An impressive group: VolleyballMag’s College Coaching Hotshots list

It’s been since 2019 that VolleyballMag presented a College Coaching Hotshots list.

Just as a ton of new talent has come into the collegiate game in that timeframe, the same holds true on the coaching front, whether it’s veterans of the sport taking their game to the next level or newcomers getting their feet wet.

And as you will see, there is no shortage of coaching talent in NCAA Division I women’s, NCAA Division I-II men, and NCAA collegiate beach programs.

We initially asked sports information directors at the conference level to spread the word to their member institutions to nominate coaches for this list.

They did not disappoint. A big hats off here to the conference-level SIDs for helping get the process started and to the volleyball SIDs at these schools for finishing the job and submitting these up-and-coming coaching hotshots across the three disciplines. In addition to submitting the usual vitals, SIDs were asked to provide a summation as to why folks are worthy of being a Coaching Hotshot.

This list spans the gamut from the veteran unsung heroes, such as Wisconsin’s Gary White and Long Beach State’s Nick MacRae, to brand-new Santa Clara volunteer beach assistant Lance Muret, who by the way, was the final nominee, beating the submission deadline by 22 minutes.

We’ll do this again in 2024, also focusing on some high school and club coaching hotshots.

Tyler Adams, Gavin Watt, Kelsey Campeau
Tennessee Women
Assistant Coaches
Adams has been part of 11 NCAA tournament appearances as an assistant coach and associate head coach, and he’s led the defensive charge for two nationally ranked programs. He serves as the Vols’ defensive coordinator and consistently has teams that rank inside the top three in blocks per set in their conference. Watt has been a part of the rebuild of Tennessee volleyball and has been in charge of the offense since arriving on Rocky Top. The Vols have ranked near the top of the country statistically in offensive categories, and he’s trained multiple all-conference setters. He’s also spearheaded the program’s recruiting. Campeau “has one of the brightest futures of any young coach that I’ve seen, and it’s because of her dedication to this sport, her drive to be a great learner and an abundance of experience and knowledge having been a player,” Tennessee coach Eve Rackham Watt said. “She’s embraced being a young coach and works really hard with our players, and she’s willing to put in the extra hours and do additional field study to grow as a coach.”

Stacey Aldredge
Northwestern State
Associate Head Coach
Aldredge just completed her seventh season on staff after enjoying an accolade-filled playing career at the school in Natchitoches, Louisiana. She also has been a big part of developing high and club talent in the area.

Linsay Allman
Florida State Women
Associate Head Coach
Allman has been at FSU for two seasons. She is the team’s recruiting coordinator and primarily trains the Seminoles’ outside hitters and works on ball control.

Ellen Andrews
Arizona State Women
Assistant Coach
Andrews, the team’s recruiting coordinator, is described by head coach JJ Van Niel as a strong communicator with the ability to connect with players, recruits, club coaches, administrators and everyone else with ease. “Her knowledge of the game is outstanding,” Van Niel said. “With her calm, cool and collected manner, she does a great job thinking strategically both when scouting teams and during matches.”

Johnna Bazzani
Eastern Kentucky Women
Head Coach
Bazzani has completely turned around the EKU program which won five matches before she took over. The Colonels won 11 matches combined in her first two seasons in Richmond. In the last two seasons, Eastern Kentucky has won 36 matches combined, with the rebuild culminating in Bazzani being named ASUN Conference coach of the year after leading the 2023 team to 21 wins (tied for most since 2005), a 13-match winning streak (tied for longest in program history), first national postseason tournament appearance since 2004 (2023 NIVC), first top-three conference finish since 2014 and a program-record seven straight sweeps.

Haylie Clark
Bucknell Women
Assistant Coach
Clark, who played at Elon, joined the Bucknell staff last season and worked with the setters. She was credited with developing Caleigh O’Connell into one of the Patriot League’s best setters. and after she got hurt, setter Laura Caro helped Bucknell in its run to the Patriot League tournament.

LaToya Clark
Alabama State Women
Associate Head Coach
Clark has had 10 seasons under head coach Penny Lucas-White. She plans travel, goes over lineups with coach White, assists in the scouting report, and works with the setters daily. As White noted, Clark goes over and above what an associate head coach should do, but does it with a smile on her face every day.

