Buller gets one more shot.

Byline: Curtis Anderson The Register-Guard

TRACK AND FIELD

Russ Buller was only 25 years old when he became the head coach of the McNeese State University track and field program in his hometown of Lake Charles, La., in the spring of 2004.

The two-time NCAA pole vault champion at LSU - indoors and outdoors in 2000 - thought he had it made.

Buller was earning a good wage, he loved the student-athletes that he interacted with on a day-to-day basis, and he was still in the honeymoon phase of his marriage to Canadian pole vaulter Dana Ellis.

But something was missing.

When he came home to Lake Charles after coaching his wife to a sixth-place finish at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, he was feeling a bit depressed from having to watch it all unfold from the stands.

It took the wisdom of his younger brother, Jordan, to set him straight.

One day in the fall of 2004, as Russ Buller was giving his brother a ride home, he began to lecture the former all-state quarterback about getting his life back in order.

Jordan Buller had been accepted into the Air Force Academy to play football, but asthma kept him out of the service, and he spent one unhappy season at Southern Arkansas before coming home and enrolling at McNeese State.

`Being his big brother, I was always on his case,' said Russ Buller, one of six pole vaulters who have cleared 19 feet or better and will compete at the Road to Eugene '08 track and field meet at Hayward Field on Tuesday.

`I jumped on him (that day) and he looked at me and said, `Don't worry about me ... you need to worry about yourself. You're not happy here. You need to get back doing what you want to do, and that's pole vaulting full-time again. You need to get back to the (Olympic) training center in San Diego.' '

At first, Russ Buller let the comment slide. But a couple of weeks later, on a rain-slicked road early in the morning, Jordan Buller was killed in a car accident less than a mile from his destination. He was on his way to a local club to pick up some friends who were too drunk to drive.

`I was very shook up (by) his death,' Russ Buller said. `(Jordan) was the closest person to me and to lose him was numbing. It made me look outside myself and rethink my life.'

A few months later, with his brothers' words still echoing inside his head, Buller and his wife came to a very difficult decision.

He would resign as head coach at McNeese State and they would move to the Olympic Training Center in San Diego, where he would attempt to breathe new life into his pole vault career.

It was a painful move. Not only was Buller leaving a great job and a rapidly improving team, he also was saying goodbye to his family in Lake Charles, including a 17-year-old sister and a 9-year-old brother.

It didn't help matters that, shortly after arriving in San Diego in April of 2005, he injured himself while competing overseas, and he was forced to prematurely shut down his season.

`It really got me wondering if I was doing the right thing,' Buller said. `But when I got back into it full-time, I promised myself to have fun and enjoy these next few years.

`After what I went through with my brother, pole vaulting is the least of my concerns in my life. I look at pole vaulting now as just a fun time in my life before I have kids and live a regular working life.'

It seems the 27-year-old Buller has stumbled upon the right approach.

He has closely monitored the careers of other elite U.S. pole vaulters - such as Jeff Hartwig, Tim Mack, Nick Hysong and Derek Miles - and the common denominator among them was that they all got better with age.

Buller, by his own admission, hasn't had a great season in the pole vault since making the World Championship team in 2001. This year, he knew patience would be the key. He needed to let things happen instead of forcing them to happen.

His first positive result - other than practice sessions - was a clearance of 19- 1/2 at a meet in May that showcased all of the top Americans at the training center in San Diego. Buller then chose to rest his body and forgo appearances at the Prefontaine Classic and a trip to Europe to be at peak form for the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Indianapolis.

It was there that he had his breakthrough performance.

Nobody was more surprised than Buller when he captured his first national title with a clearance of 19- 1/4 , outlasting 2004 Olympic silver medalist and training partner Toby Stevenson by one single miss.

`It's something I'll carry with me for the rest of my life,' said Buller, who dedicated the victory to his late brother, Jordan, in an emotional speech to the media following his triumph.

The next step for Buller comes Tuesday when he competes at Hayward Field as a tune-up for the World Cup in September. The meet is scheduled to start at 6:25 p.m.

He expects to see some familiar faces, led by Brad Walker, the world's top-ranked pole vaulter, who recently cleared 19-8 1/4 at a meet in Germany. Others in the field include Stevenson, Hartwig, Mack and Hysong.

`The atmosphere in Eugene is awesome,' Buller said. `It's one of the best places for a track meet to be held, period, and not just for the pole vault. ... With the next Olympic Trials being held here, this meet should be a great showcase for the fans to see what will be coming up in 2008.'

And if Buller can continue to be patient and make progress, he plans to be a major factor in those festivities.