Heather Olmstead is an American volleyball head coach for the

BYU Cougars women's volleyball The BYU women's volleyball program began its first year in 1969. The current coach is Heather Olmstead who is in her ninth season coaching the BYU Cougars women's volleyball team. To see the current season visit 2023 BYU Cougars women's volleyb ...

team. In 2018, she was named 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 ...

Coach of the Year. She also served as head coach of the U.S. Collegiate National Team in Japan and as the assistant coach at the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...

. Her brother, Shawn Olmstead, coaches the

BYU Cougars men's volleyball The BYU men's volleyball program began its first year in 1990. The current coach is Shawn Olmstead who is in his eighth season coaching the BYU Cougars men's volleyball team. History Results by season All-Americans First Team *Ethan Watts ...

team.

Personal life

Olmstead is one of seven children born to parents Rick and Trudy Olmstead. Her twin sister Nicole was also an athlete in high school. Olmstead is a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

Career

High school

Olmstead attended

Carpinteria High School Carpinteria High School is a high school located in Carpinteria, California. Located adjacent to the foothills on the edge of the Carpinteria Valley, it is the only public high school in Carpinteria and serves a student body of approximately 600 st ...

for four years. She was a starter on the school's volleyball team her entire high school career and earned team MVP in 1997.

Utah State

After graduating from

, Olmstead was a four-year starter on the Utah State Aggies women's volleyball team from 1999 until 2001 while majoring in family and consumer science. In her sophomore year, she averaged 2.08 digs per game. In both her junior and senior years, she helped the team qualify for the NCAA tournament and rank top-25 within their national collegiate league. She also became the first defensive specialist in

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

history to be named first-team all-league. As a result, she finished her collegiate career with the second-highest dig total in school history and set a new single-season record for most digs with 340. Her record was broken in 2003 by Taubi Neves who recorded 344 digs. She graduated from Utah State in 2002 and joined the coaching staff in 2003 as an assistant coach. However, she was eligible for the 2003 United States Professional Volleyball (USPV) Draft after she received an invite to the USPV National Athlete Tryout Camp. Olmstead was also the only Libero draft-eligible out of 109 athletes.

BYU

In 2011, her brother convinced her to coach at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

(BYU). She worked under him as an assistant coach to the

team until her promotion to head coach in 2015. In her first year as head coach, Olmstead led the team to a 28–3 record and won the 2015 Marcia E. Hamilton Classic title. As a result, she was the recipient of the 2015

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ...

Coach of the Year honors. Olmstead was later approached by USA Volleyball (USAV) to have her serve as an assistant coach at the

under the direction of Dan Fisher. The following year, Olmstead was named the

South Region Coach of the Year after she led the team to the

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 ...

tournament. In May 2016, she was asked to serve as an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2016 XV Pan-American Cup. Her winning streak continued as the 2017 Cougars women's volleyball team held a 30–3 record and won the conference title. During the 2018 season, Olmstead earned her 100th win in a match against Pepperdine University. At the conclusion of the season, she was named the

Coach of the Year. The following year, USAV chose her to coach the U.S. Collegiate National Volleyball Team in Japan. At the time of her selection, Olmstead held the highest winning percentage of any women's volleyball coach in NCAA Division I history with a minimum of one season and in any division with a minimum of three seasons.

Head coaching record

, -

References

External links

Staff profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olmstead, Heather Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Latter Day Saints from California People from Carpinteria, California BYU Cougars women's volleyball coaches Utah State Aggies women's volleyball players American women's volleyball players American volleyball coaches