BYU head women's volleyball coach Shawn Olmstead announced Wednesday he has promoted assistant coach Heather Olmstead to associate head coach.
In 2014, Heather helped BYU to a 30-5 overall record, a West Coast Conference title, a trip to the championship match at the NCAA Tournament and the Cougars highest-ever final ranking at No. 3. In her four seasons as an assistant coach, she has helped BYU compile an overall record of 103-25 and three-straight regional semifinal NCAA Tournament appearances.
“Heather has been an integral part of our success and improvement here at BYU,” Shawn said. “She has an unrivaled work ethic and an incredible desire to help our team improve. Heather understands the profession and also the life of a student-athlete. We are fortunate to have her on our staff and I'm honored to work so closely with her.”
Heather joined the BYU staff as an assistant coach in 2011 when Shawn took over the program. As the associate head coach, she will continue her duties as recruiting coordinator, work on scouting and game prep, and train the outside hitters and liberos.
Before arriving at BYU, she was an assistant coach at Utah from 2006-10, after serving as an assistant at her alma mater Utah State from 2003-05. Additionally, Heather was the head coach of the Intermountain Volleyball Association High Performance team in 2006, as well as the 2010 IVA HP Select Team in Florida.
As a player, Heather was the starting libero during her four seasons at Utah State. She set a single-season Aggie dig record and finished her career with the second-most digs in Utah State women’s volleyball history. During her senior season in 2001, she helped the Aggies advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and a No. 21 final ranking. Following graduation, Heather was the only libero selected on the 2002-03 United States Professional Volleyball Team. Additionally, she played for the European Professional Volleyball League in 2003 before retiring from playing to begin her coaching career.
Royce Hinton is the men's and women's volleyball sports information director for BYU Athletic Communications.