The Kearney Catholic track and field team didn’t have a pole vault group for years, but when Alyssa Onnen arrived in 2023, everything changed.
The senior jumper and pole vaulter became one of the most dominant athletes in Nebraska state history. The four-time state champ broke multiple state records and put a previously nonexistent program on the map.
“Coming in and watching this pole vault program kind of be built from the ground up is so, so special,” Onnen told Hurrdat Sports. “Knowing that kids behind me now have the opportunity to partake in and enjoy the sport that I love so much and that’s shaped me so much, and just for them to be around the pole vault community is amazing. I’m so beyond thrilled that we have something definitely more established now.”
When Onnen set foot on campus, Kearney Catholic did not have a dedicated pole vault program. The Stars occasionally had an athlete express interest in vaulting over the years, but the school did not have a dedicated coach or proper equipment. The last Star vaulter before Onnen graduated six years before she enrolled. However, with Onnen’s success, the school plans to continue competing in the pole vault moving forward.
Onnen cleared 12 feet, 6 inches at the state track meet in May to capture her fourth straight title, ending her high school career on top.
“I don’t think my brain was as much focused on the winning portion as the like, ‘This is just my last chance to compete,’” Onnen said of her reaction. “I want to come out here and give it all I have, and when I was done it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was the end of high school for me’ …
“Pole vault’s always been my favorite, so that definitely hit the hardest.”
Onnen won state titles all four years of high school, but when she reflects on her career, it isn’t the hardware that stands out.
“I feel like to a lot of people, it’s a super huge deal, and I don’t want to say that it doesn’t matter a lot to me, but this sport is so much more than the titles and the awards,” Onnen said. “To me, that’s just a very small part of it, and it’s something that I’m super grateful for. I’ve had a lot of success so far in this sport, and I’m so, so, so grateful for all of that and all of the people and opportunities that God’s given me to help me get there, but to me it’s not as much about the four-time state champ as it is all the memories that come with it.”
Though she isn’t focused on the wins, her career produced plenty of them.
As a senior, she jumped 13 feet, 4.25 inches at the Gothenburg meet, a new all-class record.
Named the Nebraska Track and Field Gatorade Player of the Year in 2025, Onnen cleared 13 feet as a junior. This marked the best jump in Class C state history.
She credits her gymnastics background and pole vault coach for helping her succeed.
“We actually ended up finding an absolutely phenomenal coach my freshman year of high school, who has coached me all the way through,” Onnen said. “He’s been there with me through thick and thin. He has an amazing eye for the vault, he’s a fantastic coach, but he also is a really good person. We have a very special connection, so there was a lot of trust there, and we made a lot of good memories along the way.”
That coach is Adam Driver. Onnen said it’s hard to put into words what Driver has meant to her.
“His dedication to me and my potential and my future has meant everything,” Onnen said. “Just having someone that believed in me and lifted me up during the hard times and celebrated with me during the good times and put up with my silly goofiness, especially when I was younger, truly he’s watched me grow up and become like family.”
Driver said that Onnen is like a daughter to him.
“I’m so proud of her and everything she’s accomplished, everything she’s gone through, the growth that she’s made from freshman year until senior year,” Driver said. “I don’t know how to put it into words basically, the amount of pride I have in that woman, in that girl. She’s one of a kind, and not just the athlete, but as a human being as well.”
Onnen’s path to where she’s at now wasn’t always easy. During her sophomore year, she partially tore her patellar tendon in her left knee.
“Coming back from that injury has definitely been the hardest thing that I’ve had to do in my track career so far,” Onnen said. “I’m still kind of struggling with soreness occasionally, and a lot of me wonders how much of that is physical versus mental, but I spent a lot of time at family PT.”
Onnen said that she’s also received treatment throughout her senior season and has learned a lot throughout the process.
“Even though it’s been a super hard injury to come back from, and it’s been very physically challenging, it was also one of the best things that ever happened to me,” Onnen said. “I grew a lot in my faith and as a person during that time, and I think having that little nagging physical weakness is a good reminder that I can’t do everything. I’m human, I’m not super woman, but that with God, anything is possible.”
Her track and field career in Kearney is over, but she isn’t traveling far after committing to Nebraska. She said she took visits to Baylor, South Dakota, Louisville and Virginia Tech before choosing to be a Cornhusker.
She said she didn’t think she was going to go to Nebraska initially, but her visit changed her mind.
“Within the 48 hours that I spent there on campus, by the time I left, I knew that that was where God wanted me, which is so crazy because I like to weigh all of the different points,” Onnen said. “So I did not think that I was going to be a person that just knew. Everyone says when you know, you know, but I didn’t think that was going to be me. I thought I was going to have to sit down after all my visits and make pros and cons lists and figure it all out, but I ended up canceling the two extra visits that I had scheduled after my Nebraska visit because I just knew.”
Onnen said she’s looking forward to being with her team when she arrives in Lincoln.
“I’m excited to have a very set program that is very specifically designed to make you better at pole vault,” Onnen said. “I’m excited to have teammates to do that with, because I don’t want to say that the journeys been lonely, but there have been a lot of times where I am doing stuff by myself, which I’ve learned to love. I’ve used that as kind of time to spend with God, but I know it’s going to be amazing to be able to enjoy the sport that I love with others a little bit more.”
As Onnen looks ahead to her chapter at Nebraska, she said she hopes Kearney Catholic remembers her for who she is off the track.
“A lot of times people see me and they think, ‘Oh, track,’ because they see the success that I’ve had there,” Onnen said. “The people at Kearney Catholic, at least the ones that have gotten to know me a little bit better, I hope that I’ve left the impact on them that my faith is what drives me, what pulls me through. At the end of the day, all of the success that I have is because God allowed it to be there, because He allowed it to come into fruition, and because He’s blessed me in so many different ways. I guess I just hope people see that, that they don’t see me as just the pole vaulter, but as a daughter of the most high.”
