Email: andreadl@gvsu.edu
Lou Andreadis is in his 16th season at Grand Valley as associate head coach for track and field and in his 24th season with the program entering the 2024-25 academic year. Andreadis' experience is a valuable resource to the Laker program and will also reunite Andreadis with head coach Jerry Baltes as they coached together at Butler University in Indiana.
Lou's main responsibilities are to work with the Laker pole vaulters and handle all multi-event scheduling for the combined events.
At Grand Valley State, Andreadis has developed a solid vault program which has seen 71 All-American honors and seven NCAA Division II National Champion pole vault performances in eleven years and set both men's and women's school records. His vaulters average a fifteen inch improvement over the last seven years. Three vaulters have seen over three feet added to their high school PR's. Under Lou's coaching, Bryant Wilson went from a 14'6" high school vaulter to clearing 18'0.5" (5.50m) in 2009 and competing at the USATF National Championship. The same year Dianna Noonan, a 12'0" high school vaulter, cleared 13'9.25" (4.20m) and also qualified for the USATF Championship.
Andreadis was named the 2012 USTFCCCA Women's Assistant Coach of the Year after Kristen Hixson won both the indoor and outdoor pole vault national championship and Jocelyn Kuksa finished second (outdoor) and third (indoor) at the NCAA Division II National Championships.
Andreadis has coached three pole vaulters to seven total NCAA Division II National Championship performances. Bryant Wilson won the indoor and outdoor event in both 2007 and 2008, while Kristen Hixson won both the indoor and outdoor events in 2012, and Jaime Roberts won the indoor event in 2016.
Coach Lou has also put together one of the largest pole selections in the entire country. Over $50,000 has been spent in poles alone to fill out complete series of poles from 12'6-16'1. He also helped design the lay-out for the two raised runways used at GVSU's indoor facility.
Andreadis graduated from Butler in 1996 with a degree in Secondary Education. Lou stayed at Butler and worked for four years as assistant coach for track and field and football as well as a part-time teacher at an Indianapolis grade school, IHM. In 2001 he was the head girls track and assistant football coach at his alma mater, Anderson High School in Cincinnati, Ohio.
2015 Media Guide (Before Instagram) 2016 Pole Vault Magazine
