Andrew Halaz, (pronounced HAL-ez), who has achieved success as a coach within the Great Lakes Valley Conference and also at a pair of NCAA Division I institutions, begins his sixth season as the women's volleyball coach in the 2023 season. He will also serve as the assistant coach for the S&T men's volleyball program.
The S&T women's program has made the GLVC Tournament in each of the last four seasons under Halaz's guidance, including a trip to the championship game in the 2021 spring season when it fell in five sets to Southern Indiana. The Miners have gone 85-52 during his five seasons at the helm of the women's program..
During his first season at the helm of the Miner volleyball program, Halaz led the program to a five-game improvement from the year prior and began the season with a 7-2 start. A year later, he guided the Miners to their best record in four seasons as they compiled a 21-10 record and reached the GLVC Tournament for the first time since 2015. S&T reached the 10- and 20-win marks faster than any season in school history during the 2019 campagn.
In the 2021 spring season, S&T made it into the American Volleyball Coaches Association's national rankings for the first time during a season in which it went 14-7. The Miners reached the championship game of the GLVC Tournament that season with wins over Quincy and Lewis before falling in the title contest to Southern Indiana. Missouri S&T has gone 19-11 and 16-9 over each of the last two seasons; it opened a season with six straight wins for the first time in program history in 2022 and beat two teams -- Missouri-St. Louis and Gannon -- that played in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.
The Miners have had 12 All-GLVC selections during Halaz's tenure and last season, had an All-Midwest region selection in Shelby Ply.
"I've had the opportunity to work with a lot of great mentors and feel very confident in running a program at a championship-caliber level," Halaz added. "I'm very excited about the challenge that awaits. The GLVC is one of the premier conferences in NCAA Division II and I want to be able to build a program to where we can find success both within the league and beyond."
In the inaugural men's volleyball campaign, of which Halaz served as the head coach, the Miners won nine of their final 10 matches of the season to post a 12-9 record. S&T also had a freshman All-America selection in Nate Meyer as he earned the honor from the AVCA. Halaz turned over the head coaching duties of the men's program to assistant Ryan Thompson following the 2023 campaign.
Halaz coached in the GLVC as an assistant at Rockhurst University – where he earned his bachelor's degree from in 2008 – for four seasons and during that time was involved in several aspects of the program, including scouting, initiating practice plans and assisting with game strategy and instruction. During those four seasons, the Hawks posted a record of 103-34 and reached the NCAA Division II Tournament in each of those years.
Rockhurst had the best regular season record in its final season as a member of the Heartland Conference in 2004, then posted the top mark in its inaugural season in the GLVC a year later. The Hawks won at least 22 games in each of the four seasons Halaz was assisting the program, including a 29-win campaign in 2005.
Halaz left Rockhurst following the 2007 season to become the assistant coach and director of volleyball operations at Saint Louis University, where he spent the next two seasons handling similar duties as he had at Rockhurst as well as working with alumni, social outreach events and fundraising for the program.
In both seasons at Saint Louis, the Billikens won at least a share of the Atlantic 10 Conference regular season championship and made the NCAA Tournament field in both years, advancing to the second round in 2008. The Billikens had a record of 53-13 over those two seasons. Halaz would return to the Saint Louis program in 2015 as a volunteer assistant coach.
Following the 2009 season, Halaz moved on to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he was the lead court trainer for the Hoyas and also coordinated the team's summer camps, fundraisers and service projects. In addition, he was the Big East Conference's assistant coach liaison to the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
While at Georgetown, Halaz also became a program coach with USA Volleyball, where he coached A1 and A2 teams at camps and the High Performance Championships. He also coached the Youth National Team Prospects winter training program in 2015.
Since 2014, Halaz has served as the director of marketing and the outdoor director for High Performance STL Volleyball Club in St. Louis, where he has coached one of the club's top teams and has organized the outdoor training program. He has also handled the communication duties with the program's alumni as well as the club's website and social media outlets.
"The thing I want to do is build a program where the student-athletes are coming for a first-class experience in all aspects – academically, athletically and communally," Halaz said. "The academics here have a great reputation and we want to continue build that same reputation within the volleyball program and in the community. We want to be able to compete in all aspects to have an overarching first-class experience."
