As the recent NCAA women’s volleyball championship in Pittsburgh demonstrated, it’s a great time to be a fan of our sport.
The best of the best were on display at PPG Paints Arena. For that matter, it would be hard to argue that the sheer amount of elite player talent is as high as it ever has been in the college game, and the same holds true with coaching.
Stanford’s Kevin Hambly, Wisconsin’s Kelly Sheffield, Minnesota’s Hugh McCutcheon and Baylor’s Ryan McGuyre are in an elite fraternity of coaches who have led their programs to either NCAA titles or NCAA semifinal appearances.
Hambly, Sheffield, McCutcheon and McGuyre also are part of a legion of talented NCAA Division I-II coaches throughout the country.
So who are the next wave of coaches who might move into that elite level?
And that’s how we came up with our VolleyballMag.com Under 40 Coaching Hotshots.
Here’s how it all went down. We first enlisted the help of the various conference sports/media information contacts. The message was simple: Get the word out to your team SIDs that we are looking for up-and-coming coaches age 40 and younger.
Our scope was NCAA Division I women’s programs, NCAA Division I and II men’s programs and all NCAA beach volleyball programs.
To say the interest in this was high would be an understatement. Nominations flooded in.
At first, this was scheduled to be one of those catchy “40 under 40” deals. That was until the nomination number blew past 40, which necessitated removing the 40 number.
Keep in mind, the list below is comprised of individuals who had complete (or as near complete) information submitted either from their school or their conference contact. Numerous nominations were sent in with either no vital information we asked for or nominations were never followed up on by the nominator.
And if you would like to nominate someone for this list (has to be 40 years old or younger and be a coach at an NCAA Division I women’s, Division I-II men’s or NCAA beach program), shoot an email to mjm890@gmail.com. Based on popularity, we’ll do this again in 2021.
Becca Acevedo
Winthrop University
Women’s assistant
Age: 26
Acevedo, who recently completed her second season at Winthrop, serves as the team’s defensive coordinator. Acevedo helped direct Winthrop to a 24-5 record and an undefeated 14-0 Big South Conference championship season. Winthrop advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006. She previously coached for two years at the University of West Florida and has extensive USA Volleyball High Performance coaching experience. Acevedo played at Palm Beach Atlantic.
Vini Baigan
Texas Rio Grande Valley
Women’s assistant
Age: 31
Baigan joined the UTRGV program as an assistant in 2015 and helped the Vaqueros win their first WAC (2018) and WAC tournament (2016) titles. Before Rio Grande Valley, the Brazilian was an assistant in the men’s and women’s programs at Park University (where he played), helping the men’s team to the 2014 NAIA title.
Ryan Baker
Colgate University
Women’s head coach
Age: 38
Baker is one of the most tenured coaches on the Hotshots list, having completed his 14th year as Colgate’s head women’s coach. He’s one of two coaches in program history with more than 200 victories and is a two-time Patriot League coach of the year. This past season, Baker led Colgate to a 24-8 mark, a 15-1 record in Patriot play (losing to Army in the conference tournament semifinals) and an appearance in the NIVC quarterfinals.
Louise Bawden
Stanford
Beach assistant
Age: 38
Bawden begins her second season as an assistant in the Stanford beach program after enjoying a decorated international indoor and beach career. Bawden played on the 2000 Australian women’s indoor Olympic team, and also played in the 2012 and 2016 beach Olympic games, finishing fifth in Rio in 2016 with Taliqua Clancy. Bawden was named the 2009 FIVB rookie of the year.
Jeremy Casebeer
UCLA
Beach volunteer assistant
Age: 30
Casebeer enters his first season as a volunteer for head coach Stein Metzger’s two-time defending NCAA beach champions. Casebeer, who played at UCLA under legendary men’s coach Al Scates and later earned an AVP best server award and a 2019 AVP Seattle Open title with Chaim Schalk, conducted beach volleyball clinics around the country the last two years and was a coach/counselor for UCLA men’s summer camps since his graduation from the university in 2012.
