COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Dec. 20, 2017) – USA Volleyball has named the 2018 High Performance national team head coaches.
All four coaches — Kevin Hambly, Jonah Carson, Jim Stone and Brad Keller — have great experience with USAV’s High Performance Program and national teams. In all cases, the coaches will lead teams to the NORCECA Championship for their age group, Women’s (under-20) and Men’s (under-21) Junior National Teams and Girls’ (under-18) and Boys’ (under-19) Youth National Teams.
Support staff members for the teams will be announced shortly.
Women’s Junior National Team
Kevin Hambly has accepted the role of head coach for the U.S. Women’s Junior National Team (WJNT) for the 2018 season.
Hambly, who recently finished his first season as the head coach for the Stanford University women’s team, leading it to the NCAA semifinals, has USA Volleyball coaching experience at nearly at all levels.
After serving as an assistant coach on the WJNT in 1999, Hambly shifted into a full-time assistant role with the U.S. Women’s National Team from 2001 to 2004, including the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. He helped Team USA finish with silver at the 2002 FIVB World Championship and gold at the 2001 FIVB World Grand Prix.
Hambly later served as a USA Girls Select Coach during the 2006-2007 seasons in the High Performance Championships.
“High Performance is where the players develop their passion for playing for our country,” Hambly said. “I have seen so many athletes start as a junior high age participant in High Performance and develop their games to the level where they get to represent our country at the Olympics.”
Men’s Junior National Team
Jonah Carson will serve as the head coach of the 2018 Men’s Junior National Team (MJNT).
Carson has been involved with the USAV HP Program since 2007. Most recently, he served as assistant coach to the MJNT in 2016 and ’17.
“Being head coach of the Men’s Junior Team is an exciting honor,” Carson said. “It’s just an honor to continue to be involved developing athletes and developing volleyball in the U.S.”
Carson began working with the HP Program in 2007 as an assistant coach at the Boys’ Select A1 Camp. He served as the head coach at UC Santa Cruz (2005-2010) and is currently the club director of Mountain View Volleyball Club.
Girls Youth National Team
Jim Stone has agreed to return to the USA Volleyball Performance pipeline to serve as head coach of the U.S. Girls Youth National Team (GYNT) in 2018.
Stone has been involved with the GYNT program for more than a decade. Except for the 2016 season, he has held the head coaching role for the GYNT since 2008. He spearheaded the GYNT to win silver medals at the 2013 and 2015 FIVB Girls U18 World Championship, which marks USA Volleyball’s only medals in age-group World Championships. The U.S. also won gold medals at the 2008, 2010 and 2012 NORCECA Girls U18 Continental Championships, along with the silver medal at the 2014 event.
“The HP program is a wonderful opportunity for players to improve and be challenged by playing with and against the best players in the country and the world,” Stone said.
Boys Youth National Team
Brad Keller, an assistant coach with the UCLA men’s volleyball team, will serve as head coach of the 2018 Boys Youth National Team (BYNT).
Keller has been involved with USAV’s High Performance Program since 2006. He served as the associate head coach for the 2016 and ’17 BYNTs and as an assistant coach for the 2014 and ’15 BYNTs.
“I am grateful to be representing our country as head coach of the youth national team this summer,” Keller said. “I am eager to work with this incredible group of young men who have been trained very well by USA Select coaching staff the past two summers.”
Keller has worked his way up through the USAV High Performance coaching ranks. In 2006-09 he was an assistant coach for A1 Select at the High Performance Championships. In 2010 he was an assistant coach for the Men’s Junior National Team.