Utah women’s volleyball assistant head coach Malia Shoji has been promoted to associate head coach for the Utes. Shoji has been with the program for 3 seasons, which includes NCAA tournament berths in each of the last 2 years. In 2017, Utah advanced to the Sweet 16 for the 3rd time in program history.
“I am excited to name Malia Shoji Associate Head Coach,” said Utah head coach Beth Launiere. “Malia has had a great impact on our program the past three years and she is establishing herself as one of the top young coaches in our sport. I appreciate what she brings to the program, from her many years of experience at all different levels of our game. Her creative vision for the program is similar with mine and I look forward to continue working with her as we strive to keep Utah volleyball one of the top programs in both the Pac-12 and in the nation.”
This marks the latest step in a meteoric rise for Shoji. She spent 2 years as an assistant at Division II Western Oregon, a season as an assistant at Division III Willamette University, 3 years as the JV coach at La Jolla Country Day School while working with the La Jolla Volleyball Club.
As a collegian, she played at Irvine Valley College from 2005 to 2007 and graduated with a bachelor.@UtahVolleyball.’s degree from UCSD in 2009 and completed her master’s degree last spring from Western Oregon.
Malia is a part of the legendary Shoji family that includes her father Tom Shoji, who has 30 years of college coaching experience and is currently at Willamette (where Malia jumped into the college game). Her uncle, Dave, recently retired from Hawaii after 40 seasons and ranks 2nd all-time in career NCAA women’s volleyball wins, and her cousins Erik and Kawika both play professionally in Italy and are members of the USA Men’s National Team.
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