Kasey Crider Wins AVCA Thirty Under 30 Award
LEXINGTON, Ky. – University of Miami assistant volleyball coach Kasey Crider was selected as a recipient of the American Volleyball Coaches Association 2016 Thirty Under 30 Awards.
Crider, who completed his first season coaching at Miami in December, helped the Hurricanes reach the NCAA Tournament for the seventh consecutive season. The 26-year-old credits his relationship with his college coach, Marv Dunphy, for motivating him to get into coaching and he appreciates the mentorship that he has received from Stanford head coach John Dunning and Miami head coach Jose “Keno” Gandara in his young coaching career.
“I’m not convinced I’m any better of a coach today than I was yesterday, but I’m glad I was able to trick someone long enough for them to think this highly of me,” Crider said. “The reality is that I’ve had outstanding mentors in Marv, Keno and John and the main goal has been to not mess it up.”
The Canes finished 21-10 and 14-6 in the ACC in Crider’s first season at Miami, facing Iowa State in a first round match in Madison, Wisc. Miami reached 20 wins for the second straight season and the Hurricanes had seniors Alexis Mourning and Taylor Scott, as well as sophomores Olga Strantzali and Haley Templeton, named to the 2015 All-ACC Second Team with Strantzali and Templeton also earning AVCA All-East Coast Region Honorable Mention.
Templeton had a strong season while working with Crider, dishing out the second-most assists in a single season in program history, 1,261. The setter finished the 2015 campaign with eight double-doubles, tying with Olga Strantzali for second most on the team. Templeton averaged 10.69 assists per set to rank fourth in the ACC and set a new career-high for assists in a match with 56 against Duke on Oct. 11 and against NC State on Oct. 16. Following Miami’s season, Templeton was invited to U.S. National Team Tryouts.
“Kasey is a dedicated and talented coach and I am very excited for him to have received this award,” Gandara said. “He arrived at Miami a little over a year ago and got right to work to be prepared for the season in the fall. His work ethic, attention to detail and ability to help our players develop individually and in our system as a group have been major assets to the program. I’m excited to see him continue to grow and develop as a coach and am happy to have him be part of our program at Miami.”
An accomplished player, Crider was a setter and team captain at Pepperdine from 2008-11 and was a two-time All-American. Following his collegiate career, Crider played professionally overseas during the 2011-12 season for Boldklubben Marienlyst, located in Denmark. There, he led the squad to first-place finishes in both the Nordic Cup and Danish Pokal Cup Championships. He was named the Danish Super League Player of the Year, while also earning the Best Setter Award and was picked as MVP of the Danish Pokal Cup Championship.
The award was created in 2009 to honor up-and-coming coaching talent at all levels of the sport. To qualify for the award nominees had to be 30 years old or younger in 2015. Of the thirty recipients, 12 are NCAA Division I coaches, six in high school/club, four in Division III, three are NCAA Division II and NAIA, and two are two-year college coaches.
“When coaching development is what you do, few days are more gratifying than the one on which you announce the Thirty Under 30 awards,” said AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer. “The number and quality of nominees keeps going up and the diversity of places where we are seeing youthful excellence continues to expand. Our future is bright.”
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