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Former Virginia Tech All-American Bob Phillips is in his 34th year as coach of the Hokies’ pole vaulters. During that time, the vault program at Virginia Tech has become arguably the best in the ACC and among the best in the nation.

The 2017 season saw another of Phillips’ vaulters capture an ACC championship, as Torben Laidig won the event at the ACC Indoor Championships with a meet-record vault of 5.55 meters (18 feet, 2.5 inches). Deakin Volz finished second, with Brad Johnson and James Steck tying for fourth. The quartet added points to the team total, which led to the Tech men’s team capturing the ACC title – the program’s fourth ACC indoor crown.

Laidig and Volz went on to earn All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships, as Laidig finished sixth to earn first-team honors. Volz came in 10th to earn second-team recognition.

During the 2017 outdoor season, Johnson won a bronze medal at the ACC Outdoor Championships, while Volz came in fifth. Those two played roles in helping the Hokies’ win the league’s outdoor crown – which gave the men’s program a seventh ACC title since 2011. Johnson would go on to earn second-team All-America honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

The 2016 outdoor season may have been the finest in school history for Tech’s vaulters. The Hokies claimed the top seven places in the event at the 2016 ACC Outdoor Championships, accumulating 38 points toward the team total. Chris Uhle won the gold medal, with Laidig finishing second and Volz coming in third. The vaulters’ performances lifted Tech to the outdoor team title.

Volz capped the 2016 season for Tech by winning the gold medal in the pole vault at the IAAF U-20 World Championships held in July in Poland. Volz, who became the first Tech athlete to win a junior world gold medal, set a school record with a vault of 5.65 meters (18 feet, 6.5 inches).

Those successes are simply a continuation of the excellence enjoyed by the Hokies’ vaulters since Phillips took over as the coach of the event. Under him, 14 vaulters have combined to earn 36 All-America honors in the event – all coming since Virginia Tech joined the ACC for the 2004-05 season. Yavgeniy Olhovsky, who attended Tech from 2008-12, is Phillips’ most accomplished vaulter, having earned All-America nods on seven occasions and won three ACC championships.

Phillips’ vaulters have dominated at the conference level. Twenty vaulters have combined to win 41 individual conference titles. Brian Mondschein, who vaulted from 2001-05, won five conference championships, including two in the BIG EAST and three in the ACC, while Martina Schultze, who competed from 2012-14, won five conference crowns, all in the ACC.

Tech’s vaulters have combined to win a total of 30 individual ACC titles – more than all the other schools in the ACC combined. In addition to coaching 20 vaulters who have won conference titles, Phillips also has coached a world champion (Volz), a junior national champion, six NCAA medalists (top 3), two U.S. Olympic Trials qualifiers and two qualifiers to the IAAF World Championships.

As a student-athlete at Tech in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Phillips set the school record in the indoor and outdoor vault during his career. He was a four-time NCAA national qualifier and earned All-America honors in 1980. He also was a member of the U.S. National Team that took on Great Britain in 1984, and he competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials in July that same year.

In addition, Phillips was a three-time Metro Conference, four-time indoor Virginia collegiate and four-time outdoor Virginia collegiate champion. In 1999, Virginia Tech honored Phillips by inducting him into the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as a student-athlete.

Phillips, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, holds three degrees from Virginia Tech. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education, a master’s degree in accountancy, with a concentration in accounting information systems, and a Ph.D. in business administration, with a major in accounting and minors in information systems and finance.