Pole vault star Farabee joining HOF
This is the third in a series of articles profiling this year's inductees into the Butler Area School District Athletic Hall of Fame
BUTLER TWP — As competitiive as he was, this is one time Jared Farabee doesn't mind coming in third.
The 1998 Butler graduate — who excelled in the pole vault in high school and at the University of South Carolina — is being inducted into the Butler Area School District Athletic Hall of Fame Jan. 3 during a ceremony and reception in the high school cafeteria.
Farabee joins Bill Fay, Jason Cherry and the late Calvin Littlejohn in comprising the Hall's 10th annual induction class.
His father, Mark Farabee, was inducted in 2014. His sister, Rachel, was inducted with her record-setting Butler track and field team last year.
“I'm happy to accept this bronze medal any day,” Jared said. “I love the fact I'm going in after those two.
“When I was a little kid growing up in Butler, I idolized the Butler High School football players like they were the Steelers. I saw so many great players come down that hill and come into the stadium through the years.”
While Farabee's area of expertise was the pole vault, he had his moments on the football field as well. He was a wide receiver-cornerback for the Golden Tornado when his father was the head coach.
“Troy Nunes, Matt Milanovich, the Tack boys ... Our fathers were coaches,” Farabee recalled. “It was like we had our own club. That was so much fun.”
Farabee scored two touchdowns against Penn Hills in the first game of his senior year — Butler's last winning season — and had 69 tackles on defense that year.
He recalled watching pole vaulters at track meets when he was younger “and thinking that it was pretty cool,” but didn't give much thought about trying it until junior high.
“I was wrestling in junior high and Lew Liparulo was our coach,” Farabee recalled. “He was also a jumps coach in track and asked me if I ever thought about trying the pole vault.“That got me thinking about it. Things just went from there.”Farabee became a two-time WPIAL champion and won the 1998 PIAA championship in the pole vault. He set the school record with a vault of 15 feet, five inches, that stood until Jack Codispot recently broke it.“I saw Jack compete at an indoor meet at Slippery Rock University. I knew he had what it took to do it,” Farabee said.Farabee went on to compete in the pole vault at South Carolina, where his personal-high vault of 17 feet, 1.25 inches was good enough for fourth on the Gamecocks' all-time list.He made all-region in the pole vault and finished second to teammate — and roommate — Chris Steddum at the SEC Championships.“We pushed each other all the time,” Farabee said of Steddum. “It was a friendly competition we had with each other, but we competed hard.”Though he was a co-captain of the South Carolina track team, Farabee's football career wasn't quite over yet.He stayed at school over the summers to work out and was doing some workouts with some football players the summer before his senior year.“I was leaving after a workout and Skip Holtz came over and asked, 'Who are you?'” Farabee said, laughing. “I explained I was on the track team and was just working out with some of the football guys.“He invited me to come to (football) camp and I took him up on it.”Farabee made the team, played for legendary coach Lou Holtz, and saw action in nine games. He returned four kickoffs and caught a pass against LSU.”“I'll never forget that,” he said. “My position coach asked me why I waited so long to come out for football. For one, I was there for track and didn't want to risk an injury. I was a captain and didn't want to let my team down.“Plus, I kept hearing I was too small. You hear that stuff often enough you start to believe it. But I got to play at LSU, at Clemson, Death Valley, The Swamp (Florida), that was like living a dream for me.”Now married with children ages 11, 6 and 4, Farabee works as a store manager for Bridgestone-Firestone in Robinson Township.
