Tom Hays enters his fourth season as the vertical jumps coach at the University of Kansas. Hays is a familiar face to the KU track program. Hays competed for the Jayhawks in the mid-80s before receiving his degree in education in 1989.

In 2007, Hays' athletes made a clean sweep of the outdoor Big 12 pole vault titles as KU boasted both the men's and women's champions. Junior Kate Sultanova became the fourth woman in Jayhawk history to accomplish the feat and freshman Jordan Scott tied the Big 12 record en route to his victory. Scott also won the indoor conference championship in the pole vault as well and was named the 2007 Big 12 Indoor Freshman Performer of the Year and the 2007 Big 12 Outdoor Freshman Co-Perfomer of the Year. Scott became the first male in school history to recieve either distinction. Sultanova went on to earn All-America honors in both the indoor and outdoor pole vault. Additionally, in 2005, Hays coached Sultanova to the outdoor Big 12 championship. Sultanova earned outdoor All-American honors that year with her seventh-place finish at the NCAA Championships and was named the female Big 12 Outdoor Freshman Performer of the Year.

Hays was previously an assistant at Johnson County Community College. At JCCC, Hays was in charge of coaching and recruiting all field events and coached two elite pole vaulters, Andrea Dutoit and Amy Linnen, who both won NCAA pole vault championships and were Olympic trial finalists. Linnen followed Hays to KU where she was the 2005 indoor national champion in the pole vault.

Prior to Johnson County, Hays spent six years as an assistant at the University of Arizona and seven years at Wichita State. In the 1989-90 season, Hays was an assistant at Nevada-Reno.

During his tenure at Arizona, Hays helped develop Arizona's pole vault squad into one of the top teams in the nation. In his six seasons, he coached 15 All-Americans, four national champions, two national runner-ups and two collegiate record holders.

While at Wichita State, Hays coached Missouri Valley Conference champions in the 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters, 800 meters and the 1,500-meter run. His athletes also won conference titles in the 400-meter relay, hammer throw, shot put, javelin, pole vault, triple jump and the decathlon. Wichita's Einers Tupuritis won two NCAA Championships in the 800 meters.

Prior to Wichita, Hays spent one season as an assistant at Nevada-Reno. At UNR, he coached two national qualifiers in the triple jump and one national qualifier in the high jump, while fielding the top jump program in the Big Sky Conference.

In addition to his experience coaching at the collegiate level, Hays has also worked at several elite track and field camps and clinics. In 2002, Hays was the IAAF Event Development Coordinator for the pole vault, working with world record holder Segey Bubka. From 1998-2002, he worked with the Kiss the Sky Vault Camp in Flagstaff, Arizona, and for four years he was a guest coach at the Wallsend Track and Field Club. Hays also served as director of the Shocker vault camp from 1992-97.

A native of McLouth, Kan., Hays earned a B.A. in physical education from KU in 1989. At the prep level, Hays was the Kansas 2A state champion in the pole vault, while setting the state record at 15-0 feet. That season, Hays was also the high school national runner-up, clearing 16-03 feet at the Golden West Championships in Sacramento, Calif.

Hays and his wife Rebecca have four children: Amanda, Ryan, Kevin and Kara.