JEFFERSON TWP — At long last, Steve Sprowles knows when he’s going to retire.

“It will be two years from now — when my grandson makes his last pole vault, I’m walking away,” Sprowles, 68, said while laughing.

Sprowles is coaching his grandson, Slippery Rock High sophomore Logan Long, in the pole vault this year. He vows to stay on as the Rockets’ pole vault coach through Logan’s senior year.

This follows three years as pole vault coach at Grove City High School, which followed 28 years of coaching the event at Knoch.

“Coaches with that kind of dedication are the backbone of track and field,” Knoch coach Wess Brahler said. “They make this sport what it is.”

That’s why Sprowles is receiving the Lifetime Achievement Recognition honor Saturday at the Knoch Invitational. He will be presented the award at approximately noon at the 50-yard line of the Knoch football stadium.

“I’m very humbled by this,” Sprowles said. “I’ve worked with some great coaches and tremendous athletes over the years.

“I look at a guy like Dale Mahan ... I’m not even in the same ballpark as that man. I just hope I can come up with some thoughtful words to say.”

Mahan was the head track coach at Knoch when Sprowles began coaching the pole vaulters in 1976. He was teaching middle school in the South Butler District at the time.

Sprowles left the teaching field after a few years, but never quit coaching. He coached under Mahan, Neal Cypher, Fred Bernard, Les Shoop and Brahler at Knoch. He was also an assistant football coach at Knoch for eight years and was on staff when the Knights won the WPIAL football title in 1978.

“He has been truly selfless,” Brahler said. “Steve has been involved in the pole vault since they did it with a bamboo pole and a pile of sawdust.”

Indeed, Sprowles began pole vaulting himself in 1962, using a bamboo pole. The landing pit was nothing more than a pile of sawdust.

“Obviously, it’s much safer now,” he said. “The landing area is much wider and serves as a true cushion for the vaulter.

“I used to vault 10 feet using that bamboo pole. It was easy to grip those things and they had a slight bend to them, but nothing like today, of course.”

Sprowles rattled off a number of great pole vaulters he worked with at Knoch: David and Andy Boldy, Bob Weleski, Curt Phillips, Mike Bogacki, Jim Jones and Garrett Shaw.

“Phillips, Bogacki, Shaw, those guys all went over 14 feet,” Sprowles recalled. “Jim Jones improved by a foot and a half in one year, but I can’t take credit for that. That came from his teammate, Curt Phillips, working with him.”

Phillips went on to become a track and field coach at Butler High School and the University of Pittsburgh.

Sprowles has spent 11 summers working the Sky Jumpers pole vault clinic at Kutztown University. Former Olympian and world record holder Jan Johnson directs that clinic.

“I’ve learned so much from that man,” Sprowles said.

And so many kids have learned so much from Sprowles.

“He’s so deserving of this,” Brahler said. “He served 37 years in the Army Reserves, too (retiring in 2008). It’s all about loyalty and dedication with Steve.”

Sprowles shrugs off his coaching success.

“I’ve always had talent to work with,” he said. “When you’re teaching, you have to enjoy your audience. Good teachers are frustrated actors.”