UC Riverside hired Ron Larsen as the head women’s volleyball coach on May 1, 2009, joining the Highlanders after four years as the top assistant coach for the USA Men’s National Volleyball Team.
The international sporting world was introduced to Larsen when he took over for Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon at the 2008 Olympic Games, coaching the U.S. Men's Team in their first three contests.
Larsen coached the U.S. Men's Team to three pool play victories against Venezuela (Aug. 10; 25-18, 25-18, 22-25, 21-25, 15-10), Italy (Aug. 12; 24-26, 25-22, 25-15, 25-21) and Bulgaria (Aug. 14; 27-29, 25-21, 25-14, 26-24) before McCutcheon returned to the team, which went on to win the Olympic gold medal for the first time since 1988.
Formerly the head coach of the UC San Diego men's volleyball team, Larsen was hired as an assistant coach for the USA Men on April 13, 2005.
When asked at the time what qualities he looked for in an assistant coach, McCutcheon said, "You need someone who knows how to work hard, because you put in a lot of hours. You also want them to be good in the gym. I think you also want someone who is an upstanding individual, someone with honesty, integrity and loyalty. Ron was an easy choice because he filled all of those criteria."
In his three seasons at UC Riverside, Larsen has coached seven All-Big West Conference performers, and the 2011 squad tied the program's Division I record for most wins in league play.
Larsen, the 2004 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Coach of the Year, completed six seasons as the UCSD head coach. Larsen came to UCSD in 2000—in the school's final year of NCAA Division III affiliation—and led the Tritons to one of the most memorable seasons in the program's history. UCSD won the Molten Division III Men's Volleyball Invitational Championship that season and recorded the most wins (nine) for a Triton team in 10 seasons.
That year he also led the team to its first MPSF victory in three seasons as UCSD competed as the only Division II team and the only non-scholarship program in the nation's toughest men's volleyball conference.
The 2004 season included wins against No. 11 Penn State, No. 9 UC Irvine and No. 7 UC Santa Barbara. The win over the Gauchos marked two program firsts: defeating UCSB and giving the Tritons four victories in the MPSF, the most in school history.
Larsen came to UCSD after seven seasons at the University of Rutgers-Newark where he was the head coach of both the men’s and women’s programs.
Larsen has coaching roots in the University of California (UC) system, having begun his coaching career at the University of California, Berkeley, where he led the Bears' men's volleyball team to a record of 102-29 at the club level.
He coached at Cal from 1980-84 and again from 1987-89. He also served as an assistant coach of the women's volleyball team at St. Mary's College from 1987-88 before moving on to the UC Davis in 1989.
At Davis, he served as assistant coach of the women's team for four seasons and as head coach of the men's team from 1991-93, leading the Aggies to a 65-31 record and a fifth-place finish at the 1993 national club volleyball tournament.
Larsen served as head men's and women's coach at Rutgers-Newark from 1993-99, compiling a record of 103-88 in men's volleyball and 122-96 with the women's team. The men's team was consistently ranked in the nation's top 15.
Larsen was named New Jersey Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1995 and 1998 and Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) Coach of the Year in 1998.
Larsen's coaching experience also includes the 1995 USA Olympic Festival, where he served as head coach of the North Men's Team and led his squad to a silver medal. He also coached the 1996 USA Boys Youth National Team, featuring the nation's top 18 high school players.
|
Larsen Year-by-Year Record as Head Coach |
|
|
|
Men |
Women |
|
Year |
School |
W |
L |
W |
L |
|
1993 |
Rutgers-Newark |
|
|
14 |
7 |
|
1994 |
Rutgers-Newark |
20 |
13 |
21 |
14 |
|
1995 |
Rutgers-Newark |
24 |
15 |
22 |
11 |
|
1996 |
Rutgers-Newark |
14 |
15 |
15 |
18 |
|
1997 |
Rutgers-Newark |
12 |
20 |
10 |
23 |
|
1998 |
Rutgers-Newark |
18 |
12 |
29 |
6 |
|
1999 |
Rutgers-Newark |
15 |
16 |
11 |
17 |
|
2000 |
UC San Diego |
8 |
18 |
|
|
|
2001 |
UC San Diego |
6 |
21 |
|
|
|
2002 |
UC San Diego |
7 |
23 |
|
|
|
2003 |
UC San Diego |
6 |
22 |
|
|
|
2004 |
UC San Diego |
8 |
21 |
|
|
|
2005 |
UC San Diego |
2 |
24 |
|
|
|
2009 |
UC Riverside |
|
|
6 |
21 |
|
2010 |
UC Riverside |
|
|
2 |
30 |
|
2011 |
UC Riverside |
|
|
7 |
23 |
|
|
l |
|
|
|
|
|
Men |
140-220 |
|
|
|
Women |
|
|
137-170 |
|
Combined |
|
277-390 |
|
