Haley Eckerman (10 November 1992) is an American

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 ...

player and coach. She played for the

University of Texas at Austin 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 ...

, including on the squad that won the national title in 2012. She subsequently played abroad and now coaches in her home state of

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Early life

As a high school athlete, Eckerman won honors including 2010

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All-American, Prep Volleyball All American (2008, 2009, 2010), All-State Team (all four years), and Iowa 4A Player of the Year (three years), and led the state of Iowa in kills three years in a row. She also played on the United States Girls Youth National Team as well as the Junior Women's National Team. By her junior year, she was ranked the number 5 volleyball recruit in the United States with interest from most of the top programs in the nation. This was complicated by a pregnancy

junior year A junior is person in the third year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In United States high schools, a junio ...

; however Texas coach

Jerritt Elliott Jerritt Kurt Elliott (born April 28, 1968) is an American volleyball head coach of the Texas Longhorns women's volleyball team since 2001. Personal life Elliott is a native of California and graduated from Palisades High School in Pacific Pali ...

told her that her scholarship would still be honored. Eckerman gave birth to her son in May 2010 and returned to play for her senior high school season and prepare for her collegiate debut. Eckerman's mother and grandparents moved with her from Iowa to

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

to assist with raising her son while she was in school. During Eckerman's first year at Texas, as an

outside hitter 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 Summe ...

, she played all 6 rotations and started every game, with the team ultimately winning the 2012 Division 1 National Championship, Texas's first title in 20 years. Eckerman earned ESPN National Freshman of the Year, AVCA and ''Volleyball Magazine'' Freshman of the Year (making her the second player in Texas program history to do so), and earned Big 12 First Team honors. She returned her sophomore year, named to the 2012 Big 12 Preseason Team. She went on to be named ESPN Player of the Year (2012), 3x Big 12 Player of the Year in (2012, 2013, 2014), 2x AVCA First Team All American (2012, 2013), Big 12 First Team (2011, 2013, 2014), espn and Volleyball Magazine Player of the Year. Eckerman was named as one of the four finalists for the

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in th ...

in volleyball for both 2013 and 2014. She also became the ninth player in Texas volleyball history to score 500 kills in one season.

Career

After her senior year, Eckerman made a living by playing professionally overseas for GS Caltex in South Korea She played in a variety of countries including

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, and

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. She continued her professional career until 2018 when she returned to the states to walk in the May graduation ceremony, though she had already received her diploma in the summer of 2017, earning a bachelor's degree in Applied Learning and Development. She then headed to her home state where she took on a high school head coaching position in the town of

Waterloo, Iowa Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census the population was 67,314, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. The city is part of the Waterloo – Cedar Falls ...

. Eckerman now serves as the recruiting coordinator and assistant coach at

Lamar University Lamar University (Lamar or LU) is a public university in Beaumont, Texas. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the fall of 2021, th ...

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eckerman, Haley 1992 births Living people American women's volleyball players American volleyball coaches Sportspeople from Waterloo, Iowa Texas Longhorns women's volleyball players