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Two former head coaches who led teams to NCAA men’s volleyball national championships will be on first-year BYU head coach Chris McGown’s staff for the upcoming season.
Mike Wilton and Carl McGown will be assistant coaches for the Cougars men’s volleyball team during the 2012 season, the BYU athletics department announced Thursday.
Carl McGown, who will serve as a volunteer assistant coach and is the father of Chris McGown, spent 14 seasons as BYU’s head coach from 1990-2002. In his tenure at BYU, the coach led the Cougars to national championships in 1999 and 2001 and was named the National Coach of the Year twice.
Carl McGown remains the winningest coach in program history at 225-137 and was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame in 2010.
Wilton accumulated a program-best 316 victory in his 17 years as the Hawai’i men’s volleyball head coach before retiring in 2009. The Warriors under Wilton won the 2002 national championship, but the title was later vacated because of NCAA rule violations.
Wilton since leaving Hawai’i has served as an assistant coach for the BYU women’s volleyball team.
Along with Wilton and Carl McGown, Rob Neilson was officially named an assistant coach on Thursday. Neilson was the interim head coach last season and led BYU to a second-place finish in the MPSF regular season but was upset in the conference tournament quarterfinals to miss the four-team NCAA Tournament.
Chris McGown said after being hired in June that he wanted to keep Neilson on his coaching staff for the upcoming season.
Prior to being named the BYU head coach, Chris McGown was an assistant coach for the BYU women’s volleyball team and helped run the Gold Medal Squared volleyball camps. He also played for his father while he was a student at BYU from 1990-94.
Despite Chris McGown not having a win as a NCAA men’s volleyball head coach, his coaching staff has a combined 561 career wins. It is the most combined career wins among assistant coaches on a single coaching staff in the history of NCAA men’s volleyball.
BYU ended last season No. 5 in the final coaches poll but missed the Final Four for the seventh consecutive season. The Cougars have six starters returning, including All-American outside attackers Robb Stowell and Taylor Sander and All-American middle attacker Futi Tavana.