Nearly a month and a half after Chris Campbell resigned, Boston College volleyball completed its search for a new head coach. On Tuesday, Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond announced the hiring of University of Southern California’s Jason Kennedy.
“Jason possesses an impressive background as a student-athlete and a coach at the college and U.S. National team levels,” Jarmond told BCEagles.com. “He is a highly-respected recruiter, teacher, and strategist and has developed some of the best young volleyball student-athletes in the nation.”
After eight years with one of the most storied volleyball programs in the nation, Kennedy will take over a BC team that hasn’t had a winning season since 2004.
The Honolulu native has spent the last three seasons as a member of USC women’s volleyball staff—the final two of which he served as the as the team’s associate head coach. During that span, the Women of Troy have posted a 75-25 record and reached the NCAA Tournament three times.
This past year, USC made another trip to the NCAA Regional Final—its second in the last three seasons. The Women of Troy were edged by Florida, the eventual national runners-up.
In 2015—USC’s best regular season since it went undefeated in 2003—Kennedy, an assistant coach at the time, was integral in developing AVCA National Player of the Year Samantha Bricio. Prior to that, he worked as the technical director for both of the school’s volleyball programs for four years. He was tasked with scouting the opposition, coming up with in-game strategy, and preparing gameplans throughout the season, in addition to supervising video analysis, exchange, distribution.
Outside of the collegiate ranks, Kennedy was hired as a scout coach for the men’s and women’s 2012 U.S. Olympic Beach Volleyball teams. While in London, he created scouting reports and analyzed the tape to help the Americans prepare for their upcoming opponents. He performed similar duties in 2013 and 2015 on the FIVB World Tour.
Kennedy, who was a setter and team captain at Santa Clara from 2004-07, isn’t entirely new to the heading coaching gig. In 2014, he led Club Troy 17 to a third-place finish at the Junior National Championships. And before that, he guided Los Altos High School to four-consecutive California Interscholastic Federation playoff appearances.
Featured Image by Jake Catania / Heights Staff
