Jerritt Elliott enters his second season as interim head coach of the USC women's volleyball program. He will continue in this capacity throughout the 2000 season, as the team awaits the arrival of U.S. National Team head coach Mick Haley following the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney, Australia. In his fifth season as a member of the Women of Troy coaching staff, Elliott led the 1999 squad to unexpected success in his rookie season as a collegiate head coach. He was honored as the 1999 Pac-10 Coach of the Year and became just the second head coach in conference history to post 13 league wins in his first season. Leading USC to a 13-5 (.722) Pac-10 record, he recorded the best-ever win percentage by a first-year coach in the conference. Through most of the 1999 season, the Women of Troy found a way to win with only one returning starter, nine healthy players and a schedule which included 20 matches on the road. Elliott led the team to its ninth-consecutive winning record in the Pac-10 (only Stanford has a longer streak at 14), its ninth-straight NCAA postseason appearance and a No. 17 final national ranking. A true players' coach, Elliott's coaching efforts were most evident when all six of his 1999 starters were named to all-conference teams. It is this devotion that brought four of the most highly touted national recruits to sign with the Women of Troy for the 2000 season. Elliott's first recruiting class as head coach was ranked No. 1 according to Volleyball magazine's national rankings, marking USC's first-ever top rank in the magazine's history. Entering his sixth season at USC, Elliott has had coaching experience at the high school, club, international and collegiate level. He joined the USC program in August of 1995 as a volunteer assistant and was promoted to assistant coach in 1996. Each season as an assistant coach, the Women of Troy advanced to the NCAA regional semifinals and finished ranked in the national Top 15. He also helped produce two-time All-American middle blocker Jasmina Marinkovic (1995-98). Elliott was an assistant coach on the 1998 U.S. Junior National Team which won the NORCECA gold medal and qualified for the World Championships. He served as the director/head coach of the Westside Volleyball Club (1992-95), where he led his 1994 squad to a fourth-place finish in the Nike Volleyball Festival and in 1992-93 he was a head coach for Forum Team Cup Volleyball. His gained his first collegiate level coaching experience as an assistant with the Cal State Northridge men's volleyball program in 1993, when the Matadors advanced to the NCAA Championship match before losing to UCLA. Among his high school head coaching experiences, Elliott spent three years (1992-1994) at Marymount High in Westwood, Calif., where he directed his girls' squad to the league championship in 1993. He also spent one year (1991) at Palisades High (his alma mater) in Pacific Palisades, Calif., leading the girls' team to a 16-3 record and the L.A. City title. Elliott played collegiate volleyball at Pepperdine in 1986-88 and at Hawai'i during the 1989-90 season. As an outside hitter at Palisades High in 1985-86, Elliott played with former USC standout Kevin Shepard and 1996 U.S. Olympic beach volleyball gold medalist Kent Steffes. As an All-L.A. City second team selection, he led Palisades to 36-0 record in his final season. Elliott earned his bachelor's degree in kinesiology from Cal State Northridge in 1991. Born April 28, 1968, he is single and currently resides in Santa Monica, Calif. |
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