Coaching Volleyball Magazine October / November 2015 - Page 8

On the Court

Beach Volleyball:
NCAA Awards 2016
and 2017 National
Championship Sites
INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA® Beach
Volleyball Committee selected the host site
for the inaugural National Collegiate Beach
Volleyball Championship. The NCAA’s
90th and newest National Championship
will debut May 6-8, 2016 at the Gulf Shores
Public Beach and will be hosted by the city
of Gulf Shores, Alabama and Orange Beach
Sports Commission.
The host institution for the inaugural
beach volleyball championship will be the
University of Alabama at Birmingham. The
university and Gulf Shores have also been
chosen as the hosts of the 2017 championship, which will be held May 5-7, 2017.
“We are thrilled to bring the very first
NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship
to Gulf Shores,” said Marilyn MonizKaho’ohanohano, chair of the Beach
Volleyball Committee and associate athletics director at University of Hawaii Manoa.
“Gulf Shores provides a location where the
sport originated ocean side and will provide
a great experience for our student-athletes.”
Beach volleyball is the fastest-growing
NCAA sport with 47 sponsoring schools.
The addition of the beach volleyball championship will become the 45th NCAA
championship administered for women.
The championship will have an eight-team
bracket that will be played in a doubleelimination format with teams consisting
of five pairs of female student-athletes.
After being placed on the list of emerging
sports for women in 2009, beach volleyball
is the fifth sport to succeed from the emerging sports program.

“We couldn’t be more excited to partner
with the City of Gulf Shores, Gulf Shores
and Orange Beach Sports Commission, USA
Volleyball Gulf Coast Region and Hangout
Music Festival Productions to host the very
first NCAA championship for beach volleyball,” said Mark Ingram, director of athletics
at University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“This is an exciting time for the sport and for
our program. We look forward to the opportunity and helping to make this a great event.”
No stranger to hosting large sporting
events, Gulf Shores has hosted the AVCA
Collegiate Sand Volleyball Championship
since 2012.
“The Gulf Shores and Orange Beach
Sports Commission and Tourism Offices are
beyond excited to continue our relationship
with the Collegiate Beach Volleyball National
Championship and to begin our partnership
with the NCAA,” said Beth Gendler, vice
president of sales for the Gulf Shores and
Orange Beach Tourism. “Our community
has been supportive of this amazing sport
for the four years the AVCA has hosted its
championship here, and we are proud to help
place the sport in the national spotlight even
more as the NCAA begins conducting this
championship.”

6 | October/November 2015 | COACHING VOLLEYBALL

—Courtesy NCAA

In
Memoriam:
Sandy
Hoffman
LEXINGTON, Ky. –
AVCA Hall of Famer
Sandy
Hoffman
passed away in late
August. “Our volleyball world is a

little smaller, a lot sadder. Remember her
as the female warrior she was,” said AVCA
Executive Director Kathy DeBoer.
Few coaches and administrators have
been as instrumental to the sport of volleyball, and specifically the New England
Region, than Bentley University Head
Coach Sandy Hoffman. 32 years at the
helm of the Falcons, Hoffman is the winningest volleyball coach in New England
and ranks fourth all time in NCAA
Division II in wins with 758. Her squads
have won the Northeast-10 Conference
Regular Season Title outright nine times
while earning conference coach of the
year on eight occasions. However, her
impact on volleyball goes above and beyond her win total or any individual
accomplishment.
She has consistently given back to the
game she loves, participating in AVCA
and NCAA Committees. Additionally,
she is a regular at the AVCA Convention
to share her knowledge and continue her
own growth as a volleyball coach and administrator. Over the years, it’d be impossible to count the number of coaches she
has touched in her journey on a regional
and national level.
Hoffman has been front and center in
developing volleyball across New England.
She started the New England All-Star
Volleyball Camps, which is the