Men coach women’s sports all the time. It’s seen commonly in high school sports, as well as at the collegiate level, and even into pro leagues like the WNBA. This gender inequity occurs mainly in basketball, but for a long time, volleyball has been a female-dominated athletic event. With the explosion of the game, however, men’s volleyball has skyrocketed in both participation and viewership in recent years. Many of these coaches at the collegiate are former men’s volleyball players themselves. This year’s Final Four field has two unique instances of coaching excellence that come from a unique source.
The first, is Springfield’s Charlie Sullivan, who has never played a competitive volleyball match in his life. A veteran presence in the Final Four, Sullivan has won 11 national championships with the Pride so far and is gunning for another.
The other is a rookie head coach with an established professional playing career and the only female head coach in this group, Jamie Peterson — the head coach for the Wittenberg Tigers. In all men’s sports, just over 500 of the 9,000 plus coaching opportunities are held by women (NCAA Demographics). Across men’s volleyball, just 17 women are a part of the 193 head coaching opportunities in the NCAA.
Peterson took over coaching duties last season from Nathan Matthews, who resigned to accept an assistant coaching position for University of Alabama women’s volleyball. Before being named interim head coach, Peterson was an assistant coach for the women’s team at Wittenberg. Although Peterson was just named the American Volleyball Coaches Associations’ Division III Coach of the Year, she herself has liked the switch thus far, in addition to those voting.
“I think that with a men’s team, I’m able to be a little more direct with them and just tell them exactly what I’m thinking,” Peterson said. “They can’t read my mind; they don’t want to read my mind. So, I could tend to be a little more honest with them.”
Despite Peterson inheriting a clearly strong team, her mindset has led the Tigers to national rankings and a conference title. As a player, she credited her collegiate coach Tim Horsman as the inspiration behind her coaching style.
“When I was in college, I was coached by somebody who was pretty direct, and I think that’s kind of more my personality and my style of coaching. So, I think they’ve adapted really well to that,” Peterson said.
Although strong coaching and mentors led her to success, she also has a strong resume on the court herself — Peterson was a three-time Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, Midwest Region Player of the Year, and NCAA Division 1 All-American as a student-athlete at the University of Dayton. She went on to play professional women’s volleyball for Athletes Unlimited in 2022 and 2023, the same period time she was assisting Wittenberg’s women’s team.
The main key to Peterson’s success, she thinks, is her son, Carter. Having a boy, and just four weeks shy of having her second, has been one of the biggest forces behind her transition to men’s volleyball.
“I think it helps that I’m a boy mom,” Peterson said. “I understand how to talk to them. In some ways, I’m a little bit of a mother figure and I’ve built a lot of trust with them. Over the last 12 months, I’ve realized that my whole goal as a coach is to get them where they want to be.”
Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics