The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) has announced 4 members of its 2017 AVCA Hall of Fame Class. The Hall of Fame has existed since 2003 and with the 4 newest members will grow to 77 members strong.
The 2017 Inductees:
- Debbie Brown
- John Cook
- Cecile Reynaude
- Roseanne Wegrich
Bios of each inductee:
- Debbie Brown – as the AVCA relates, Brown’s contributions to volleyball are Hall of Fame-worthy in all three major categories, as a player, coach, and administrator. She was a two-time winner of the Mikasa Award as the best collegiate all-around player in the nation while at USC – and let the Trojans to a combined 72-1 record, including an NCAA title, in those two seasons. Those efforts got her #5 jersey hung from the rafters in the Galen Center. She graduated early and served as co-captain of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team (that ultimately never played because of the boycott). In 1995, she was named by USA Volleyball as its “All-Time Great Volleyball Player” award – the highest honor it hands out to athletes. She then took voer as coach at Arizona State before taking a role as an assistant on the USA Volleyball National Team. Shortly after, she took over the program at Notre Dame, where she collected more than 500 wins in over 20 seasons – turning the Irish into a perennial powerhouse. She has also been a member of the USA Volleyball Board of Directors, on the USOC Athlete Advisory Counsel, and served as the AVCA President from 1995-1996.
- John Cook – Cook is one of two full-time college coaches in this year’s class – he’s the current head coach of 2015 NCAA Champions the Nebraska Cornhuskers. His resume include 3 NCAA Championships, 11 conference titles, 49 AVCA All-Americans, 2 AVCA Coach of the Year honors, a USA Volleyball All-Time Great Coach Award, and 5 AVCA All-Region Awards. He’s coached as an assistant at UC San Diego, his first stop when it was a D3 school, where the team won an NCAA title in 1984. He then became an assistant at Nebraska, where in 3 seasons, Nebraska made two final 4s and won 3 Big Eight Conference titles. After his first stint at Nebraska, Cook was an assistant with the U.S. Olympic Team that earned a bronze medal at the 1992 Games in Barcelona. After his run with the National Team, he returned to college coachin in 1992 with a 161-73 record and 5 NCAA Tournament appearances at Wisconsin in 7 seasons. Cook returned to Lincoln in the year 2000 and won an NCAA Championship and was named Coach of the Year in his first season back. He’s now won 3 titles with the Huskers, and his Huskers are still running as one of the top programs in the country.
- Cecile Reynaud – guided Florida State to 635 wins in her 26 seasons as head coach, retiring in 2001 as 1 of just 8 active coaches with over 600 career wins. She led her teams to 7 Conference Championships, including 1 in the ACC, and took her team to 10 NCAA tournaments. Internationally, she was an assistant for the 1983 World University Games team and served as the head coach of the USA Volleyball Junior National Team. Like Brown, she’s a former AVCA Preisdent, and served on Boards of Directors of both the AVCA and USA Volleyball.
- Rosie Wegrich – is the other active college coach – she’s currently the head coach at Division II Cal Poly Pomona, where she’s been since 1992. Even before becoming a fixture there, though, she amassed a legendary career in Division I, where she spent 3 years as the head coach at Minnesota and 15 as the head coach of Arizona. In total, she has 743 NCAA victories to her name with over 40 years as a college head coach. Over 400 of those wins come at her current post and has taken 9 teams to the NCAA tournament.
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