Carlyle and Gwacham Head to NCAA Track and Field West Regional
John Radetich is entering his fourth season as the high jumps coach for the Oregon State track and field program.
During his coaching career in the Orange and Black, Radetich has helped guide a pair of the school's all-time best high jumpers. In 2010, he tutored Jordan Bishop into becoming the first All-American for the Oregon State track program since Karl Van Calcar (3,000-meter steeplechase) and John Thomas (hammer) in 1988. Bishop's jump of 7-1 ½ at the 2010 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships placed him 6th in Oregon State history.
That same year, high jumper Obum Gwacham cleared 7-1 ¾ at the Oregon Preview and in 2012 Gwacham cleared 7-1 ½ at the Pac-12 Championships.
Radetich was a coach at Linn Benton Community College and Oregon State in the 1970s. He also has coached at South Albany High School, West Albany High School and Philomath High School. He worked for the Boys and Girls Club of Albany for 29 years and had over 300 grade school and middle school track athletes in his program each year.
Radetich was one of three seven-foot high jumpers enrolled at Oregon State while getting his degree, which was the first school to have three seven-foot high jumpers enrolled at the same time. He was the Pac-8 high jump champion in 1970. After college, he was the first high jumper to clear seven feet using both the straddle and the flop techniques. In 1973, Radetich set the indoor world record in the first professional track and field meet in Pocatello, Idaho, which was the first world record for the Fosbury Flop.