Adrianna Culbert
Colorado State
Women’s assistant
Age: 25
Culbert completed her first season at Colorado State this fall where she worked primarily with the team’s middle blockers and on blocking strategy, in addition to assisting with social media, recruiting and opponent scouting. Culbert played at Colorado State from 2012-2015 and is known for recording the NCAA’s first quadruple-double in more than five years (10 kills, 11 blocks, 20 assists, 13 digs). Culbert is a former Mountain West player of the year and a third-team All-American selection. Culbert also has coached at South Carolina and Northern Colorado.
Ben Duckworth
Lindenwood University
Men’s assistant
Age: 31
Duckworth, who played at Fort Wayne and was a member of the 2007 MIVA title team there, begins his third season with the Lindenwood men’s program after a four-year run in the men’s and women’s programs at McKendree where he helped start the men’s program in 2013. Duckworth also has extensive USA Volleyball High Performance coaching experience and was a coach in the St. Louis HP club from 2006-2013.
James Friddle
Emmanuel College
Men’s and women’s head coach
Age: 29
Friddle has led the Emmanuel women’s team to back-to-back Conference Carolinas tournament titles and NCAA berth. He’s also working hard to build the men’s program at the school based in Franklin Springs, Georgia. As a player, Friddle left King University in Bristol, Tennessee, as its all-time leader in kills and was a two-time all-conference selection.
Dan Georgalas
Wyoming
Women’s assistant
Age: 32
Georgalas was promoted to associate head coach at Wyoming in 2017 after spending five season as an assistant coach for the Cowgirls. Georgalas helped guide the Cowgirls this past season to their fifth 20-plus-win season since he arrived at the school. The Cowgirls also recorded a program-record 16 conference wins in 2019, breaking the previous mark of 13 set in 2015. Georgalas, a Chicago-area native, previously coached at Stephen F. Austin and Kansas.
Ashlie Hain
UC Irvine
Women’s head coach
Age: 37
While injuries derailed the 2019 season, Hain has brought UC Irvine back to Big West importance. The Anteaters defeated No. 11 Hawai’i in Honolulu, breaking a 40-match losing streak against the Rainbow Wahine (first-ever win against Hawai’i). In 2018, Hain guided UC Irvine back to the postseason for a second year in a row, a feat that hadn’t been accomplished since 2003 and 2004 when Hain was a player (setter on the 2003 and 2004 NCAA tournament teams). In 2017, Hain’s squad tied the program record for wins in a season at 24.
Katelyn Harrison
Belmont University
Women’s head coach
Age: 33
A former VolleyballMag.com Fab 50 selection from Indiana and a USC graduate, Harrison (nee Bishop) recently completed her first season in Nashville. Before Belmont, she spent five seasons at the College of Charleston where those teams posted a combined 115-51 record, made two NCAA tournament appearances and reached the NIVC semifinals. The 2017 Charleston team earned the first at-large NCAA tournament bid in the history of the Colonial Athletic Association.
Liz Hart
Northern Kentucky
Women’s head coach
Age: 33
Hart recently completed her 10th season as Northern Kentucky’s head coach after a decorated playing career at the school where she still is the program’s all-time kills leader and the only three-time All-American for the Norse when it was a Division II school. This past season, Hart led Northern Kentucky to a 19-win season, a Horizon League tournament championship and the program’s first appearance in the NCAA tournament.
Kristina Hernandez
Stetson University
Beach head coach
Age: 38
Hernandez is one the nascent beach games coaching standouts, having amassed 148 dual-match victories in her career, believed to be second all-time in NCAA history and the most of any active beach coach. A five-time ASUN conference champion and four-time ASUN coach of the year, Hernandez guided the Hatters to their second-straight 30-win season a year ago and a trip to the NCAA beach championship, where it became the first No. 8 seed to ever win a dual, upsetting No. 1-seed and two-time national-champion USC in the first round.
Adam Hughes
Maryland
Women’s head coach
Age: 35
Hughes, in his second season at the helm in College Park, led the Terrapins to 13 wins and came off a 2018 season where his squad won a program-best nine Big Ten Conference contests, including its first-ever road win against a ranked team (No. 15 Michigan). Before Maryland, Hughes spent nine years in the Penn State women’s program in a variety of roles.
