Fran Flory (born April 30, c. 1962) is an American retired head coach of the LSU Tigers women's indoor volleyball team and former head coach of the

LSU Tigers women's beach volleyball The LSU Tigers women's beach volleyball team represents Louisiana State University in the sport of beach volleyball. The Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the Coastal Collegiate Sports Asso ...

team.

Coaching career

Flory is the former women's

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

head coach at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

Southeastern Louisiana University Southeastern Louisiana University (Southeastern) is a public university in Hammond, Louisiana. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims as Hammond Junior College. Sims succeeded in getting the campus moved to north Hammond in 1928, when it becam ...

and

Wittenberg University Wittenberg University is a private liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio. It has 1,326 full-time students representing 33 states and 9 foreign countries. Wittenberg University is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. ...

. She is first in all-time SEC wins and all-time wins at

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

, ahead of her predecessor, Scott Luster, who won 308 games in 13 years. Her LSU teams have captured seven consecutive SEC Western Division championships (2005–2011) as well as the 2009 SEC championship. Flory began her coaching career as head coach at

, where she coached for one season (posting a record of 11–21) in 1986. In 1987, she became an assistant coach at

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. After one season at Texas A&M, Flory, a

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

native moved to

as an assistant for four years under head coach Scott Luster. She served as a graduate assistant coach in 1988, before being named a full-time assistant in 1989. During her four seasons as a member of the Lady Tigers (now Tigers) coaching staff, Flory helped LSU to unprecedented success with three SEC championships, three SEC Tournament championships and two

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Final Four appearances. In 1992, Flory left LSU to assume the head coaching position at

. In her one season at Southeastern Louisiana, she led the Lady Lions to a 21–13 record. In March 1993, Flory returned to the SEC as she became an assistant coach at the

. Five months later, she was named the head coach as then-UK coach Kathy DeBoer was named an associate athletic director at the school. In her first season at Kentucky in 1993, Flory led the Lady Kats to a 29–4 record, while advancing to the second round of the

Tournament. For her efforts, she was named the 1993 Tachikara/AVCA Region IV Coach of the Year. In five seasons at UK, Flory compiled a 78–80 record with the Lady Kats/Wildcats (the nickname changed in 1995). In 1998, Flory returned to Baton Rouge, Louisiana as head coach of the LSU women's indoor volleyball team. When LSU established a varsity

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...

program starting in the 2013–2014 season, Flory also became head coach of that team. She remained the beach volleyball head coach until 2016, when

Russell Brock Russell Claude Brock, Baron Brock (24 October 1903 – 3 September 1980) was a leading British chest and heart surgeon and one of the pioneers of modern open-heart surgery. His achievements were recognised by a Knighthood in 1954, a Life Peera ...

was promoted from associate head coach to head coach and Flory focused on her duties as indoor women's head coach. Flory is a member of the

American Volleyball Coaches Association The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) is an organization of over 6,000 members, incorporated as a private non-profit educational corporation in 1981, as the Collegiate Volleyball Coaches Association. It is currently headquartered in L ...

, Flory has also assisted in coordinating both the

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

Senior Olympic Games and the

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in 1 ...

, and hosting the Senior Olympic Games in 2001. She is also a member of the United States

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

Association coaching accreditation program. Flory was inducted into the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2022.

Playing career

A 1984 graduate of the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, Flory has also experienced much success as a player. In 1981, she was a member of Texas'

AIAW The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded in 1971 to govern collegiate women's athletics in the United States and to administer national championships (see AIAW Champions). It evolved out of the Commission on Interc ...

National Championship squad. She received All-

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

and All-South Region honors during three seasons with the Longhorns.

Collegiate head coaching record

Indoor

Beach

References

External links

LSU Lady Tigers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flory, Fran American volleyball coaches Living people 1960s births Year of birth missing (living people) Texas Longhorns women's volleyball players Texas A&M Aggies women's volleyball coaches Southeastern Louisiana Lady Lions volleyball coaches Kentucky Wildcats women's volleyball coaches LSU Tigers women's volleyball coaches LSU Tigers women's beach volleyball coaches