SCHOOL'S OUT FOR WALLER'S SUMMER RUN AS OLYMPIC HIGH JUMPER.

Byline: Betsy White Cox News Service

Here is something you've probably never heard from the person who just won her event to make the Olympic team: ``This gives a whole new meaning to being a kindergarten teacher.''

Tisha Waller of suburban Decatur, who just finished her fourth year at DeKalb County's Livsey Elementary School, soared flawlessly over the high-jump bar set at 6 feet, 4-3/4 inches (1.95 meters) this week in the Olympic stadium to earn the top berth at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials.

She had struggled briefly at a lower height. And over all the other voices of encouragement - from family, rowdy former University of North Carolina teammates and others - it was a chorus of tiny voices that reached her ears most clearly.

``Over everything else, I heard my students saying `MISS WALL-LER, MISS WALL-LER,' just how they call my name in the classroom,'' she said. ``I have 24 students and I think at least half of them were here.''

Amy Acuff, last year's collegiate and national champion, had the lead until the final height but rejoiced at making the team. Long hampered by a nagging ankle injury, Acuff required a cortisone shot in the days leading to the trials.

Connie Teaberry, who was third to Acuff and Waller at the nationals last year, finished there again to take the final Olympic berth.

Waller had hesitated to commit to a year of full-time teaching leading up to the trials, but said her love of the job and the support from students and fellow faculty members made the ``long, long days'' tolerable.

She conceded that world leader Stefka Kostadinova of Bulgaria, who has jumped 6-6-3/4 (2.0 meters), Alina Astafei of Germany and others will make for tough competition in the Olympics.

But Waller said the U.S. team has two big advantages: Its members have competed on the Olympic stadium's tricky pit, with its fast approach, and they can take the heat.

Waller laughed when the national media asked her if the heat and humidity had bothered her. ``I live here,'' she exclaimed. She had demonstrated that attitude by putting on her warmups between jumps.

Waller said her difficulty at 6-3-1/2 was easily explained and just as easily fixed: The fast surface of the approach meant she ran closer to the bar than she needed to before jumping. Once she started her approach farther back on the stadium's grassy infield, she cleared that height and the next one with ease.

Nat Page, who coaches Waller at Emory University, was so impressed with her form that he encouraged her to try not 6-6, the standard next height, but 6-6-1/4 so she could try to tie her indoor record - in essence, bringing it outside.

But Waller demurred. ``I was just so emotional to be making the team. I said, `Let me just jump this.' ''