Rick Attig is in his sixth season Ichabod track and field coaching staff joining Washburn on July 6, 2016. While at Washburn he has coached 13 All-Americans in the pole vault and three in the high jump.
Attig joined the Ichabod staff just prior to the first season of competition for the newly reinstated program at Washburn, and will focus his efforts primarily with field and multi-events. Prior to joining Washburn, Attig was the head track coach and assistant cross country coach at Blue Valley North High School in Overland Park, Kan., where coached since 2006, but brings to Washburn over two decades of NCAA Division I experience between stops at the University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska.
In his most recent spot, Attig coached the high school boy's pole vault national record holder (5.61 meters) and in his two years of running Xtreme Athletics club, his athletes have broken four state high school pole vault records (Kansas and Missouri boys and girls).
An assistant coach at UNL from 2001 to 2005, Attig coached and recruited pole-vaulters, heptathletes and decathletes and coached two NCAA National Champions, one USA National Junior Champion, 15 NCAA All-Americans and 13 Big 12 Champions.
Prior to UNL, Attig served as Assistant Track Coach at KU from 1984 to 2000 where he instructed 33 All-Americans, 34 Big 8/12 Champions, four USA National Championships and three Pan American Champions. In addition, KU athletes under Attig's teaching set two NCAA Records, eight Big 8/12 Records and one American Record (Scott Huffman, 19'7"). Attig had one pole-vaulter earn a spot on the 1996 Olympic Team and his student-athletes held the No. 1 United States ranking in 1993, 1995 and 1996.
On the national stage, Attig served as the USA Track & Field National Pole Vault Coach from 1990 to 1996 and was an assistant coach for the 1989 Olympic Sports Festive for the jumping events. He was the North Region Javelin Development Chairman from 1980 to 1984, and wrote the USA Track & Field Pole Vault Manual in addition to being published several times in numerous track and field journals.
A native of Murphysboro, Ill., Attig earned his Bachelor's of Science in Secondary Education from Southeast Missouri State and picked up his Master's Degree in teaching Physical Education from Southeast Missouri State in 1978., where he was a four-year letterman and team captain in both football and track. He was inducted into the Southeast Missouri State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003 for his contributions to the program as a student-athlete. He then coached at Cape Girardeau Central (Mo.) High School for two seasons and at Raytown (Mo.) South High School for seven seasons before joining the Kansas staff in 1984.
His wife, Stephanie, is a chemistry teacher at Blue Valley North High School, and they have two children, Garrett and Marci, who both live in Overbrook, Kan.
