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Where are the top 5 College coach's employed at?

Well, I think you would have to include in that group, Anthony Curran, 25 year coach of UCLA. Personally, he was an extremely accomplished vaulter, holding the national and CA high school record for over 15 years (until Scott Roth came along), holds an 18'8.5" PR and was a 1980 Olympic qualifier. He is a selfless coach and continues to coach many beginner, developing, olympians and elite vaulters, aside from his college duties. He consistently produces top performers in the highly competitive Pac-10 and regularly shows well at NCAA's. His alumni continue to dot the ranks of the top 10 US men and women vaulters year in and year out. Best of all, he's just a great guy. UCLA is very fortunate to have him

Based on total # of athletes currently ranked based on this thread: http://polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13939

BYU (4 ranked)
Virginia Tech (3 ranked)
Arkansas (3 ranked)
Minnesota (3 ranked)
Tied with 2 ranked: Texas Tech, Air Force, Kansas, California, Akron, Nebraska

Of course, this is an extremely limited view of it. Doesn't take into account injuries, redshirted athletes, good recruiting versus good coaching, technical models and training systems used by coaches on and off the list.

Go Minnesota! Having a female coach for the women that knows the event is working well for the Gophers.

Here is a short list of some outstanding Division I coaches. There are lots of great coaches out there, and I didn't put much thought into this so I am sure I am leaving a lot of great ones out. These are coaches that have consistently produced great athletes, both by making good vaulters better and taking average vaulters to great heights.

Pat Licari - UW
Anthony Curran - UCLA
Larry Berryhill - BYU
Scott Steffan - Air Force (Formerly New Mexico)
Bryan Compton - Arkansas

Well I have to vouch for Bob Phillips at VT.

A good measuring stick for coaches is athlete improvement under their coaching.

Bob's (incomplete) list of athletes the last few years:

High school -> college/postcollegiate

Brian Hunter 15'6" -> 18'4"
Brian Mondschein 15'10" -> 18'2"
Joe Samaniuk 14'0" -> 17'5"
Adam Bingaman 15'6" -> 17'3"
Two foreign studs at 17'9" and 17'6"
Joe Davis (current freshman) 15'10" -> 16'11"
Plus one soph and one freshman at 16'9" and 16'11"

Kelly Phillips (current freshman) Never vaulted in high school -> 13'6"
Erin Mahony 9'0" -> 13'4"
Abbey McGrath 10'0" -> 13'1"
Ashley Early (current sophomore) 12'10" -> 13'8"
Jen Wade 10'0" -> 12'7"
Couple other sophomores around 12'4" to 12'8"

I may be biased, but if I were a parent, I would seriously consider VT no matter where I am from!

I have to add Scott Slover at Cal Berkeley.

His cohort, Brandon Vance, now coaching Nico Weiler is another terrific vault coach -- not coaching at a college yet -- but would be a terrific addition to any college program.

SlickVT wrote:Well I have to vouch for Bob Phillips at VT.

A good measuring stick for coaches is athlete improvement under their coaching.

Bob's (incomplete) list of athletes the last few years:

High school -> college/postcollegiate

Brian Hunter 15'6" -> 18'4"
Brian Mondschein 15'10" -> 18'2"
Joe Samaniuk 14'0" -> 17'5"
Adam Bingaman 15'6" -> 17'3"
Two foreign studs at 17'9" and 17'6"
Joe Davis (current freshman) 15'10" -> 16'11"
Plus one soph and one freshman at 16'9" and 16'11"

Kelly Phillips (current freshman) Never vaulted in high school -> 13'6"
Erin Mahony 9'0" -> 13'4"
Abbey McGrath 10'0" -> 13'1"
Ashley Early (current sophomore) 12'10" -> 13'8"
Jen Wade 10'0" -> 12'7"
Couple other sophomores around 12'4" to 12'8"

I may be biased, but if I were a parent, I would seriously consider VT no matter where I am from!

I knew VT had put up some numbers, but I had no idea what kind of incoming talent they were getting--those are some very impressive improvements.

and update our 16'9 sophmore to 17' thanks to our last meet

rainbowgirl28 wrote:
Pat Licari - UW
Anthony Curran - UCLA
Larry Berryhill - BYU
Scott Steffan - Air Force (Formerly New Mexico)
Bryan Compton - Arkansas

Add Tommy Boy at Kansas and I like that list. Kansas did have a guy jump 18 and a girl jump 14 this weekend.

Dave Nielsen at Idaho State is great. He coached me from a 16-3 juco transfer to 18-4.5. Ben Allen didn't start vaulting til his 2nd year in college and is a 17+ guy. Paul Litchfield I think was a 14 footer in hs and now has a pr over 18 feet. My brother jumped 13-6 in hs, didn't vault for four years then came to ISU and jumped 17-3ish.

There was also Stacy Dragila who did not vault in high school. She is pretty good.

I am curious to learn about the "extra vaulting" training (i.e. strength and conditioning away from the vault) that all these schools are doing? Is it a product of atmosphere and people, or training, or talent that was just not tapped into in HS...

any thoughts?