Kris Allison, Director and Head Pole Vault Coach

• 18 years of experience in the pole vault
• 2-time NCAA Conference Champion
• Has coached numerous District, Regional, State, Conference, and National Champions at the Jr. High, High
  School, College, and Elite Levels
• Studied directly under world class mentors including Vitaly Petrov, coach of World Record Holders Sergey Bubka
  and Yelena Isinbayeva, Earl Bell, Don Hood, Bubba Sparks, David Butler, and Dr. Peter McGinnis.
• USA Track and Field Certified Coach
• Selected by United States Olympic Committee in 2004 to be the Head Clinician at the highly-acclaimed Women's
  Junior Elite Track and Field camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California.

Kris M. Allison is the owner and head coach of the Lone Star Pole Vaulting Club in New Braunfels, TX. He earned a BA in Secondary Education from the State University of New York College at Cortland in 1998. Since then, Allison has had an active role in the pole vault in the United States as an athlete, coach, consultant, and official.
Having taken up the event of pole vaulting as a pre-teen, Kris Allison regularly competed all through the Jr. High, High School, College, Post-Collegiate, and now Masters levels. After joining and competing for the Austin, TX-based Lone Star Pole Vaulting Club from 1999-2000, Allison was encouraged by his coach Brian Elmore to branch off of the club and provide coaching and training opportunities for South Central Texas youth wanting to learn to pole vault. In 2001 Kris made it official and departed his high school teaching career to head up Lone Star Pole Vaulting as a full-time venture.

In his six years running the club from his backyard facility, Allison has coached thirteen Texas high school state champions in the pole vault and had one of his female vaulters set the girls' state record seven times en route to becoming the first high school girl in the state of Texas to clear both 12 feet and 13 feet, winning the Texas 5A State Meet twice in the process. Allison has had one high school male jump 17 feet, with two other males over 16', while one female jumped over 13 feet and seven other females over 12'. He has had several of his youth club vaulters compete in the Nike Indoor and Outdoor Championships, USATF Junior Nationals, the USATF and AAU National Junior Olympics, and the Great Southwest Championships, with his athlete's earning 3 National Championship gold medals. Several of Allison's masters-level vaulters regularly compete and medal at the National Senior Games and USATF Masters National Championships.

In addition to his club athletes, Kris has done extensive coaching at the collegiate level. Trinity University enjoyed Allison's coaching from 2001-2004 with Trinity pole vaulters winning three SCAC Conference Championship titles during that time. In 2003, Allison was also at Southwest Texas State (SWT) where his vaulters scored among the top 3 finishers in both the Indoor and Outdoor Southland Conference Championships, and all 3 of his vaulters qualified for the NCAA Division I Midwest Regional Championship, with his best vaulter advancing to the NCAA National Championship as an 18'+ vaulter. In 2004 Allison took a hiatus from SWT to work with the vaulters at Texas Lutheran University where both of his vaulters scored in the American Southwest Conference Championships, and he has had a vaulter score in or win that conference each year since. From 2005-2007 Allison coached at Texas State University-San Marcos (formerly SWT) and had numerous athletes score at the Southland Conference Championships with three qualifying for the NCAA Midwest Regionals.

From 2002-2003, Allison coached former Olympic Trials finalist and NAIA national champion Lesa Kubishta, whose personal record was 14'4. He continues to work with some of the nation's promising up-and-coming “Emerging Elite” post-collegiate vaulters.

Kris is a USATF Level 1 and Pole Vault Safety Certification Board (PVSCB) certified coach as well as a USATF certified official. In July 2004, he served as the head pole vault clinician at the prestigious USATF/USOC Women's Junior Elite Training Camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California.

As a Division III student-athlete himself, Allison was a two-time SUNYAC Champion in the pole vault at the State University of New York at Cortland, and graduated in 1998.

Allison currently resides in New Braunfels, Texas with his wife, Kristalyn, and they are currently expecting their first pole vaulter. He is currently training two hopefuls for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.