Mark Hulse
Loyola-Chicago
Men’s head coach
Age: 32
Hulse, who played his final two years at Pepperdine, heads into his fifth year as the Ramblers’ bench boss after serving as an assistant coach the previous four seasons. In his four seasons as head coach, Loyola won 80 matches, including 31 wins over ranked opponents. He’s produced eight All-Americans, and his 2019 team won 20 matches for the sixth time in the last seven years.
Leah Johnson
Illinois State
Women’s head coach
Age: 38
For the third-straight year, Johnson helped guide the Redbirds to a post-season tournament berth. ISU earned the Missouri Valley Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament after winning the program’s 11th Valley championship with the Redbirds becoming the first No. 3 seed to ever win the title during the six-team format. Johnson’s 2018 team also earned an NCAA tournament appearance. Johnson previously coached at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (head coach for six years), Notre Dame, Missouri State and Texas-Pan American.
Trevor Johnson
Liberty University
Women’s head coach
Age: 36
Johnson has made an immediate impact at Liberty with his 2019 team posting the most wins (21) since 2014 and earning the program’s first-ever postseason victories (reaching the NIVC quarterfinals). His 2018 squad won 15 matches, including 10 wins in the program’s first year in the ASUN. His 2018 team also sported a 3.70 team GPA, the highest of any team on campus. Johnson is the only athlete in the history of the NAIA to win a national title as a player, assistant coach and head coach. He led Concordia (California) to the 2013 NAIA men’s title. He also did assistant stints at Texas A&M and Baylor.
Tristan Johnson
Southern Illinois
Women’s assistant
Age: 27
Wherever Johnson has gone, success has followed. After stints at Blinn College, Alabama (twice) and Arkansas State, Johnson is helping SIU head coach Ed Allen turnaround a Salukis program that won 11 matches between 2017-2018. In 2019, SIU won 14 contests and set a program record for digs in a season (four players with 300 or more digs).
Ciara Jones
Howard University
Women’s assistant
Age: 30
Jones joined Howard in 2018 as an assistant coach and the program’s recruiting coordinator. Before Howard, Jones was the director of operations at Clemson. Jones also was head coach and recruiting coordinator at Top Select Volleyball Club in Orlando, Florida.
Jason Kennedy
Boston College
Women’s head coach
Age: 34
In only his second season at The Heights, Kennedy’s team hit the 20-win mark for the first time since 2004, matching its best-ever record. BC also doubled its all-time ACC record, finishing the regular season with 11 conference wins. Behind Kennedy, the Eagles earned their first-ever bid to postseason competition (NIVC). His 2018 season started the season 9-0 and finished 15-15 overall. Kennedy coached three years in the USC women’s program.
Susan Kim
Rider University
Women’s assistant
Age: 37
Kim recently completed her first season on the Rider bench after a six-year run as an assistant coach at Holy Family. She was part of a Holy Family 2018 team that advanced to the NCAA Division II round of 16. Additionally, Kim coached at Division I La Salle (interim head coach at one point) and founded the Infinity Volleyball Academy.
Laura “Bird” Kuhn
Texas A&M
Women’s head coach
Age: 37
Kuhn recently was named the Southeastern Conference coach of the year after leading Texas A&M to a 21-7 mark, the program’s first 20-win season since 2016. After being picked to finish sixth in the SEC during the preseason, Kuhn led the Aggies to a 13-6 conference mark and a third-place finish. Kuhn’s team finished 13th in the final NCAA RPI ranking, an improvement of 68 over last season. Kuhn is 38-20 overall in her two seasons at the helm in College Station.
Kelsey Lahey
Marist
Women’s assistant
Age: 25
After finishing her playing career at Marist (sixth all-time in kills with 1,014), Lahey earned her master’s of fine arts in sculpture at Boston University and also spent two years as a coach for the Premier Volleyball Academy in Ohio.
