From being outdoors with sand between his toes, to mentoring student-athletes, Russell Brock, LSU’s first sand volleyball coach, loves everything about his job.
The man picked to lead the Tigers in the new program’s inaugural season emits a passion for the sport that those around him can’t help but notice and spread.
“That’s one of the reasons I knew that he would be the right fit not only for LSU but for sand volleyball,” said LSU indoor volleyball coach Fran Flory. “This is Russell. He fits the culture, he fits the profile of a great college coach.”
Brock’s love of sand volleyball began during his years playing indoor volleyball for University of Southern California. He and his teammates would regularly go to the beach and play during the offseason, and he became hooked.
Everything about the sport enthralled him: the atmosphere, the sand and the intimate nature of the sport.
“It was just an enhancement of a great vibe,” Brock said. “It was the same sport, but it was even better, if that were possible.”
After finishing his collegiate career, Brock said he had opportunities to continue playing indoor volleyball competitively, but he decided to focus almost exclusively on developing his game as an outdoor player.
But he never fully abandoned indoor volleyball. As he finished up his career as a Trojan, he began coaching a juniors’ club boys’ team along with one of the coaches who recruited him to USC.
Brock said he never seriously considered coaching prior to this gig.
“Any time you’re an athlete, you respect the profession,” Brock said. “I didn’t want to be a coach. I wanted to be a professional athlete. That would probably be the dream job.”
If that didn’t work out, he thought he might pursue a career in physical therapy or medicine, which he studied in college. But one thing led to the next, and all of a sudden he was back in his hometown of Baytown, Texas, coaching the Baytown Christian Academy girls’ volleyball team and serving as the school’s athletic director.
After an 11-year stint at Baytown, Brock returned to collegiate indoor volleyball as a volunteer and assistant coach at Rice University, where he spent eight years.
But even in that time, his itch for the outdoor game never subsided.
When collegiate sand volleyball began to take shape as an NCAA sanctioned sport, Brock immediately began working on his personal development as a sand coach to ensure he was fully prepared for the opportunity he had no doubt he would receive.
“If this was something I’d be interested in doing, I was going to make sure that when the opportunity did arrive that I’d be prepared,” Brock said. “More than hunting for a job, I just tried to turn the focus around and prepare myself.”
Upon becoming LSU’s choice to be the Tigers’ first sand volleyball coach, Brock hit the ground running in areas such as recruiting and building relationships with his athletes, Flory said.
He quickly learned the strengths, weaknesses and personalities of every player, taking a more focused approach to coaching them each individually.
“You can tell he really cares about us all individually and how we’re progressing with our own skills,” said LSU freshman Emma Hiller. “You can tell he really wants all of us to get better individually and as a team as well.”
His love for the sport and laid back nature give him the ability to motivate his athletes, even on cold and wet days when practicing conditions aren’t exactly ideal for an outdoor sport.
That’s not to say he doesn’t push his players. He does on a daily basis, but it’s a good kind of push, according to LSU senior Kaitlin Hatcher. One that makes them want to impress him.
“He’s just a cool coach,” Hatcher said. “I can’t put it any simpler than that.”
Brock may have made a splash in his short time in Baton Rouge, but he knows his job has only just begun. He was not just chosen to coach LSU’s sand volleyball team. He was chosen to take a program in its infancy and mold it into a thriving competitor that meets the standards of LSU athletics.
Flory seems to think he’s just the guy for the job.
“He kind of has a little bit of everything,” Flory said. “To have somebody with that many attributes that will directly relate to success in this program … there are not many of them out there. We’re very fortunate to have him and thankful that he said yes.”
“This is Russell. He fits the culture, he fits the profile of a great college coach.”