Rich Feller Retires After 18 Years With Cal Golden Bears

  0 Carly DeMarque | April 24th, 2017 | College - Women's Indoor, News, Pac 12

After 18 seasons with California and 32 overall, the most successful coach in Cal volleyball history, Rich Feller, has announced his retirement.

Feller is a two-time National Coach of the Year and led Cal to their first ever Pac-12 championship and only appearances in the NCAA Final Four. Feller joined the Golden Bears back in 1999 and by 2002 had Cal in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 13 years. This sparked a run with the team who made 12 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances including two Final Fours in 2007 and 2010, four consecutive trips to the NCAA Elite Eight and moved on to the Sweet Sixteen six times.

At the end of his career with Cal, Feller has a record of 329-229, ending as the winningest coach in Cal volleyball history.

Feller coached a total of 17 All-Americans, including 2010 National Player of the Year and 2016 U.S. Olympian Carli Lloyd. In 2009, he produced the only Pac-12 Player of the Year in program history in Hana Cutura.

2007 marked Feller’s first National Coach of the Year award when the Bears moved onto their first ever NCAA Final Four, and again in 2010 when Cal went all the way to the NCAA championship match.

Off the court, Feller led his team to 107 Pac-12 All-Academic honors and produced four Academic All-Americans. In the past five seasons, the Bears NCAA Graduation Success Rate has been a perfect 100 percent.

At the beginning of his career, Feller held the helm at Colorado State, where he led the Rams to their first ever NCAA Tournament appearance. Feller went on to take Colorado State to seven more NCAA Tournaments, two conference titles and 12 final top-25 rankings in 14 seasons.

In 2013, Feller became the 29th coach in Division I history to record 600 wins.

A national search will begin for Feller’s replacement will begin immediately, with associate head coach Matt McShane being named interim head coach in the meantime.

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About Carly DeMarque

Carly DeMarque

Carly DeMarque has been involved with competitive volleyball for the majority of her life, playing competitively at the club and collegiate level for 15 years and coaching club for five. Now a retired Division I volleyball athlete out of McNeese State University, she continues her volleyball enthusiasm by stepping back into …

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