Student-Athlete Of The Month: Carson Boteler

Carson Boteler doesn’t like free time.

The Broadneck senior goes to school, comes home, does whatever homework is left, hits the gym, goes to track practice, comes home, and finds something else to do. It’s as regimented as her year-round dedication to one sport: first gymnastics, and now pole vault.

Boteler’s payoff has been manifold: a 4.63 GPA, a preferred walk-on roster spot vaulting for Coastal Carolina, and three pole vault state championships.

Boteler hopes to make it a clean sweep of both indoor and outdoor her junior and senior years when championship time rolls around in May. To do that, she fills herself with training, activity, and motivation that the other girls around the state are doing everything they can to match her.

“At a lot of my in-season meets, I don’t have the same amount of competition as I do at regions or counties. At those higher-level meets there’s a lot more competition, so clearing those higher marks (consistently) is a big deal,” she said. “I try to just stay relaxed and not think about it too much. If I overthink too much, I won’t do as well — my coach tells me she’ll do the thinking for me. I want to be the best I can be, so I just try to relax and keep my mind off of pole vaulting until I have to get up there and vault, and not overly think about it.”

Boteler knows that feeling well, having lost out on a state title as a sophomore on misses, having cleared the winning height but taking more attempts to successfully do so. That’s what made her recent indoor championship the sweetest.

“Going into junior year indoor season, I wanted to not have so many misses so I could get first, so it was a super cool feeling to win it for the first time,” she said. “But this indoor was the best feeling I’ve ever felt. I had the most competition I’d had all year, I set a personal record at 11-9, and I made everything on the first try. Normally you don’t know if you’ve won because it comes down to misses, but when I jumped my 11-9, I knew that I’d won it, so the feeling was incredible.”

Beyond her own accomplishments, Boteler aspires to inspire younger athletes and students in the community. As part of the Broadneck Athletic Leadership Council, and a member of the school’s Unified PE and dance programs, she engages with elementary school students, special needs students, and others in the community that look up to high school athletes.

These activities provide one more way for Boteler to fill the free-time voids she tries to avoid, and give back to the community at the same time.

“I’ve always struggled with not doing something all the time. I don’t like free time. I like to be on the go, active, moving, whether it’s going for a walk when it’s nice outside, going to the gym, boating,” Boteler said. “With the leadership council, we get to go to elementary schools and read to kids and do other things in the community. It’s fun.”