Alex Dunphy
Stanford Women
Assistant Coach
Dunphy, who just finished her second season at Stanford, works directly with the Cardinal setters, including VolleyballMag.com first-teamer Kami Miner. She also plays a large part in the Stanford recruiting process, including identifying talent, building and maintaining relationships with potential student-athletes and coordinating on-campus visits. “Alex is a tireless worker who brings tremendous experience and knowledge to The Farm,” Stanford coach Kevin Hambly said. “She knows how to recruit to a championship-level program, and has an excellent mind for volleyball.”

Brittnay Estes, Sarah Baldwin
Lipsomb University Women
Assistant Coaches
Estes and Baldwin were both outstanding players and have successfully transferred their passion to the coaching profession. Coach Brandon Rosenthal noted that they love the game, love the Lipscomb players, love their careers, and it reflects itself on a daily basis.

Heather Gearhart
Winthrop Women
Head Coach
After having a rough start to the season (1-10) and nursing multiple injuries, Winthrop responded by going 12-2 in the Big South Conference. The Eagles first made their first postseason appearance since 2019 by competing in the NIVC tournament.

Sarah Gomish
Lehigh Women
Assistant Coach
“Sarah is most definitely an up-and-coming coach. She is passionate about the sport and learning all sides of the game,” Lehigh coach Alexa Keckler said. “She dives into training methods and philosophies, embraces ideas and explores the ‘why’ for getting it right. She is also a person of high standards and toughness, which makes her recruiting and on-court coaching efforts so successful. Coaching with Sarah over the past few years has been a rewarding and enjoyable experience.”

Tyler Hagstrom
Bucknell Women
Head Coach
Hagstrom took over in 2020 and has revitalized the program. Bucknell won 15 matches in back-to-back years, and this season finished second (its highest league ranking since 2003). The team also hosted its first home Patriot League tournament match since 2000, won its first PL libero of the year award, won its second-straight PL rookie of the year award, gained a first-team all-conference member for the first time since 2010, went 2-0 in a PL weekend for the first time since 2005, swept the weekly PL awards for the first time since 2000, and broke Colgate’s 33-match home winning streak.

Taylor Hammond and Spencer Wickens
Stanford Men
Assistant Coaches
Hammond, the team’s recruiting coordinator, came to The Farm after spending the 2023 season as an assistant at UC San Diego. Before his stint with the Tritons, he was the top assistant and recruiting coordinator at Orange Coast College, leading the Pirates to a state championship in 2022. Additionally, Hammond served as an assistant coach for the USA U21 National Team, which won a silver medal at the NORCECA Pan American Cup in Cuba. “Taylor is a great volleyball coach and has a wealth of recruiting experience. He is a very hard worker and incredibly diligent and professional.” Stanford coach John Kosty said. The 24-year-old Wickens is in his first season with Stanford. He previously served as a graduate manager with the Nebraska women’s team in 2022, and was the Volleyball Club Nebraska (VCN) 16 Elite head coach in the spring of 2023. “Spencer brings great energy and passion to our program while enriching our student-athlete experience. I look forward to watching him develop in his career,” Kosty said.

Tyler Hildebrand
Long Beach State Women
Head Coach
In two years, Hildebrand has totaled 40 wins and owns a winning percentage of .678. The former Long Beach State player and men’s assistant coach had two stints as an assistant at Nebraska. This season, Hildebrand guided his team to the program’s first 20-plus-win season since 2016.

David Hunt
Texas Women
Assistant Coach
Hunt brought in a wealth of experience both on the women’s and men’s side after previously serving as the men’s head coach at Pepperdine. Hunt led Pepperdine to the NCAA semifinals in 2019 as head coach and now has been part of back-to-back NCAA women’s titles at Texas.

Merideth Jewell
Kentucky Women
Assistant Coach
Jewell, a 2019 Kentucky graduate, is in her second season as the recruiting coordinator for the Wildcats. She was part of a Kentucky program that won its seventh SEC title in a row. Jewell is responsible for Kentucky’s defense game-planning and leads the team’s film sessions about opponents.

Crissy Jones Schoonderwoerd
Cal Women
2023 Interim Head Coach
Jones Schoonderwoerd, a standout player at Washington who played some pro beach volleyball, was hired as an assistant coach in February 2023 and then took over the program this year at the age of 26 just two weeks before the start of practice. She led Cal to its second winning record in 10 years and its first since 2019. Cal went undefeated in nonconference play and won five Pac-12 matches to finish 16-15 overall, with one more overall win and four more Pac-12 wins than the past three years combined.

