McColl had tutored gymnasts for three years before track and field beckoned, a sport he has engaged in for more than a decade and where he found traction with sprinting and long jump.
"Gymnastics has a few key components to do other activities that require all sorts of fundamental skills," says Athletics New Zealand's No 1 pole vaulting coach.
Generally, he believes, athletes tend to be much shorter in gymnastics but the code easily is the foundation for all sport.
"In essence it can be a pretty hands-on sport, which makes it a little bit difficult," he says, mindful gymnastics "has started going the other way" with the meteoric rise of pole vaulting.
The Hastings classic will double as trials for Kiwi hopefuls to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia but the pressure to qualify will become more intense approaching April.
Three pole vaulters — McCartney, Olivia McTaggart, of Kristin School, and Nick Southgate, of North Harbour Bays club — have already achieved their "standards" for the games but McColl emphasises not everyone is expected to make that cut.
"Probably another three will have a good chance to make that."
Imogen Ayris, of Takapuna Grammar, will be channelling her energy for the junior world athletics championship next year.
"Imogen's quite young so there's no pressure on her at all to make the Commonwealth Games."
The pressure, he says, more often than not comes from within athletes rather than externally although part of their grooming highlights the importance of dealing with such constraints.
McColl says the elite performance gym at the HB Regional Sports Park in Hastings, added to the traditionally warm Bay climate, makes the early trip from Auckland productive and rewarding.
"It's also probably one of the best tracks in the country because the winds are pretty good from the sea breezes that come in and that's why we've had some pretty good results there in the past," he says.
The athletes learn how to conduct themselves away from home and also find common ground within the collective, which becomes a dress rehearsal of sorts with a view to travelling abroad to meetings.
The Bay, he stresses, isn't too far away from Auckland for a training camp once or twice a year.
The Aucklander knows all about the intricacies of pole vaulting, having won Oceania gold at his prime but picking up the peripheral discipline in the track and field arena as a late bloomer.
"The thing with [pole vaulting] is that you're putting 100 per cent of your confidence basically to get yourself totally upside down and you're a long way up in the air so you need to know what your body needs to do to land on the mat.
"It's one thing to clear a bar and it's another to land safely and give it 100 per cent."
For someone whose torn tendon curtailed his career in his early 20s, McColl is in a great position to share the significance of all the variables that guarantee pole-vaulting nirvana.
"It is one of those things. When I jumped I understood it was my mistake in letting go of the pole because you usually don't let go of the pole completely because you can't stop gravity."
Consequently pole vaulters are coherent in the processes that help manoeuvre them into the best position on a mat.
McColl says pole vaulting is still on the way up with increasing numbers in the country.
"The [high] school nationals in Hastings, for example, had record numbers where they had to split them into different age groups, which they haven't done in the past."
Females still lead the charge but male numbers are growing in the face of an effervescent McCartney although he feels while she's a key catalyst that evolution was evident even through those who were below her before she found fame at the Rio Olympics late last year.
"It's been growing gradually for the last eight to 10 years, to be honest, especially in Auckland. I think what Eliza's done has made it grow more nationally outside of Auckland, which is really exciting."
The obstacle, McColl says, has been the inability to keep up with the demand and quality of coaches in pole vaulting.
It's a long-term focus for him and his assistant, Brent Booker, of Auckland, because Hamilton is keen to have a stronger presence in pole vaulting. Murray Anderson, of Havelock North, has got that under his wings in the Bay while Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin are also coming to terms with the growth.
"With what's happening in Hastings with the new facilities it's going to be good indoors so I'm really keen to work with Murray Anderson to get the centres working together.
"It hasn't been done before but if Hawke's Bay wants a pole-vaulting facility up and running it's best to work together," he says, happy to commute here and Anderson reciprocating with travel to Auckland.
Appropriate equipment is equally important for athletes honing their technical skills so a sense of awareness has crept in to be adequately prepared.
"You've got to have the mats and the poles so most centres require them apart from Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin," says the bloke who spent a personal fortune ($500 to $1000 for 170 poles) while he was working as a builder to realise his vision before Athletics NZ bought them off him post-Rio to help relieve some fiscal pressure.
However, he says it's easier now for clubs and centres to apply for trust funds or seek sponsors to buy equipment.
"I wasn't able to do that because I was working by myself so I couldn't apply for trust funds."
He laughs when asked if all the trials and tribulations he went through to showcase pole vaulting were worth it but believes they're only scratching the surface now of what's possible.
"Eliza's [bronze] medal, in reality, came four years earlier than we were predicting because she was always going to be a 2020 [Tokyo Olympics] athlete."
While she had cleared 4.8m in Rio, McColl says there are no guarantees in a world event where attaining PBs becomes the yardstick.
"When we knew Eliza was able to jump 4.80 we knew she was going to be the top five or six but she went through all her jumps in her first attempt to put herself in a medal position and potentially winning gold if she had jumped 4.85 in her second attempt.
"Things happen in this event and favourites don't always win so you just have to be good on the day sometimes and adapt and enjoy it."
McCartney had grappled with an Achilles injury last winter in the Diamond League series in Europe but the North Shore jumper is taking that in her stride on the road to recovery.
For McColl, the bigger picture for his contingent is the Tokyo Olympics so growing the sport nationally will help that cause.
