's passions also included skateboarding and snowboarding. Pole vaulting, Strauss noted, ``takes a specialized personality. Those guys usually like a challenge.''

The track team, meanwhile, is scheduled to compete today at John Burroughs High School in Burbank, Strauss said.

Taylor's death was the second high school track and field fatality in two weeks. On April 22, Craig Kelford III was hit in the head by a discus during a track meet between North Torrance High School and Palos Verdes Peninsula High School. The 16-year-old Peninsula High boy died the next day at Torrance Memorial Hospital.

Fred Mueller, a physical education professor at the University of North Carolina, has been keeping records of sports fatalities for more than a decade. From autumn 1982 to spring 1994 - the most recent data available - there were nine high school pole vaulting deaths, said Mueller, founder of the National Center of Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the Chapel Hill, N.C., campus.

``They all happened the same way: either bouncing out of the pit on a hard surface, or completely missing the pit and hitting a hard surface with their head or neck,'' Mueller said.

There are an estimated 20,000 high schools in the United States, and Hart - like most high school athletic teams - follows the track and field rules and safety standards published by the Kansas City-based National Federation of State High School Associations.

Another Hart High School student-athlete died in February. Sophomore swim team member Joshua Randell, 15, was hit by a car as he crossed Lyons Avenue near Apple Street on in-line skates.

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3 Photos

Photo: (1--color in SAC edition only) Flowers were placed in memory of Heath Taylor on Wednesday.

(2--color in SAC only) Heath Taylor

Loved the sport

(3--ran in SAC, SIMI and CONEJO editions only) Students gather Wednesday at the Hart High School track where pole vaulter Heath Taylor received injuries he died from.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News