Jacob Kerschner
Lewis University Men
Assistant Coach
Kerchner is in his fourth season as a Lewis men’s assistant. A 2023 AVCA Thirty under 30 recipient, Kerschner, along with being a key component to the program’s continued success and development of players. He has helped the Flyers to an MIVA championship and an NCAA national semifinal appearance. Kerschner also has been consistently involved in the USA NTDP pipeline in multiple roles.

Trent Kersten
Loyola Marymount Women
Head Coach
Kersten is a rising coaching star in Division I women’s volleyball. After success at San Jose State, he took over the head coaching position at LMU in 2022 and continued LMU’s success. The Lions finished second in the West Coast Conference and over the last 10 matches, hit .309 as a team and held opponents to a .156 hitting percentage.

Ahen Kim
American University Women
Head Coach
Kim was an assistant at America from 2012-17 for the legendary Barry Goldberg, and he returned as head coach after Goldberg’s passing earlier this year. The former Brown head coach took a team that had been through so much and gone 15-15 in 2022, leading the Eagles to a 20-11 record in 2023 and an appearance in the Patriot League Championship match. There was a tough stretch for a month from early September to early October, but Ahen eventually got the buy-in from the team and the Eagles won nine of their final 11 matches.

Nick MacRae
Long Beach State Men
Associate Head Coach
A part of the Long Beach State men’s program since 2013, MacRae has worked his way up to associate head coach and has helped guide the Beach to 224 wins and a .780 winning percentage. In his time within the program, MacRae has helped Long Beach State to six NCAA semifinal appearances (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023) and helped lead them to two national championships (2018 and 2019).

Luke Maloney
Ohio State Men
Assistant Coach
Ohio State coach Kevin Burch reported that Maloney is constantly thinking of new methods to evolve his coaching, he is innovative and extremely invested in the program, and the athletes believe in his coaching.

Parker Mikesch
North Carolina Women
Assistant Coach
Mikesch, a young assistant at 23, has taken over the Tar Heel defense. Coach Mike Schall noted that Mikesch is a constant source of energy on the sideline and his youth and passion have allowed him to connect with his players and energize them in matches.

Aquiles Montoya
Portand State Women
Associate Head Coach
Montoya has recruited three straight Big Sky Conference newcomers of the year — Makayla Lewis (2021), Madison Friebel (2022) and Lauryn Anderson (2023). The Vikings have made the national postseason in two of his four seasons and made the Big Sky championship match for the first time in nine seasons in 2022.

Rachel Morris and Brett Agne
Indiana Women
Associate Head Coaches
Morris, the team’s recruiting coordinator, helped integrate mental health check-ins, meditation and team-bonding activities, and has taken the keys to the offense and helped develop one of the best young setters in the nation in Camryn Haworth. Agne, the team’s technical coordinator, did not play but has taken on many roles in the game, including tech roles, director of operations and working his way up to an assistant coaching position. He is responsible for scouting Indiana opponents.

Taylor Muff
Eastern Washington Women
Assistant Coach
Muff, also the team’s recruiting coordinator, is a former all-Big Sky selection as an outside hitter at Northern Colorado, where she played for current Eastern Washington head coach Jon Haruguchi. Muff helped develop EWU’s two main hitters, Sage Brustad and Alyssa Radke. EWU qualified for the Big Sky tournament the past two seasons and won its first postseason contest since 2008. Muff helped secure nine newcomers last season (five transfers, four freshmen) and has added three incoming recruits.

Lance Muret
Santa Clara Beach
Volunteer Assistant Coach
Muret is in his first year as a volunteer assistant with the Santa Clara beach program. He was at WAVE Beach juniors volleyball club, based in San Diego for four years, working with the club’s college prep and college alumni programs. WAVE has 30 former players in NCAA Division I beach programs. “He’s done an amazing job here already in his first quarter with us during fall competitions,” Santa Clara head coach Jeff Alzina said.

Gabby Ording
University of the Incarnate Word Women
Head Coach
In her first year at UIW, Ording helped the San Antonio, Texas-based Cardinals break the program record for most regular-season wins with 15. She was the associate head coach at Southeastern Louisiana in 2022 when the Lions won the Southland Conference championship.

