Jose Loiola, a former standout in beach volleyball and Hall of Fame player, has started his first season as head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks women’s beach volleyball team. The team will open its season this Friday and Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida.
Loiola previously served as an assistant coach at UCLA and led USA Volleyball’s National Development Team, where he helped build the program from the ground up. Reflecting on his transition to coaching after injuries ended his firefighting ambitions, Loiola said, “I’ve done a lot for this sport, and it has done a lot for me, so I wanted to give back.” He added about coaching: “I didn’t realize the difference I could make as a coach.”
He described his work with the USA team: “With the USA team, the job was to bridge the gap between the students who graduated from college that wanted to play pro and represent the U.S. My job was to train them and get them ready to compete internationally. That first year I had maybe three people come in for the men and maybe three for the women. The following year, I had people begging to come into the program.”
Under Loiola’s leadership, participation in USA Volleyball’s development program increased quickly. He aims to use that experience to help South Carolina become competitive nationally.
“If you want to win, you have to implement the winning mentality,” Loiola said. “What does a top D1 program do? They train Monday through Saturday. They lift three times per week, and they do sand conditioning two times a week. That’s the bare minimum. Then you have to get everyone training at the same time. We’re starting with that. You have to have a good school where people want to come, which we do, and you have to have resources like more scholarships, and do better in recruiting. We recruit nationally.”
Loiola has blended returning players with new recruits for this season and expressed optimism about competing in their new conference.
“That will help because we will be able to compete against better teams,” Loiola said regarding joining the Big 12 Conference. “That’s how you get better. It is a big deal.”
He highlighted several key players: “I think (returning) players like fifth year senior Rachel Hartmann really stepped up in our fall season, and senior Jolie Cranford is a leader who can do super well for us. Senior VB Trost and some of the others who have been here have big potential. Evie Ziffer (Jr.) is a massive blocker! We brought in Ameila Taft (Jr.) from LSU and Brooke Balue (Jr.) from Washington. Brooke and Rachel played in the (Fall) nationals, and they beat #2 from TCU in the tournament. They beat some really good teams. There are some people here we can develop.”
“We’re setting high standards,” he continued. “We want all that work from the fall to translate into the spring.”
Looking ahead beyond this season, Loiola remains focused on building for future success.
“It takes time, but I have the knowledge and passion for the sport,” he said.”I came here and realized, this place is awesome.We have resources and a beautiful facility.If you look at recruits we have for 2027 and ones we’re looking at for 2028,it’s night and day.We have some great ones coming in.”