Allie Matters
Wright State
Women’s head coach
Age: 31
In her second year in Dayton, Ohio, Matters led the Raiders to their first Horizon League regular-season title in program history. Wright State also earned an at-large berth into the 2019 NCAA tournament, the first at-large NCAA bid in any sport in Wright State athletic department history. Matters previously was the top assistant for seven years at Seton Hall, her alma mater.
Spencer McLachlin
UCLA
Men’s assistant
Age: 31
A former prep standout in Hawai’i and a member of the 2010 Stanford NCAA national-championship team, McLachlin joined the UCLA coaching staff this past January after a two-year run as an assistant for the Cal women’s team. McLachlin was a volunteer assistant for UCLA men’s coach John Speraw during the 2015 and 2016 seasons. This past off-season McLachlin worked on the coaching staffs for the USA men’s volleyball teams that competed in the Pan American Cup and the NORCECA Champions Cup. He also coached at Hawai’i.
Giovana Melo
CSU Bakersfield
Women’s head coach/beach head coach
Age: 38
Melo is in her sixth season as the director of volleyball at CSU Bakersfield. She’s the only head coach on campus to earn multiple NCAA Division I tournament berths. Her 2014 team won the WAC tournament title and the program’s first NCAA berth. B Bakersfield, Melo coached six years at Western Nebraska CC, where her 2010 team won an NJCAA title. She has 347 career collegiate wins.
Tom Mendoza
South Carolina
Women’s head coach
Age: 37
Mendoza has delivered immediate results for the Gamecocks in his first two seasons on the bench. He’s the first coach in program history to lead teams to NCAA tournament trips in their first two seasons in Columbia. In 2018, South Carolina qualified for the NCAA tournament for the first time in 16 years and won 20 matches. Before South Carolina, Mendoza was the head coach at High Point (two NCAA tournament appearances) and was an assistant at Creighton.
Fernando Morales
Evansville
Women’s head coach
Age: 37
Morales, a former Puerto Rican national team captain, was named Evansville head coach October 30 after leading the team on an interim basis. In his first season, he led the Purple Aces to their most wins and first winning record since 2010, plus Evansville’s first berth in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament since 2008.
Anders Nelson
Kentucky
Women’s assistant
Age: 29
Nelson just finished his second season as Kentucky’s associate head coach and his seventh overall in the program. Nelson is part of a Kentucky coaching staff that has directed the Wildcats to three SEC titles in a row and an appearance in the NCAA regional round earlier this month. Nelson serves as Kentucky’s camp coordinator and works directly with the Wildcat middle blockers. A former player at Ball State, Nelson also coached for a season at Arkansas, at the club level at Munciana and at the high school level at Muncie (Indiana) Burris Lab.
John Newberry
Central Arkansas
Women’s head coach
Age: 37
At the conclusion of this season, Newberry was promoted to head coach after sharing associate head coach duties with Marissa Collins. Former head coach Jeni Jones Chatman missed the season on maternity lead and resigned with two matches left in the season. Newberry helped turn a 3-6 conference mark into a 10-6 finish with seven league wins in a row to finish the season. This is Newberry’s second stint at Central Arkansas. He was hired as an assistant there in 2012. His wife, Brittany, is the head coach at Division III Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, and is credited for Newberry falling in love with the sport and shifted his career to coaching.
Ariel Newman
North Carolina A&T
Women’s assistant
Age: 30
Newman has been with the Aggies program since 2016 where one of her primary responsibilities is recruiting. Newman came to North Carolina A&T from Guilford College and also has coached in the Piedmont club program since 2009. Newman played at VCU and UNC-Greensboro.
Meagan Owusu
Cal
Beach volleyball head coach
Age: 30
Owusu is in her fifth season guiding the Cal beach program. Her 2019 team finished 10th in the nation and logged a 22-9 mark that included wins against eight ranked opponents. Her 2018 team went a program-best 24-8. The former Meagan Schmitt was a member of the 2007 and 2010 Cal women’s indoor teams that reached the NCAA semifinals. She later returned to Cal as associate head coach and was named head coach in 2016.
