Follow
The head coach who led Mount Olive to its first two conference titles will be back on the Conference Carolinas sidelines.
The defending-conference champions Erskine announced Friday afternoon that it hired Cole Tallman to be its new head coach for the 2015 season.
Tallman in his four seasons with Mount Olive led the Trojans to conference championships in 2010 and 2011 — the first two years that the Conference Carolinas sponsored men’s volleyball. In addition, Tallman was named the inaugural recipient of the men’s volleyball Conference Carolinas Coach of the Year in 2010.
After the Trojans had their fourth consecutive winning season under Tallman, the coach in July 2012 resigned from position at Mount Olive and became the women’s volleyball head coach at Vernon College.
Tallman throughout his college coaching career has accumulated 791 combined career victories in men’s and women’s volleyball. He also has served as a coach for a team at every NCAA division classification.
“We were extremely fortunate to have a high quality search for the position,” Erskine vice president of intercollegiate athletics Mark Peeler said in a statement released Friday. “We interviewed four outstanding people who all would have done a great job leading our men’s volleyball program. Cole emerged as the best fit for Erskine. His passion for the game, his desire for development of young people, his faith, and personality match well for what we are as an athletics department. I am excited that Cole Tallman will be leading our men’s volleyball program.”
Erskine in its second year of existence defeated Mount Olive in the Conference Carolinas Tournament championship match last season to win the conference title and receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Flyers return all of their starters from last year’s team — including All-American Honorable Mention outside attacker Michael Michelau and outside attacker Roberto Perez Vargas, an Off the Block/Springbak, Inc. Freshmen All-American Team selection