Mark Vanderville Article

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/ ... .0403.html

Raising the bar part of his job

By Curtis Anderson 
The Register-Guard
 

The height is already there.

Nobody can speak to the veracity of that statement better than Mark Vanderville, a full-time firefighter for the city of Eugene, who is beginning his sixth season as a volunteer assistant coach with the Oregon track and field program.

As the current mentor of the UO men's and women's pole vault crew, Vanderville has a ringside seat to the ongoing development of sophomore Tommy Skipper, who broke the school record in the pole vault as a freshman in his third meet as a Duck.

While Skipper has since raised the bar to a personal best of 18 feet, 10 1/4 inches, pocketed two NCAA titles and competed in the Olympic Trials, Vanderville was equally impressed by watching him consistently soar over 19 feet during several meets during the recent indoor season.

Mark Vanderville (in white shirt) will work with UO vaulters (from left) Emily Enders, Jon Derby, Tommy Skipper and Hannah Moore.

Photo: Thomas Boyd / The Register-Guard

Granted, none of those jumps resulted in a clearance, but as Vanderville noted, the "height is there."

"I've coached for a long time, and when you watch people jump, you can tell when they're about to PR and jump high," he said. "They won't make bars, but they'll be 3, 4, 5 inches over the bar, and coming down on it or hitting it with their leg. The height is there, then all of a sudden they make it, and that's how people progress.

"Tommy has been at 19 feet throughout the indoor season and he has been 6 inches over 19 feet in five meets this year, so you can see that he's jumping 19-6 ... it's just a matter of time before he takes that next step."

Don't look for Skipper at Saturday's Pepsi Team Invitational, however, when the Ducks take on Indiana, Washington and Missouri in four-way meet at Hayward Field.

His outdoor season debut has been delayed an estimated four to six weeks following successful arthroscopic surgery on March 21 to repair a small tear in the medial meniscus of his left knee.

Depending upon his recuperative powers, Skipper could return sooner than anticipated. But no matter when he starts competing again, Vanderville expects his star pupil to be at full strength for the big meets during the second half of the season.

Those would be the Pac-10 championships (May 14-15), West regionals (May 27-28), NCAA championships (June 8-11), Prefontaine Classic (June 4), USA championships (June 23-26) and, possibly, the world championships (Aug. 6-14).

Vanderville can't wait.

"I think Tommy has the potential to be a world record-holder," he said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he jumped for the American record (19-9 1/4 ) this year, and if things go well, I think there might be a meet or two during the year where he takes some shots at the world record (20-1 3/4 ). That wouldn't shock me."

Of course, it takes a lot to shock a firefighter.

Vanderville, who competed at Oregon for two seasons (1990, '91) after transferring from Highline Community College, became a volunteer firefighter in Goshen as he finished up his physical education degree in 1992.

He enjoyed the experience so much that he decided to pursue firefighting as a career.

"I was running on calls with Goshen when I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my degree," he said. "The more training I got, the better I liked it. That's when I started thinking about doing it as a career."

Vanderville was hired as a fire engineer at Station I in downtown Eugene in 1996. Today, his main duties are to drive the department's pumper and ladder truck during a work cycle of 24 hours on and 48 hours off.

"It's a great job," he said. "All the firefighters look after each other because this is our second home. We're at the station for a third of our lives. It's our house and the crew you work with is your family."

Fortunately for the 36-year-old Vanderville, his work schedule allows him to spend quality time with his wife (Carol), and two children (Shaye, 6, and Aiden, 2), while still having the ability to show up for workouts at Hayward Field.

For the past five years, he worked strictly with the female pole vaulters at Oregon, but last spring his responsibilities were expanded to include the male vaulters.

One of his initial chores was persuading Skipper that despite all of his early success - a national prep record and being named the 2003 Track & Field News boys athlete of the year - there were still aspects to his jump that needed to be addressed.

"I told him we needed to change some things and he was open to it right away," said Vanderville, who has been coached by and worked with two of the area's most respected pole vault coaches, Dan West and Andrzej Krzesinski. "That says a lot about Tommy. He accepted the changes in technique and it has paid off. We still have more to do, but he knows we're headed in the right direction."

The same holds true for the rest of the UO vaulters.

On the women's side, the Ducks have two NCAA veterans in sophomore Emily Enders of Snohomish, Wash., and junior Hannah Moore, of Reno, Nev.

Enders established her PR of 13-2 1/4 with a fifth-place performance at the Pac-10 meet last season. She tied for fifth at West Regionals to earn a berth at the NCAA meet, where she finished in a tie for 15th. Moore, who redshirted last season, has an indoor PR of 13-5 and outdoor best of 12-9 1/2 . She competed in the 2004 NCAA indoor meet.

"We'd like to get both of these girls into the outdoor national meet this year," Vanderville said. "I think they can do that if they keep improving."

Vanderville's other two athletes are junior Jon Derby and sophomore David Moore.

Derby, a walk-on from North Bend, had a solid indoor season with a 17-6 1/2 clearance to qualify for nationals. Vanderville said Derby's goals for the upcoming season include jumping 18 feet and earning an NCAA outdoor berth. Moore, of Orinda, Calif., was a redshirt during the indoor season and has a PR of 16-8 3/4 .

[USMC Vaulter]

"I wouldn't be surprised if he jumped for the American record (19-9 1/4 ) this year, and if things go well, I think there might be a meet or two during the year where he takes some shots at the world record (20-1 3/4 )"

Not to diminish any of Tommy's achievements or to claim that he is anything other than a phenominal vaulter - but does anyone think that this is a bit of a stretch?

[VaultBrad]

i think it may be a stretch for this year, but tommy definately has the potential.

[USMC Vaulter]

Oh yeah - dont get me wrong, I can definitely see the potential there - I just meant that I dont see it this season - especially coming back from surgery.

[lonestar]

There's a big difference between 5.80 and 6.04. Not impossible, but largely improbable.

[USMC Vaulter]

There's a big difference between 5.80 and 6.04. Not impossible, but largely improbable.

He said it better than me

[baggettpv]

High School:
Mark Vanderville , Kentridge Hi (2nd in state) Then Highline CC, then Uof O
Pat Licari, Sumner High(won state), Highline CC, then WSU
Both trained with our group in Kent with Garth Willard (18'6), Ron Johnson (18') and others in the '80's.
Both end up coaching in their area.
Mark has NCAA winners Becky Holiday, Clackamas CC 14'4" and Tommy Skipper, 18'3" Sandy
Pat has NCAA 2nd place (twice) Kate Soma, Grant High and Brad Walker (Spokane and the coaching group there!! very good), Ashley Wildhaber, Stevie Marshelak. With Carly Dockendorff coming from gymnastics and many NCAA titles in that sport.

Got some fun stories up here in the NW.... All influenced by Andjei who no one could understand....

Rick