Given how Matthew Ferrario began doing track & field, it might be surprising to see him only running 40 meters, and with a pole in his hands.
Ferrario got into the sport originally as a distance runner. The only problem was that running wasn’t exactly something he enjoyed. At least not enough to do it for the mile run. He knew he had to make a change if he was going to continue in track.
“’I need to make a switch,’” Ferrario said to himself at the time. “’I can’t do this anymore.’”
Knowing he did not want to give up the sport entirely, he came across pole vaulting. A decision he said came out of the blue, one he doesn’t regret. He took to vaulting quickly, even receiving private instruction from coaches in his hometown of Columbia, South Carolina.
“I thought sophomore year, this is something I want to take serious,” Ferrario said. “This is something I could potentially go to college for.”
After breaking the school record in the pole vault with a jump of 10 feet at Cardinal Newman High School, Ferrario wanted to take his track career to the next level. That’s when he made the switch to Heathwood Hall High School before his junior season, a school known for its track success and one that supported Ferrario to help him reach his potential.
“’I’m going to go somewhere that really supports me,’” Ferrario said. “I really appreciate all the coaching at Heathwood Hall.”
Still only a teenager, Ferrario became a pole-vaulting coach, helping people only a few years younger than him. Despite being only a few years older than the people he helped, Ferrario guided three vaulters — none of whom had vaulted before arriving at Heathwood Hall — to state.
“It gave me the opportunity to take on something that I love and was really passionate about and teach that to the younger generation,” Ferrario said. “It’s a different type of joy than succeeding yourself.”
Ferrario didn’t just help others succeed; he earned the school record his senior year with a jump of 14-feet while also going to state. The competitiveness of the state meet helped him prepare for his time at Marquette.
“The experience at state against dedicated pole vaulters really allowed me to prepare for Big East (meets) where I’m going against the best,” Ferrario said.
Now it was time for his career to take the next step. It meant many nights spent sitting at the dinner table compiling a spreadsheet of possible colleges. Ferrario planned on majoring in international affairs, so he was looking for schools that could fulfill both his academic and athletic goals, which is how Marquette entered his radar.
“I reached out to dozens of coaches…filled out dozens of questionnaires,” Ferrario said. “I had a lot of support from my parents that led to me getting here.”
It was in March 2024 when Ferrario officially received an offer from Marquette, one that meant more than the others he received because of his relationship with the coaching staff.
“I had various other offers at the time,” he said, “but Marquette was definitely my top choice.”
Ferrario immediately committed. As a first-year, he competed in both the indoor and outdoor Big East championships. Now, in his second year as a Golden Eagle, Ferrario is setting new personal records, like the 14.3 feet vault he completed at the Bill Clinger Invitational Jan. 23.
“I’ve always been a pole vaulter that wasn’t naturally talented,” Ferrario said. “But I worked really hard in it.”
It’s almost hard to believe he, the same person who coached high schoolers in pole vaulting and moved 900 miles from home to pole vault in college, did not even start with the event.
This article was written by Lukas Schulze; he can be reached at [email protected] or on twitter @LukasschulzeMU
