David Butler

Biography

Email Coach Butler Widely regarded as one of the top technicians in the world, the "Zen Master of the pole vault," David Butler begins his 25th year as an assistant coach of both the men's and women's pole vaulters at Rice University, where he has produced over 70 conference and NCAA medal winners. Butler brings over 50 years of experience as a pole vaulter, educator, coach, clinician and historian. Most recently, Butler has worked with Alexander Slinkman, who earned First Team All-American honors at the 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships after placing seventh. A year prior, he earned Second Team All-American honors at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships (11th place) and also at the 2023 NCAA Indoor Championships (10th place). Under Butler's guidance, Slinkman has grabbed four C-USA pole vault titles and swept the indoor/outdoor pole vault titles at the conference meets in 2023 while setting a meet record at both (5.39m indoor, 5.43m outdoor). Slinkman was also a 2022 NCAA Outdoor All-American Honorable Mention after an 18th-place finish. So far, out of the many highlights of Butler’s coaching career at Rice, the number one highlight has to be Jason Colwick capturing both the Indoor and Outdoor NCAA Championships in the Pole Vault in 2009. During that campaign Colwick cleared 18-9.25 (5.72) outdoors and 18-7.25 indoors (5.67). These are both school records and were the top marks in the NCAA that year. Colwick, who graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, also posted the