Louisville native Rick Nold was named head coach of Bellarmine University volleyball just prior to the fall 2022 season after 18 successful seasons as a collegiate head coach at Jacksonville State and Auburn where he compiled a career record of 299-237.
Nold began his coaching career at the high school level in Louisville as an assistant at Assumption High School, where he helped lead the team to three state championships and a 137-9 overall record. In 1996, he joined the staff at the University of Louisville, spending six years with the Cardinals, the last four as a full-time assistant whose duties included recruiting coordinator. During his time at Louisville, the Cardinals won four Conference USA titles and advanced to the NCAA Tournament five times, advancing to the Sweet 16 in 1996 and 1998.
While at Louisville, he also served as an intern with USA Volleyball, where he assisted the women's national team in preparations for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He also was active in Louisville club volleyball, serving as head coach of the 16-and-under and 18-and-under teams for the Kentucky Indiana Volleyball Academy (KIVA). His KIVA teams won four straight AAU national championships (1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999). His teams also earned Top 5 finishes at the USA Volleyball National Championships in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001.
Nold made the leap to collegiate head coach by taking over the program at Jacksonville State in 2002, inheriting a team that was coming off of four consecutive losing seasons and back-to-back 11-17 efforts. He led the Gamecocks for nine seasons, compiling a 172-98 record and took a program that had just one Division I postseason appearance before his arrival to postseason play in eight of his nine seasons, including berths in the 2005, 2006 and 2009 NCAA tournaments, the first three appearances in program history.
A three-time Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year, Nold led the Gamecocks to multiple regular season or tourney league championships. Jacksonville State captured the OVC regular season in 2006, `07 and `09 while winning the conference tournament title in 2005, `06 and `09.
In 2011, Nold was named head coach at Auburn University, where he served a nine-year stint while putting together a 127-139 overall record (.477). In his second season (2012), the Tigers saw a six-match improvement from his first as he took the Tigers from an 11-19 mark (5-15 SEC) in 2011 to a 17-13 record (8-12 SEC) in 2012. He led the Tigers to nine straight wins to open the season, the second-longest winning streak in program history.
The improvement continued in 2013 when Auburn finished 19-11, tying for sixth in the SEC with a 10-8 conference record. The 10 victories in SEC play were the most by the Tigers since 2010. Nold also guided the Tigers to their first-ever win over a top-10 opponent, knocking off No. 10 Nebraska, 3-1.
During his coaching time at Auburn, Nold's players re-wrote the Tigers' record book. Jesse Earl became Auburn’s first All-American and set the program record for career digs/set with a 4.79 average. Her 5.19 digs/set mark in 2017 also is an Auburn best for a single season. Camila Jersonsky finished her career as Auburn's all-time leader in hitting percentage (.355), while also ranking in the top-10 in program history with 368 total blocks, 317 block assists, blocks per set and solo blocks.
Nold’s coaching tenure also includes impressive academic accolades for his players. Abbey Breit of Jacksonville State was a 1st team Academic All-American in 2006 and 2007, and Auburn’s Stephanie Campbell was named the Southeastern Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2015.
After his tenure at Auburn, Nold returned to club coaching in his hometown where he has led the KIVA 15s Red team for the past several years.
