Richard Fox Position: Assistant Coach - Pole Vault Season at SDSU: 17th Season

E-mail Rich Fox at Aztecvaulter@cox.net

Richard Fox enters his 17th season as an assistant coach at San Diego State. In 1996, Fox became a member of the Aztec staff as a volunteer coach knowing the NCAA was going to implement the pole vault for women in 1998. Since then, Fox has brought SDSU to the forefront in collegiate pole-vaulting as one of the nation's premier programs.

Few programs can compare to the continued tradition of having multiple athletes provisionally qualifying for the NCAA championships. Fox is proud of the team concept he has built where the pole vaulters combine to outscore their competitors at the MW championship meets.

Teaching solid technique in the art of the pole vault along with building strength through gymnastics, the weight-room and conditioning are the Aztec's strong points. Fox has coached every athlete on the pole vault Top 10 indoor and outdoor list for SDSU.

Fox also volunteered for seven seasons (1998, 2003-2008) as an assistant cross country coach. During this time Fox has worked with four All-Mountain West runners - Sophia Hawker, Marie Nilsson and Lital Azulay - who earned first team all-MW and all-district honors and Christal Cuadra, who earned second team all-MW accolades. Hawker also competed at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.

Fox's athletes have posted tremendous success over the past 16 years in the pole vault. SDSU pole vaulters have scored 66 all-conference performances, won 13 MWC titles with nine runner-ups, provisionally qualified for the NCAA 49 times and sent athletes 14 times to the national meet, with five earning All-America honors (Aimee Crabtree - 1999, Shayla Balentine - 2005, Erin Asay - 2006i, Stephanie Bagan - 2008, 2008i, Kelsy Hintz - 2011).

The Aztecs have also broken the indoor (12) and outdoor (11) school records and have set both the MWC championship meet (six indoor records & four outdoor meet records) and overall conferene records numerous times.

SDSU currently holds the MW indoor and outdoor all time record, plus the indoor and outdoor MW meet records.

At the MW championships, Fox's athletes have been awarded the Outstanding Female Performance of the Meet on four occasions (2004i - Erin Aasy, 2005i - Shayla Balentine, 2007i & 2010i - Stephanie Bagan).

On an elite and national level, Fox has coached his athletes while competing at the USA National Track and Field Championships a combined 19 times. Two Aztecs competed at the 2000 Olympic Trials, placing fifth and 12th, and two competed at the 2008 Olympic Trials, placing 26th and 12th.

Four of his freshman athletes have qualified for the Junior National meet. One collegiate vaulter held the No. 1 vault mark for the outdoor season (Shayla Balentine - 2005).

SDSU athletes post one of the strongest indoor and outdoor top-10 lists in America. During his tenure Fox coached the fifth collegiate all-time vaulter to reach the 13-foot barrier and the 14th, 16th and 26th collegiate vaulter to reach the 14-foot mark. At the time, Balentine held the ninth-best mark in the NCAA, Bagan held the No. 7 all-time NCAA mark and Erin Asay had the 11th-best all-time mark for indoors.

The SDSU vaulters are ranked as the third-best program in the nation for producing 14 footers. They were the first team in the nation to produce three different 14-foot vaulters (Balentine, Asay and Bagan).

In addition, the Aztec pole vault squad ranks as the third-best program for producing individual NCAA All-Americans. The Aztec pole vaulters also posted the third-strongest top 10 all-time performance records among the nation's great colleges for the most vaulters over 13-feet.

SDSU has had 13 pole vault champions (indoor and outdoor) at the MW championships, 10 more than the current second-place team New Mexico (three).

Prior to joining the Aztec staff, Fox coached the pole vault for one year at Torrey Pines High School, leading his student-athlete to the school record.

He was a four-year track and field team member and varsity letterwinner at San Diego State from 1988-1992. He is a 1992 graduate of SDSU with a bachelor of science in finance and earned a postgraduate master's degree of criminal justice from Boston University.

Fox was a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for one year and has been with the San Diego Police Department as an officer since 1994. A former member of the SDPD SWAT Team, Fox now works as a Sergeant out of the Northwestern Division (Del Mar/Carmel Valley area).

Fox is a certified member as a USATF official and volunteers as a pole vault official at the CIF Championships each year. Fox completed an open 5K road run in 17:16 and continues to run for the police department Baker to Vegas relay team. He has also competed in the triathlon and the decathlon at the Police & Fire Games. Games.

Fox lives in San Diego with his wife, Ginger, and their 3-year old son, Garrett.