Daniel Thomas Fisher (born March 19, 1976) is an American retired indoor and beach volleyball player. He is the current head coach of the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

women's volleyball team.

Personal life

Fisher is a native of

Goleta, California Goleta (; ; Spanish for "Schooner") is a city in southern Santa Barbara County, California, United States. It was incorporated as a city in 2002, after a long period as the largest unincorporated populated area in the county. As of the 2000 c ...

. He graduated from

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

in 1999 with a major in sociology and minor in religious studies. In 2008, he returned to Pacific as an assistant coach on the men and women's team and simultaneously earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in sport science. Fisher is married to Joni Fisher. They have a daughter, Eden, and son, Max. Fisher enjoys playing the guitar/ukulele in his spare time.

Playing career

Fisher began his collegiate volleyball career at

Hawai'i Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...

where he played for two years. He transferred to

Cal State Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest u ...

but eventually left after playing for them for one year because they cut their men's volleyball program. He eventually settled on University of the Pacific and played for them until his graduation in 1999. After graduation, he played professionally in Europe for five years, including three in Spain and one season each in Belgium and Switzerland. Fisher also represented team USA in both indoor and beach. He competed for five years on the AVP Professional Beach Volleyball Tour earning a pair of 13th-place finishes. He also represented team USA on the indoor side during tournaments in Japan and France in 2000 and 2001.

Coaching career

Fisher began his coaching career overseas, coaching Club Volleyball Menen for the 1999–2000 season and later spent the 2003–04 season coaching the Volleyball Club Appenzell Gotten Girl's Youth in Switzerland. Fisher also coached the Club Santa Barbara 16's in 2002. Prior to becoming a head coach, Fisher had various assistant coaching roles with multiple teams including San Francisco, Hawai'i, Pacific and the U.S. men's and women's national teams. He led the U.S. women's national team to a gold medal in the 2015 Pan American games and a bronze medal in the 2016 Pan American Cup.

Concordia Irvine

Fisher's first collegiate head coach job took him to

Concordia University Irvine Concordia University Irvine is a private Lutheran university in Irvine, California, United States. It was established in 1976 to provide a Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod college to serve the Pacific Southwest and provide training for pastors, ...

, where he led the team to two straight appearances in the NAIA National Championship match, winning the title in 2012. In his two years at Concordia, his teams went undefeated in conference play and had an overall 75–2 record. His first season performance captured the attention of the volleyball community. The following summer,

Hugh McCutcheon Hugh Donald McCutcheon (born 13 October 1969), a native of Christchurch, New Zealand, is a former volleyball coach. He previously coached the US men's and women's national volleyball team, and was the head coach for the University of Minnesota' ...

invited him to serve as an assistant with Team USA at the 2012 Pan American Cup, where he also coached alongside Hall of Fame coach Mike Hebert. After helping Team USA to a gold medal in the tournament, Hebert pulled Fisher aside and said he would put a good word in for him if he ever decided to try to go for a coaching job in a

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

school. After leading Concordia to the NAIA National Championship in 2012, Division I interest quickly started to build in Fisher.

Pittsburgh

In 2013, Fisher was named the head coach for the women's volleyball team at Pittsburgh. When Fisher took the helm at Pittsburgh, they were not a program in contention for national rankings and had not reached an NCAA Tournament since 2004. In his first season, the Panthers began to show strength as they took then-No. 22 Purdue to five sets. He guided Pittsburgh to its highest totals in the following categories since 2009: hitting percentage (.230), kills/set (13.27), total kills (1725), assists/set (12.58), total assists (1635) and total aces (208) The Panthers chipped away for the next couple of seasons and reached the NCAA Tournament in 2016, their first trip since 2004. Then, Fisher led the Panthers to three straight ACC conference titles in 2017, 2018, and 2019. In 2020, despite the Panthers finishing 3rd in conference play, they advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight, the program's highest ever finish. In 2021, Fisher led Pittsburgh to the first NCAA final four appearance in school history. The team defeated UMBC, Penn State, Kansas, and Purdue leading up the final four before losing to Nebraska by a score of 3–1. Pittsburgh finished the season with a 30–4 record. In 2022, Pittsburgh was the Co-ACC champions with Louisville, going 17–1 in conference play and advanced to its second straight NCAA final four, eliminating defending 2021 NCAA champion Wisconsin in the elite eight.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Dan 1976 births Living people Pittsburgh Panthers volleyball coaches American volleyball coaches Pacific Tigers men's volleyball players Hawaii Rainbow Warriors volleyball players Cal State Northridge Matadors men's volleyball players Pacific Tigers women's volleyball coaches Pacific Tigers men's volleyball coaches Hawaii Rainbow Warriors volleyball coaches Concordia Eagles women's volleyball coaches San Francisco Dons women's volleyball coaches People from Santa Barbara, California American men's volleyball players American men's beach volleyball players Expatriate volleyball players in Spain Expatriate volleyball players in Belgium Expatriate volleyball players in Switzerland American expatriate sportspeople in Spain American expatriate sportspeople in Belgium American expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland