Speraw: “We hope we can continue to build the sport in all directions”

John Speraw made a major impact on the success of American volleyball from the sidelines over the last 11 years, as the head coach of the country’s men’s national team. Recently appointed as USA Volleyball's new President and CEO, he hopes to be able to do a lot more in the new position.

A former player and the longtime head coach of UCLA, one of the winningest men’s volleyball programs in the American collegiate system, the 52-year-old replaces Jamie Davis, who headed the organization for seven years, from 2017 to 2024.

“It all developed fairly quickly after the Paris Olympics,” he said in an exclusive interview to Volleyball World’s YouTube channel. “It was a pretty unique professional situation and opportunity for personal growth, but not a lot of coaches do what I’m about to do. But I think this larger picture vision of what I think about the sport has been occupying my mind more and more. I was thinking this was something I could do and when it became reality, I had to make a tough call and walk away from coaching. As coaches, we keep telling our players to embrace change and I thought it was time to take our own advice.”

During his time with the USA men’s national team, Speraw led the Americans to win bronze at the Rio 2016 and Paris 2024 Olympics – he was an assistant with the team that won gold in Beijing 2008 -, as well as medals in the FIVB World Championship and the Volleyball Nations League.

His path is similar to the one of the legendary Doug Beal, who after coaching the country’s men’s national team from 1997 to 2005 took over as USA Volleyball’s president, staying at the helm until Davis’ arrival.

“Doug hired me for the national team job and we’ve been close all these years,” Speraw reflected. “He’s been amazing about staying in touch, he watches every match and sends me texts. He didn't know about this, but was really excited when it happened. I want to talk to him, Doug’s experience is invaluable. I need to make sure I’m really good on aspects of USA Volleyball I’m not very familiar with and I need to talk to Doug about how he made this transition.”

The former men’s national team head coach takes the challenge in what will be a critical moment for American volleyball and sports in general, with Los Angeles set to host the next Olympics, in 2028.

“For all of us in the sport, the LA Olympics will be a big moment,” he said. “I’m excited about LA and that has to be a big focus about how to utilize that moment for our sport. We hope we can continue to build the sport in all directions. It’s an exciting time to get the right people into the room and talk about what we have to do next. We need to be ready for the exposure we’re going to have. We want to use the Olympics to bounce, it’s for not only LA 2028, but also beyond.”

Well before the LA Olympics come, however, Speraw will have to make a big decision as he’s in charge of selecting his replacement as the head coach of the USA men’s volleyball team as the position was vacated with his change of role.

“It will be a collaborative decision,” he added. “There’s already been people reaching out about the position and there’s a lot of great talent out there. It’s about making sure we make the best decision we can. There will be a lot of Americans who will be seeing our sport for the first time at the LA Games and I want to make sure we put someone out there who is seen as a real positive influence on our athletes. It’s my first big decision on the job and I don’t need to rush it. We’re going to take our time and make a good decision.”