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Q&A with Jeff Pflaumbaum, Throws Coach

Jeff Pflaumbaum is in his second year as the throws coach for North Dakota State University.

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Jeff Pflaumbaum is in his second year as the throws coach for North Dakota State University. He has spent 15 years coaching the throwing events and working with multi-events athletes in the throws at the Division I, Division III and high school levels. In his 10 years of collegiate coaching, Pflaumbaum has coached 38 conference champions, 63 all-conference performers, and 90 podium finishers. Additionally, he has coached nine All-Americans and two U20 national champions.

In his first year at NDSU, Coach Pflaumbaum guided the Bison throwers to 11 individual Summit League titles, 4 Summit League runners-up, 13 NCAA West Region qualifying marks, and two All-American accolades. The Bison throwers also added 13 new marks to the NDSU Top-10 list.

 

Additionally, Amanda Anderson (discus) established a new school record and qualified for the USATF Championships along with Kari Wolfe (javelin). Kaden Pastian (shot put, discus) and Sam Roller (javelin) qualified for the US U20 Championships. During the indoor season, Trevor Otterdahl (weight throw) earned All-American honors, finishing fifth at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

In 2021, Pflaumbaum coached Marc Anthony Minichello in the men’s javelin to an Olympic Trials final, where he finished fourth.

Prior to the COVID-19 cancelation of 2020, Coach Pflaumbaum concluded four years as the throws coach at the University of Pennsylvania, leading one of the most accomplished periods in Ivy League throws history. At Penn, Pflaumbaum coached six All-Americans, 19 NCAA East Region qualifiers, 12 individual Ivy League titles, 10 Ivy League runners-up, two U20 individual national titles, nine Top-10 All-Time Ivy League performances, and 33 Top-10 All-Time Penn performances. Pflaumbaum also had student-athletes establish new school records in seven of the twelve throwing events. Penn Throws scored in 39 of 40 events at the Ivy League Championship during Pflaumbaum’s tenure. In 2018, he was named USTFCCCA Women’s Mid-Atlantic Assistant Coach of the Year.

Preceding Penn, Pflaumbaum spent three years as the throws coach at Lehigh University. During his time with the Mountain Hawks, he led three student-athletes to individual Patriot League titles as well as two Patriot League runners-up in 2016 (women’s weight throw, women’s discus) and one in 2014 (men’s discus). Pflaumbaum also worked with the multi-events athletes in the throws. In those three years at Lehigh, the multis accounted for eight individual Patriot League titles.

In 2013, Coach Pflaumbaum served as throws coach and team strength coach at Swarthmore College. In that year, his athletes claimed three podium performances at the Centennial Conference Championship, won an individual Centennial Conference title (women’s discus), and broke four school records.

Prior to Swarthmore, Pflaumbaum was the throws coach at Temple University where he led student-athletes to three individual Atlantic-10 Conference titles (women’s indoor shot put, women’s outdoor shot put and women’s discus) as well as Atlantic-10 runner-up in the women’s outdoor shot put. Additionally, he guided qualifiers to the NCAA East Regionals and U20 Nationals. Three of Temple’s school records were broken during that year. At the season’s conclusion, one of his athletes garnered A-10 Rookie of the Year honors.

Coach Pflaumbaum began his coaching career at St John’s Prep in Danvers, Mass., serving as their throws coach for four years. Simultaneously, he was the head cross country coach at Gann Academy for three years, claiming two conference team titles.

As a thrower at NC State, Pflaumbaum was an All-ACC honoree (discus) and an NCAA provisional qualifier (weight throw). Following his collegiate career, he earned four submasters All-American accolades (shot-put). He holds a B.A. in Religion with a Classical Greek minor from N.C. State and a B.M. in Contemporary Writing from The Berklee College of Music.

-From GoBison.com

Q&A with Jeff Pflaumbaum, Throws Coach

Q: Who from your group are you expecting big things from this season?

A: Most of them, to be honest. Probably at the top would be Trevor Otterdahl. I would say Trevor and Benji Phillips are definitely contenders for making it to the national meet. And then we’ve probably got another level of people that are probably right in that gray area of making the jump as well. But, I think we have a group of throwers that are pretty motivated to take a step forward.

Q: What do you think has been the key to your group’s outstanding success over the last few years?

A: I think the culture of the team. You know, I think a big part of it should be attributed to Coach Don Larson and the environment that he created and then the decade that coach Justin Sinclair was here leading the throws.

Q&A with Jeff Pflaumbaum, Throws Coach
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