Amy Pauly
Alabama-Birmingham
Women’s head coach
Age: 33
Pauly recently completed her second season at UAB. In 2018, Pauly led UAB to 13 wins, the most the program achieved since 2013. She formally was associate head coach at Villanova for six seasons. She also coached at South Carolina and played at Alabama where she helped the Crimson Tide reach three NCAA tournaments in a row. She still holds the Alabama record for digs in a season and is fourth all-time in SEC history in that category.
Carol Price-Torok
Bradley University
Women’s head coach
Age: 37
Taking over a program that won 30 Missouri Valley Conference matches in the 10 years combined before her arrival at the Peoria, Illinois, school, Price-Torok has led the Braves to 29 league wins in her four years there. In 2018, she led Bradley to its best conference finish (third) since 2001 and the 24-9 season was the second-largest turnaround (plus-14 wins) in the country), earning her 2018 MVC coach of the year honors. This year, with a team made up primarily of freshmen and sophomores, Bradley took fourth in the MVC, finishing with back-to-back seasons with 11 or more Valley wins for only the second time in program history.
Daniel Rasay
Stanford
Men’s assistant
Age: 37
Rasay enters his seventh season as a full-time assistant on coach John Kosty’s staff and 11th overall on staff. He started his run at Stanford as a volunteer assistant in 2010, the year Stanford won the NCAA title. He also has served as the head women’s coach at Menlo College. Rasay played at Hawaii where he came off the bench as a freshman and helped spark Hawaii to a 2002 NCAA semifinal win (Hawaii went on to win the NCAA title). He started his head-coaching career at Division III Mills College in Oakland, California.
Sarah Rumely
LSU
Women’s assistant
Age: 31
Rumely, who starred at Kentucky and was named a Southeastern Conference legend this past spring, recently finished her third year as a member of the LSU staff where she is the Tigers’ recruiting coordinator, runs the offense and works directly with the setters. Rumely spent two years at Arkansas, was at Wake Forest from 2013-2015 and started her college coaching career at North Texas.
Nickie Sanlin
McKendree University
Men’s and women’s head coach
Age: 36
Sanlin pulls double duty as McKendree’s head men’s and women’s coach. Following her first year as a member of the McKendree women’s staff, Sanlin was tabbed to build the Bearcats’ new men’s program. McKendree debuted in January 2014 and started play in the MIVA in 2015. McKendree went 6-8 in conference action in 2018 and last season, the Bearcats defeated Ohio State for the first time, defeated No. 8 BYU, and finished the season above .500, while hosting the first round of the MIVA tournament after a fourth-place league finish. McKendree defeated Ball State in the opening round before losing to NCAA semifinalist Lewis. Sanlin starred as a player at Marshall University.
Malia Shoji
University of Utah
Women’s assistant
Age: 31
Shoji just wrapped up her second season as associate head coach at Utah and her fifth overall on the Utes coaching staff. Shoji, also the team’s recruiting coordinator, earned the promotion after working with the offense on one of the best teams in Utah volleyball history. The 2017 team won 24 matches and advanced to the NCAA round of 16, setting team single-season marks for kills and assists. Shoji, whose dad has coached collegiately for more than 30 years, is the niece of Hawai’i coaching great Dave Shoji. She previously coached at Western Oregon and Willamette University, and played at Irvine Valley College.
Cameron Sitler
Houston Baptist
Head beach coach; Women’s assistant
Age: 32
Sitler is the head beach coach and assistant women’s indoor coach at Houston Baptist. Sitler’s beach team has been one of the top beach programs among the Southland Conference schools each of the last two seasons, claiming the Southland Showcase titles before the league’s first official beach championship this coming spring. The program has improved each season, moving to the cusp of a top-25 ranking. Sitler recruits for both programs.
Chris Sweat
Florida Gulf Coast University
Beach Volleyball Assistant
Age: 35
About to start his sixth season at FGCU, Sweat has been part of teams that have gone 63-41 since losing the first nine matches of his tenure. In 2019, FGSU won a program-record 18 and finished second in the ASUN tournament. Sweat’s brother, Nick, is married to former FGCU indoor star Brooke Youngquist Sweat, the pro beach partner of Kerri Walsh Jennings.
