Less than a month after announcing the addition of a men’s volleyball program, University of Jamestown has announced their first head coach. Riley Salmon, who was a member of the gold-medal-winning U.S. Men’s Olympic volleyball team at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, will lead the men’s team into their inaugural season in the spring of 2020.
“I’m extremely excited to bring the USA volleyball culture to such a unique university,” said Salmon. “We will approach the game in a very ‘blue collar way’. We will be putting our hard hats on and grabbing our lunch boxes in preparation to get better every day. I can see the University of Jamestown being an elite force in men’s volleyball in the near future.”
Salmon played at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games and earned more than 220 international caps as an outside hitter and libero. He won more hardware with Team USA at the 2007 (bronze) and 2008 (gold) World Leagues, the 2003, 2005, and 2007 NORCECA Championship (all gold), the 2001 NORCECA Championship (silver), and the 2005 and 2007 America’s Cup tournaments (gold). He also spent 15 years playing professionally in Europe and Brazil.
The team’s addition to Jamestowns’ offerings came a few months after the NAIA announced that it would sponsor its first official men’s volleyball national championship next season. The school competes in the GPAC, which at present doesn’t sponsor a men’s volleyball championship, but does have 3 other teams (Briar Cliff, Dordt, and Morningside) that offer the sport.
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