Mark Heard enters his third year with Southern Nazarene with a combined 39 years of coaching experience at the collegiate and high school levels. At SNU, Heard’s coaching duties will be the pole vault, his area of expertise, as well as assisting in other areas as needed.
Prior to joining Southern Nazarene, Heard spent 15 years at Oklahoma Baptist where he served as an assistant coach in multiple discipline areas. His student-athletes contributed to 7 NAIA National Championship, 8 NCCAA National Championship and 10 NAIA Runner-Up team titles. Heard’s athletes earned collegiate national championships in the pole vault, long jump, triple jump, high jump, heptathlon and decathlon as well as dozens of individual All-American honors.
Heard also coached at the high school level for 29 years in Oklahoma at Shawnee and Elk City High Schools. Heard’s honors include being named Oklahoma Track Coaches Coach of the Year in 1995, 1997, 2005; Oklahoma All-Star Boys Jumps Coach in 1995; and Oklahoma All-Star Boys Head Coach 1996. In 2000 Heard was inducted into the Oklahoma High School Track Coaches Hall of Fame.
As an assistant at Shawnee his athletes helped the Wolves win 2 Girls State Championship Track & Field team titles. Heard coached the first girls trio in Oklahoma high school history to a 1-2-3 sweep in the pole vault (5A State Meet 2008). Athletes under Heard’s guidance earned multiple State Championship titles and podium appearances while at Shawnee.
As a head coach in Elk City, Heard's Track & Field and Cross Country teams took home 9 state champion and 8 state runner-up team titles. ECHS athletes garnished 36 individual state championships in 13 different events. The pole vaulters earned 14 state champion titles, including a 1-2-3 sweep (3A State Meet 2001) as well as establishing a 9 year winning streak, at that time the longest streak in the nation.
Mark is married to his wife, Betty, they have two sons; Jarrod and Sean.
