Steve Luke enters his second season with the Redbirds serving as an assistant coach with the pole vaulters. Despite only joining the staff in January 2024, the Redbird pole vaulters improved significantly under Luke’s guidance.
In her junior year with Illinois State, vaulter Windsor Roberts secure the MVC Indoor Pole Vault title with a mark of 4.09m (13’ 5”). Roberts’ vault was also enough to set a new school indoor record.
As a sophomore, Charles Cruse won the Drake Relays title with a vault of 5.27,m (17’ 3.5”). Cruse’s effort was enough to see him set the new school outdoor record. Under Luke, Cruse earned All-MVC honors and qualified for the NCAA West Regionals.
An Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame nominee, Luke brings over 30 years of coaching experience after previously working at Purdue, Illinois, and Wabash College. Throughout his coaching career, Luke has helped several athletes reach new heights in their athletic careers.
During his tenure at Purdue, the Boilermakers vaulters recorded the highest clearances in recent history. In the 2022-23 season, Luke coached his vaulters to a Big Ten Championships podium finish. Luke helped Jessica Bray record her first career top-eight finish, while Danny Affleck tallied the highest vault clearances for both indoor and outdoor since 2015. Affleck also became the first Boilermaker to clear a bar at the Big Ten title meet since 2013 under Luke’s guidance
In his first year as an assistant at Purdue, the Boilermakers saw instant success under Luke’s guidance. Luke helped guide Isaiah Martin to a ninth-place finish at the NCAA Championships and Second Team All-American honors. In a career-best finish, Martin tied a school record mark of 7,708 points to collect his fifth career All-American accolade and Martin’s first since 2019. Under Luke’s direction, Jessica Bray recorded her second consecutive trip to the NCAA East Preliminary Round after a 4.21m clear, which ranks third in Purdue’s indoor history and the Boilermakers highest mark since 2010.
Luke previously served as an assistant at Wabash College, where the coaching staff was named the NCAC Staff of the Year. During his time at Wabash, he coached an athlete to All-NCAC honors. In 2021, Luke also coached Paraguayan Olympian Cami Perelli-Cubas on her path to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she competed in the 100-meter hurdles.
Prior to jumping to the collegiate level, Luke built an illustrious career as a high school coach. His coaching career began at Waubbonsie Valley High School in Aurora, Illinois, where he led the program for 17 years. He later returned to his home town of Danvillie, Illinois to lead the Danville High School program for 13 seasons. Throughout his time at the high school level, Luke coached five individual State Champions, a Relay State title winner, and 57 All-State honorees. Luke was also at the helm for numerous conference and regional championship-winning teams and state qualifiers.
Luke has had a large influence on many athletes as numerous have gone on to have successful careers at the NCAA Division I level and claimed Big Ten, MAC, Big East, and OVC Conference titles. Luke’s athletes have also gone on to serve as coaches at the high school and collegiate level, including Ceith Creekmur at Michigan State and Mike Bina at Texas A&M.
In his time at the high school, Luke was nominated twice for the ITCCCA Head Coach of the Year award and recently was nominated to the ITCCCA Hall of Fame by his colleagues.
Luke attended Augustana College and competed in the pole vault while also playing football. He qualified for the NCAA Division III national championships in both 1979 and 1980 and earned All-CCIW accolades. Luke's collegiate career began at Western Illinois University, where he set the school pole vault record booth indoors and outdoors and made the NCAA Division II national meet as a sophomore.
A native of Danville, Illinois, Luke held the Danville High pole vault record for 27 years before it was broken by two of his own athletes.