Kellen Petrone, Kamalani Akeo, Alicia Roth
Pitt Women
Petrone was promoted to associate head coach after the 2022 season, and with his help, the Panthers brought in their highest recruiting class in program history (No. 8 according to one media outlet). He was named the 2023 AVCA national assistant coach of the year. Akeo set at Pitt and was promoted to assistant coach after being director of operations in 2022. She coached Rachel Fairbanks to 2023 first-team all-ACC, ACC setter of the year and AVCA East Coast region player of the year honors. Roth is in her first season with Pitt after stops at Arkansas State, Mercer, Johnson and Wales (head coach), Northwestern State and Campbell. She primarily works with the Pitt serve-receive and defense.

Eric Plunkett
Gardner-Webb Women
Head Coach
Plunkett was named head coach in May 2021 and took over a program with its fair share of ups and downs. In his third season as a Runnin’ Bulldog, he helped guide Gardner-Webb to its first conference tournament semifinal appearance in program history and secure a program-record eight conference wins.

Jaylen Reyes
Nebraska Women
Assistant Coach
Reyes is the Huskers’ recruiting coordinator and defensive coach. Nebraska, which was ranked No. 1 most of the season and made it to the NCAA title match, has landed a top-three recruiting class in each of the past three years and the Huskers are one of the nation’s top 10 defensive units for a third year in a row under his tutelage.

Krista Rice
Oakland University
Head Coach
In her second year, Rice led the Golden Grizzlies to a 17-14 (11-7 Horizon League) record. Both win counts were the most in a season for the team since 2017. Rice saw three of her players earn all-league honors, including Emily Wichmann as Horizon League defensive player of the year, the program’s first since 2014.

Brian Rosen
Creighton Women
Assistant Coach
In his two years at Creighton, Rosen has helped it win two Big East regular-season and conference championships, as well as advancing to this year’s NCAA Tournament round of 16. His passion, energy and work ethic on and off the court is contagious and inspirational, fellow assistant coach Angie Oxley Behrens said.

Brandon Row and Matt Noland
North Florida Women
Assistant Coaches
Row, in his first season in Jacksonville, and Noland, in his second, helped lead the Ospreys to a 17-15 mark this past season.

Emilie Selvidge
Charleston Southern Women
Assistant Coach
Selvidge, a 2023 graduate of Florida College, followed her head coach, Carry Brown, to CSU to work with the setters. Selvidge was a two-time conference setter of the year and an honorable mention All-American her senior year.

McKay Smith
Long Beach State Men
Assistant Coach
Smith has been on the Long Beach State men’s staff for the last five years, and in his time at the Beach has helped it capture two national championships (2018 and 2019), while advancing to four NCAA semifinals in six years (2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023). During this time, he has coached 28 All-Americans, including national players of the year Josh Tuaniga (2018), TJ DeFalco (2019) and Alex Nikolov (2022).

Nick Vogel
UCLA Men
Assistant Coach
In his first season, UCLA captured its first NCAA championship and first MPSF tournament title since 2006. Vogel previously coached at DePaul (women), UC San Diego (men) and UCLA (women) after a pro playing career.

Hayden Wagner
Wake Forest Women
Assistant Coach
Wagner made an immediate impact in his first season. He is a former three-time honorable-mention All-American selection for the George Mason University men’s team, from 2018-2021,

Angela White
Loyola Marymount, Beach
Assistant Coach
The former LSU indoor standout and pro beach player joins the LMU staff after most recently coaching beach in Austin, Texas. “She’s always been great at bringing the best out of the people around her,” LMU coach John Mayer said.

Gary White
Wisconsin Women
Associate Head Coach
White has served as an assistant coach and associate head coach with the Badgers since 2013. During that time, Wisconsin has won five Big Ten championships and advanced to the NCAA round of 16 or better the last 11 seasons. Wisconsin won it all in 2021. White uses his background in information sciences and technology to guide UW’s opponent scouting, breaking down opponents’ offenses with key analytics and strategy. He also assists in coaching the Badgers’ middle blockers.

Jeremy White
Southeastern Louisiana Women
Head Coach
The 38-year old White just finished his fifth season at SLU, and has breathed life into a once moribund program in Hammond, Louisiana. In the three seasons before his arrival, SLU had a record of 12-77. In his five years, he’s had three seasons with a winning record, and in 2023 SLU had a historic 22-match win streak. The Lions won the Southland regular-season title for the first time, won the league tourney for the second straight year, and made its first two NCAA tournament appearances in program history.

Morgan Williams
Texas A&M-Commerce Women
Assistant Coach
Williams just finished her first season as the assistant coach at Texas A&M-Commerce, which went to the postseason for the 12^th year in a row. The former standout at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi previously served as the head coach with the Force Volleyball Club in Texas for seven years.