LOVB Austin receives major boost with appointment of two-time Olympian Erik Sullivan as head coach

LOVB Austin have announced that former volleyball player and two-time Olympian Erik Sullivan will be the head coach of the team starting from the 2026 season. Sullivan had an illustrious career as player, representing the U.S Volleyball team at the Olympics in 2000 and 2004 where he played as a libero. After his retirement, he transitioned to coaching and has coached several teams since.

Sullivan was most recently named the head coach of the U.S Women's Volleyball team back in January this year. For the last 14 years, he was the associate head coach at the University of Texas, helping the Longhorns win three NCAA women's volleyball national championships.

In an interview with LOVB, Sullivan expressed his excitement in being appointed as the head coach of Austin, as he said:

“Coming back to Austin and helping lead this next chapter of LOVB is incredibly meaningful to me. This team has already made history, and I’m honored to help build on that world-class legacy while contributing to the rise of professional volleyball in the U.S. through League One Volleyball.”

Sullivan is set to replace Marco Bonitta, who stepped down from the head coach role due to personal reasons.

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Erik Sullivan on getting the U.S Women's Volleyball head coach position

Erik Sullivan (far right) at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games - Source: Getty

Former volleyball player Erik Sullivan expressed how he felt when he got appointed as head coach of the U.S Women's Volleyball team. Sullivan served as a coach for the University of Texas for 14 years and also had coaching stints at Nebraska and Colorado.

In an interview with USA Volleyball, Sullivan revealed that it felt 'surreal' when he got to know that he would be head coach of the U.S women's volleyball team. He said (8:59 onwards):

"Looking over my career, I don't really think I was very far away from USA volleyball at any point, whether it was playing, coaching, I served on boards, the opportunity to represent the men's team in the last three Olympics. So unfortunately or fortunately, it's been 30 years plus of my involvement.

"And so to have this be an opportunity was a little bit surreal obviously, it's a highly sought after coaching position, it's kind of the epitome of coaching especially for our sport you know, being an Olympic sport. So just honored, truly humbled by the opportunity and super excited to get going."

Erik Sullivan was also the team leader for the U.S. men at the last three Olympics.