Derrick Vicars - Track and Field Coach - Michigan State University Athletics

Derrick Vicars

Title:
Assistant Coach - Throws
Email:
vicarsde@msu.edu

Derrick Vicars joined the Spartan track & field staff as an assistant coach in August of 2023.

Vicars arrives in East Lansing as the assistant coach for throws after one year as the throws coach at Pittsburgh. Prior to his stint at Pitt, he spent six seasons as the throws coach at Bowling Green and three seasons as the throws coach at his alma mater, the University of Findlay.

During the 2022-23 season at Pittsburgh, Vicars coached three NCAA East Preliminary qualifiers and five podium finishers at the ACC Championships. In his six seasons at Bowling Green, he coached 12 NCAA East Preliminary qualifiers, nine NCAA All-Americans and 10 Mid-American Conference champions. Vicars' athletes also saw success on the USA Track & Field and international stages, where he was responsible for two USA Track & Field Championship qualifiers, three USA Track & Field U20 Championship qualifiers, one FISU World Games qualifier, one NACAC qualifier and a Commonwealth Games qualifier.

At Findlay, Vicars coached 27 Division II All-Americans, nine conference champions, four national champions, four national runner-ups and an FISU World Games qualifier.

Before entering the collegiate coaching ranks, Vicars was a standout thrower at Findlay and post-collegiately. He was an 11-time NCAA Division II All-American as well as an NCAA champion in the discus in 2010 and shot put in 2012 and qualified for the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Trials in the shot put.

Vicars has earned several awards during his collegiate coaching career, including being named the MAC Indoor Assistant Coach of the Year and Great Lakes Region Indoor Assistant Coach of the Year in 2018 while at Bowling Green, as well as earning Indoor and Outdoor National Men's Assistant Coach of the Year and Midwest Region Men's Assistant Coach of the Year honors in 2015 at Findlay.

A native of Geneva, Ohio, Vicars earned his bachelor's degree as an intervention specialist major in 2013 and his master's degree in education in 2015 from Findlay. Vicars and his wife, Jennifer, have two children, Kamryn and Wells.