Barstow junior Jeff Hollis eyes high jump state title in honor of late father

The high jump bar stretched 13 1/2 feet, much too long to squeeze into the minivan. So as Lee Hollis piloted the vehicle with his youngest son, Jeff, in tow, he had to be creative.

He propped open the back windshield and enabled the bar to poke out the aperture, two feet of it showing as they drove along the highway, destined for an empty jumping pit at Johnson County Community College.

Lee wasn’t much of an athlete, despite his 6-foot-5 frame, and thus he marveled all the more at what his teenage son could do on the track.

“Honestly, I don’t even think Jeff wanted to practice,” said Gina Hollis, his mother. “But he knew Lee loved to watch him.”

The bond between a father and son developed over road and plane trips for Jeff’s track meets. During an excursion to Houston for the AAU Junior Olympic Games, Jeff recorded the second best high jump in the country for rising eighth graders — a precursor to his success at Barstow High School.

On Saturday, Jeff will compete for the Missouri Class 2 track and field state meet in Jefferson City. He is the top seed in his class.

Lee bought a tan bucket cap from the first major accomplishment, the AAU Junior Olympic Games. He wore it everywhere, hoping to solicit questions about its origin.

“He was by far my biggest supporter,” said Jeff, a junior at Barstow. “I never would’ve been out there if it wasn’t for him.”

Jeff jumped to delight his father.

Now, he jumps in remembrance of him.

The bay water turned red, and Jeff feared the worst.

Three days before Christmas 2013, he and Lee rented separate personal watercrafts during an annual vacation to Englewood, Fla.

Lee made a right turn and collided with a boat driven by a man who was allegedly drunk. The impact sent Lee into the water. The boat’s propeller continued to spin, severing his right leg just above the knee.

Jeff watched from a few feet away.

“I had a feeling he could very well die,” said Jeff, then 14. “I knew it was bad.”

Jeff’s brother Mark called their mom, who had made a day trip to North Carolina.

“There’s been an accident,” Mark told her. “Dad is missing a leg.”

“How do you know that?” she recalled responding.

“Because they pulled him out of the water, and it was gone.”

Gina flew to Florida that evening. On the plane ride, she researched amputations and called friends in search of recommendations for the best rehab hospitals in the country. Instead, after several hours in the hospital waiting room, a doctor informed her there was only enough time to say goodbye.

She declined.

“I couldn’t see him like that,” Gina said. “There probably are some people who can do that, but I’m a visual person. And that’s not how I wanted to remember him.”

Jeff has no choice. He recalls the scene with vivid detail.

After a man stopped and helped carry Lee to a nearby marina, Jeff attempted to communicate with him, but Lee was unable to respond. Doctors later said he suffered a heart attack. The cause of death was listed as blunt force trauma from the initial collision. Lee was 54.

“I’m never going to forget it, but I don’t want to forget it,” Jeff said. “That was the last time I saw him.”

Authorities filed charges against the driver of the boat, Bruce Richard Vilardi, accusing him of vessel homicide, causing a death while boating under the influence and a violation of navigation rules causing serious bodily injury. He is scheduled to stand trial in July.

Jeff expects to be called to testify.

A sixth-grade gym class provided Jeff with an introduction to the high jump. On his first day partaking in the event, he won a school-wide competition. He signed up for the track team that spring, and in the season-ending Catholic Youth Organization competition, he set the meet record when he cleared 5 feet, 3 inches.

Lee caught wind of the success pretty quickly. He considered himself a major sports fan, Gina said, but had never been mistaken for a superior athlete.

“We apologized to our kids early on — because they came from two very unathletic parents,” Gina said. “We couldn’t figure out where Jeff’s (ability) came from.”

Lee signed Jeff up for summer teams and scoured the city for empty jumping pits where Jeff could practice. He found a spot at Johnson County Community College. It was only missing the bar, so he purchased one.

It was there that Jeff sharpened his newfound craft.

“I’ve never been a guy who would just go do that on my own,” Jeff said. “So this is definitely for him. It’s definitely my connection to him.”

He’s done quite well, too.

Jeff placed second last spring at the Missouri Class 2 state meet as a sophomore, before upping the ante this season. Earlier this month, he set the Crossroads Conference meet record when he cleared the bar at 6 feet, 9 inches, also setting a new personal record.

That jump landed him the No. 1 state-qualifying seed heading into this weekend’s Missouri Class 2 state meet. It has attracted the attention from several Division I colleges. Stanford sent a handwritten letter, and the school ranks high on Jeff’s list.

“He’s become so talented that’s he’s outgrown any coaching that I can give him,” Barstow coach Tara Micham said. “We’ve searched for specialty coaches to come and work with him because that’s where he’s at now.”

Lee Hollis comes up often in family conversation. Subtle reminders.

Jeff says it’s inevitable that his father pops into his mind while he’s on the track. In his first three years competing in the high jump, Lee would hang over the spectator fencing, angling for the best shot with his camera. Jeff can’t recall a single meet his father skipped. He still finds himself glancing toward the fence.

The flashbacks can be equally triggered by a particular object in their Leawood home, where Jeff has spent all 17 years of his life.

In the moments after his father’s accident, Jeff ran to the rental car in the parking lot and gathered the family’s belongings. A handful of vacation items, mostly. Before he shut the passenger door, he spotted something lying on the seat.

The tan bucket cap from the AAU Junior Olympic Games.

“That hat just reminds me that he was very proud of me,” Jeff said. “I wasn’t going to leave it there.”

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Barstow junior Jeff Hollis eyes high jump state title in honor of late father."