Once Jayce Ballah learned how to take flight, there was no keeping him on the ground.

The Otis High School senior is the defending Class 1A state pole vault champion and state meet record holder, clearing 14 feet, 6 inches last spring.

But when Ballah struggled to find a sport that fit him in elementary school, his mother, Krystal Ballah, never imagined pole vaulting would be the answer, much less that her son would eventually take his love of flying beyond the track.

“I didn’t think he’d pursue being a pilot either,” Krystal said. “But I can’t keep the kid on the ground.”

For much of his childhood, however, Jayce was grounded. Simply running around with his classmates presented a challenge.

Jayce was born with anhidrosis, a condition that prevents his body from cooling itself normally by producing sweat. Sports such as baseball and football weren’t realistic options. In Otis, a town of about 500 where classmates grow up playing sports together and seemingly everyone travels in the same social circles, that could make a kid feel like he was on the outside looking in.

Then Jayce found pole vault, or perhaps more appropriately, pole vault found him.

Something clicked. He had found an athletic pursuit uniquely his own, and as his confidence grew on the runway, his mother noticed changes away from it, too.

“He found a purpose to work through the physical challenges,” Krystal said. “It wasn’t a pity party. It went from, ‘I can’t do what others are doing,’ to, ‘I found something I can do and have my own challenges.’”

His success in school followed.

“His academics changed, too,” Krystal said. “Everything changed. It was so crazy.”

Today, Jayce’s impact at Otis stretches well beyond the runway. He is a member of the National Honor Society and volunteers with the Food Bank of the Rockies. He has served as an officer in both FFA and FBLA and, since 2022, has volunteered as an assistant pole vault coach for Otis junior high athletes on the same runway where he learned the sport.

Outside school, Jayce works residential construction with his father, putting his studies in mechatronics to use while earning money to pay for flight lessons. He is now a student pilot working toward his private pilot certificate and hopes eventually to fly professionally.

Ballah’s resilience, service and leadership made him Colorado’s Positive Athlete for October 2026.

This is the first in a monthly Colorado Preps series of Positive Athlete nominee profiles. Positive Athlete is a free recognition, development and scholarship program for high-character high school student-athletes who show resilience, service and leadership. For more details and to nominate, please visit PositiveAthlete.com/Colorado.

Jayce’s journey to a state championship began in sixth grade when he watched another vaulter clear a 10-foot bar.

“I was in sixth grade when I first started,” Jayce said. “At a small school, I saw some kid going over a 10-foot bar. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I knew I needed to start doing that.”

By eighth grade, Jayce was making the more than two-hour trip from Otis to the Boulder area to train at Above The Bar Track Club, where he could focus on his newfound passion.

The sport demanded strength, but Jayce quickly learned technique and repetition mattered just as much.

“You don’t have to be the strongest,” Jayce said. “It takes a lot of strength, but if you get the form right through drills, that’s the most important thing. You rep that out and build exactly what you need.”

Progress wasn’t always measured by how high Jayce cleared the bar.

The summer before his sophomore year, Jayce flew to Texas for the National Junior Olympics, only to return home without clearing a single bar.

Krystal marveled not at the result, but at the way her son handled it. He thanked the officials for their time, introduced himself to his fellow competitors and soaked up the experience.

A year later, Jayce competed at prestigious Nike Outdoor Nationals at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon. He missed his first two attempts before clearing the bar on his third.

Through the successes and failures, Jayce also found a way to keep the sport light.

Back in eighth grade, his sister Kylee gave him a pair of quirky socks for Christmas. Because he was naturally shy, Jayce decided to wear them to meets. They reminded him it was just a sport, and gave him an easy way to start a conversation with someone new.

Then he set a personal record wearing them.

The socks became part of Jayce’s identity as an athlete. Krystal now keeps a collection for each new PR. Whether it’s rubber ducks or flying pigs, Jayce has something ready to lighten the mood at his next meet.

“If you truly want to be positive, you have to pretend you are an extrovert,” Jayce said. “You’ve got to fake it until you make it. I’m naturally introverted and have gotten a little better at it because I want to be the better guy that goes and helps someone.”

Helping people comes naturally to Jayce.

Otis counselor Landan Schaffert, who is legally blind, was substituting for a plant sciences class when students were dissecting a zucchini flower. Jayce noticed Schaffert couldn’t experience the lesson the same way his classmates could.

“Just because he can’t see doesn’t mean he can’t get these experiences,” Jayce said. “I asked if he wanted to feel one of the flowers and made sure there were no pokey bits on it when I handed it to him.”

For Schaffert, the small gesture spoke to something much larger about Jayce.

“Jayce can see your heart without having to do too much to get there,” Schaffert said. “He’s observant where other people aren’t. He’s also a once-in-a-generation athlete in Otis, a town of 500 people with one stoplight and one restaurant where everyone is related in so many ways.
It’s a place where you see students up close.”

Schaffert sees the same character in the everyday interactions that rarely make a résumé.

“He spent a great portion of the class talking about the greenhouse and explaining plants to me,” Schaffert said. “He explained their colors. He wasn’t too cool to talk to a disabled teacher. He’s also the first person in the lunch line to say hello. He knows I can’t see him.”

Before Jayce hopes to continue his pole vaulting career in college, he has one more high school season ahead of him.
And this one could be different.

Jayce has started to sweat.

Patches of his back and head now produce sweat. He can run a mile and train harder than he could when he was younger.

He also assists Otis’ junior high pole vaulters, a state record holder returning to the runway where his own journey began and passing along the knowledge and experiences he has accumulated.

“Anyone can be nice,” Jayce said. “But to truly make someone feel good, you have to make them feel seen.”

If you know of another high character student-athlete showing overcoming adversity, giving back in their community or just doing things the right way nominate them for Positive Athlete at. PositiveAthlete.com/Colorado. Any adult may nominate any deserving student-athlete, boys and girls, any sport, grades 9-12. The process is fast and free.