Mark Vanderville - Track and Field Coach - University of Oregon Athletics

Mark Vanderville

Title:
Assistant Coach (Pole Vault)
Email:
pvcoach@uoregon.edu

Now in his ninth season as a volunteer assistant coach for the Oregon Track and Field team, Vanderville oversees the Ducks’ pole vault crew.

Under his guidance between 2000 and 2006, the Oregon vaulters collected three NCAA titles, five other national top-five finishes, nine All-America honors and 20 NCAA appearances. At the conference level, nine different Ducks scored at the conference meet including two wins and a pair of runner-up finishes.

Vanderville helped lead the storied careers of UO greats Tommy Skipper and Becky Holliday, both NCAA champions during his first coaching stint with the program.

In 2005, Skipper won his second NCAA title, a triumph at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Arkansas. That same year, he finished second at the U.S. Indoor Championships with a sixth clearance of 18 feet or better during the indoor season.

Vanderville also tutored Skipper during a magical 2004 season that resulted in his first NCAA title, an outdoor victory behind an 18-8.25 clearance in Austin, Texas. Earlier that season, Skipper broke the outdoor conference record with a winning mark of 18-10.25 at the NCAA West Regional. He also won the Pac-10 title that year. At season’s end, Skipper was first in the NCAA, 11^th in the United States and 21^st in the world rankings.

Holiday soared to a then-collegiate record of 14-8 at the 2003 NCAA West Regional. That mark still stands atop the UO top-10 list. She also posted meet records on her way to NCAA (14-5) and Pac-10 (14-6) titles. After the season, she tied for third at the U.S. Championships and competed in the preliminary round of the World Championships in France.

Vanderville also established a depth within the UO vaulters group. In 2004, he led three UO women to the NCAA Championships which tied for the most nationally in the women’s competition. In addition to Holliday, Vanderville coached Niki (Reed) McEwen over 14 feet during the 2003 season. She finished her career with a best of 14-1.25, a clearance that remains third on the UO indoor list.

On the men’s side, Vanderville had another 18-foot vaulter in Trevor Woods who cleared the milestone in 2002 and still ranks among the top five in program history. Collectively, seven of Vanderville’s athletes have maintained their top-10 status in Oregon history including school-record holders Holliday and Skipper.

Vanderville returned to his role on the coaching staff ahead of the 2022 indoor and outdoor seasons, and is back for his ninth overall season with the Ducks for the 2022-23 campaign.

Along with his 19 years of collegiate and post-collegiate experience in competition, Vanderville also draws on the experience of being coached by and working with two of the area’s most respected pole vault coaches in Andrzej Kresinksi and Dan West.

Vanderville’s career as a Duck began as a student-athlete in 1990. As a junior transfer from Highline Community College, he finished as the Pac-10 runner-up to UO teammate Brian Cullen. Vanderville finished his career with a collegiate best of 17-6, a mark that ranked seventh on the program’s top-10 list at the time. He improved to a lifetime best of 17-8.5 during his post-collegiate career.

Away from the track, Vanderville finished a 26-year career with the Eugene/Springfield Fire Department and retired at the rank of Captain at Station 1 in Downtown Eugene. He and his wife, Carol, have two grown children, daughter Shaye and son Aiden.