Brager has good year on and off track at Brown

PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Allison Brager of Boardman experienced an up-and-down season as a junior pole vaulter on the Brown University women's track team in 2006, both literally and figuratively.
On the plus side, the Boardman High graduate cleared a personal-best 11 feet, 6 inches to place seventh at the Ivy League Indoor Championships in February to rank No. 5 on Brown's all-time list.
Brager also had a personal-best 11-1 in the outdoor season this year in a meet at Connecticut. And she has increased her speed on her approach to the bar, which has enabled her to use bigger poles that have the potential to increase her heights.
Apart from track, Brager became a published novelist. The psychology major completed her first book, "Off-Colored Rainbows," which was published by PublishAmerica in Baltimore, Md., in September.
500 copies in first printing
Brager said 500 copies of her book have been printed and distributed in the first printing.
PublishAmerica (www.publishamerica.com) is a print-on-demand company that doesn't charge writers any up-front fees to publish their manuscripts that they select, and pays an 8 percent royalty per book.
On the negative side, Brager suffered a hamstring injury three weeks before the outdoor season began, which affected her performances.
And she lost her coach, Anne Rothenberg, who retired after 25 years at the helm in the middle of the school year.
"The outdoor season actually was pretty rocky," said Brager, who missed some practice sessions because of her injury. "But I still competed during the season although] I didn't do as well as I could have."
Missed her coach
She also missed not having her coach of 2 1/2 years with her any longer. Brager was unhappy that Rothenberg retired, and then Brager didn't get along too well at first with new coach Jerome Romain.
"We had a great relationship and it was really hard to see her go. It took me a while to establish a new relationship [with Romain], so it definitely was hard," said Brager. But, "We now seem to be getting along on good terms."
Brager said that Romain "wasn't [as] familiar with pole vaulting as Anne was." But, Brager admitted that she did begin to run faster on her approach under Roman's total training program.
However, "I actually didn't clear the opening height in the [outdoor] Ivy League meet. [Opening height] was 11-0. I took three jumps," she said.
But she blamed that on her mental outlook, not her injury.
"[My injury] wasn't bothering me at that point [although] I lost a lot of training. I just mentally wasn't with it that day. My first jump was pretty bad," she explained.
Brager now lauds Romain's approach to training.
Increased her speed
"I got a lot faster with his training program, and I am more athletic now with my [faster] approach on the runway. It previously was the worst part of my vault," said Brager.
"I definitely got much better this year. The biggest thing for me is I am finally able to get on big poles because I am faster. It is all about speed. You can have all the technique in the world, but without speed you won't go very high."
The daughter of Larry and Patrice Brager, Allison is a senior majoring in psychology and plans to graduate next spring.
About her book
Brager said she wrote "Off-Colored Rainbows," a book about the friendship that develops between a homosexual male and a heterosexual female, partially because she wanted to enter her book in the Youngstown State English Festival.
"I submitted copies of the book [to YSU] for March of 2007 or thereafter," said Brager because, "I wanted to make a contribution to our community by having it in the YSU English Festival. It is such a big event."
She also said she chose the theme of the book because, "I just thought it would make an interesting dynamic for the book."
And, "I wanted to promote acceptance [of homosexuals and show] that everyone is different."
Brager chose PublishAmerica because, "With most publishing houses, you have to pay a $5,000 to $10,000 up-front fee to have a book published. I don't have that kind of money. So this was a way to get my book published for free."
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Allison Brager's book, "Off-Colored Rainbows," can be ordered directly from the Barnes & amp; Noble Booksellers in Boardman or on-line at www.bn.com and www.amazon.com.