Krista Vansant
Indiana University
Women’s assistant
Age: 26
Vansant, who starred collegiately at Washington and was named the 2013 national player of the year, just finished her second season in Bloomington where she mentored sophomore Breana Edwards, who led the team with 361 kills and earned all-Big Ten second-team honors. Before Indiana, Vansant, a Honda Sports Award winner, was part of the Washington staff and also coached club in Seattle.
Esai Velez-Perez
Iona College
Women’s head coach
Age: 31
Velez-Perez completed his first season as Iona’s women’s head coach. While the team won only five matches, it had nine conference all-academic selections. Velez-Perez came to Iona from Hofstra where he was an assistant coach for five seasons, helping lead the Gaels to a pair of conference titles. He also was an assistant coach, scout and statistician for the Volleyball Federation of Puerto Rico, and has served since 2014 as a head coach for Club Ace Long Island Volleyball.
Josh Walker
Hawai’i
Men’s assistant
Age: 32
Walker, a former All-American player at Hawaii, is starting his fifth season as an assistant in the men’s program. A Virginia Beach, Virginia native, Walker played overseas in Greece, Denmark, Finland and United Arab Emirates before returning to his alma mater.
Tim Walsh
Coppin State
Women’s head coach
Age: 38
Walsh concluded his third season at Coppin State where his 2019 team won 13 matches (second most in program history). It matched a program record with eight conference wins and won its first conference tournament match since 2014. His 2018 team, with 11 true freshmen on the roster (youngest Division I roster in the nation), tripled its win total from a year prior (12 wins, 6-4 in conference). With no paid assistant, Walsh conducts all recruiting activities, lines the floors and sets up/breaks down the nets before and after each match.
Caroline Walters
Cal Poly
Women’s head coach
Age: 33
Walters, regarded as one of the top defensive players in West Coast Conference history, just completed her first season as head coach at Cal Poly after spending the previous two years as associate head coach. Overall, Walters has been in the Mustangs’ program for 11 seasons. Cal Poly went 21-9 this season and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament, succumbing to national-champion Stanford.
Matt Werle
Grand Canyon
Men’s head coach
Age: 32
Werle was named the third head coach in Grand Canyon men’s history in 2016. Werle was a graduate assistant at Grand Canyon in 2012 and 2013 before being added as an assistant coach in 2014. He also was the head women’s coach at Mesa Community College. Werle played at Juniata College where he helped lead the Eagles to three NCAA Division III national titles. He sports a 67-50 career mark at Grand Canyon entering his fifth season as men’s head coach.
Jeremy White
Southeastern Louisiana
Women’s head coach/Beach head coach
Age: 34
In his first season in Hammond, White helped Southeastern Louisiana to a 12-win improvement and a berth in the conference tournament for the first time in three years. The Lions’ win total in 2019 (14) was their most since 2004. Before Southeastern Louisiana, White coached at Northwestern Oklahoma State, Lamar State College and McNeese.
Jonathan Winder
Fresno State
Women’s head coach
Age: 33
Winder, a former standout setter at Pepperdine, has led the Bulldogs to 36 wins over his first two seasons in Fresno. That 36-win total is the second-most in an opening-two-year stint in program history. Winder has coached seven all-Mountain West selections, including 2019 newcomer of the year Desiree Sukhov.
Kristen Wright
North Florida
Women’s head coach/Beach head coach
Age: 39
Wright heads both the Ospreys women’s indoor and beach programs and just finished her second season with the women’s indoor team. Her 2019 team featured a host of standout individuals, including a pair of freshmen who led all NCAA Division I newcomers in digs and assists. She came to North Florida from JC MiraCosta College.
Crystal Young
USC Upstate
Women’s assistant
Age: 25
Young recently completed her first season as an assistant coach with the USC Upstate women’s team where she assists in all aspects of the program and works primarily with the setters and floor defense. Young played collegiately at Blinn College and Colorado State. Young helped Blinn to a 2013 NJCAA national title.
