Weber State University Athletics
Women's Volleyball
- Title:
- Head Coach
The 2010 season will mark the 18th season for Al Givens as head coach at Weber State. It will also be the 34th year of volleyball coaching for Givens, with 33 of those years as a head coach, including 25 years as a head coach at the Division I level. His career includes coaching volleyball at the high school, junior college, and Division I levels.
Givens has compiled a Division I head coach career record of 353-441 in 25 years of coaching, having coached 794 career matches heading into this season. Before coming to Weber State he was head coach at Mississippi and Texas A&M. His career record at Weber State is 201-304 overall and is 107-150 in Big Sky Conference games during his 17 seasons with the Wildcats. Last season Givens coached his 500th career match at Weber State. No other coach in school history has coached more then 150 matches. Entering this season Givens has coached over 45 percent of Weber State matches.
Givens is also the longest tenured active coach in the Big Sky. His 107 Big Sky wins is the most in the conference among active coaches and ranks as the fourth most wins in conference history.
In 2008 Givens led the Wildcats to a 21-13 overall record. It was the best record for the ‘Cats in 20 years and the most wins for Givens in his Weber State career. It was also the second time he has led WSU to 20 ore more wins.
The ‘Cats also posted a 9-7 Big Sky record and advanced to the Big Sky Tournament for the fourth straight year, the first time they have appeared in four straight conference tournaments. Weber State defeated Montana in the first round, before falling to conference champion Eastern Washington in the second round.
In 1993 Givens became the ninth head volleyball coach at Weber State University. Under Givens the Wildcats have received 36 Big Sky All-Conference honors, including six players appearing on the First Team. He has led the Wildcats to eight Big Sky Tournament appearances.
In addition, under Givens the Wildcats have had 100 Big Sky Academic All-Conference honors. In 2006 he was named the Big Sky Co-Coach of the Year after leading the Widcats to victory in their final five regular season games, clinching a berth in the postseason tournament. He also notched his 300th career win that season.
Givens started his volleyball coaching career at Kofa High School in Yuma, Arizona, where he compiled a 65-35 record in five seasons and led the Kings to the divisional playoffs each year. His 1979 and 1980 teams won conference titles, and the 1979 team went on to finish second at the divisional playoffs and fifth at the State tournament.
Over the past 33 years, Givens has coached at the high school, Club volleyball, Community College, and NCAA Division One levels, and has been an Assistant Coach for the USA Olympic Festival on two separate occasions. Givens was also the coach for the Intermountain Region USA High Performance 18 and Under Junior Team. The team took the silver in the Global Challenge held in July 2005 in Salt Lake City.
In 1981 Givens also began coaching at Arizona Western College in Yuma. He posted a 37-40 record during his three-year tenure at the junior college, turning around a program that went 0-22 the year before his arrival.
Givens left Arizona Western in 1984 to take the assistant job at the University of Mississippi. As an assistant coach he helped the Rebels to a 21-13 record and in 1985 was named head coach at the school. In his one year as head coach at Ole Miss he led the team to a 29-15 record and a third place finish at the Southeast Conference Tournament.
In 1986 he was named head coach at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. In his first season he guided the Aggies to a 23-14 record, a second place showing in the Southwest Conference and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Givens was head coach at Texas A&M for seven seasons and compiled a record of 123-122. His teams never finished lower than fourth place in the Southwest Conference and the Aggies advanced to post-season play twice.
Al Givens was born in Brawley, California on February 3, 1951. He received his Bachelor's degree in 1974 from Williams Jennings Bryan University in Dayton, Tennessee. While working on his degree in Business Administration, Givens played baseball and soccer. In 1983 he received his Master's degree in Education from Northern Arizona University.
Givens is married to the former Flossie McNally. The two of them met on opposite sides of the net while coaching volleyball at rival high schools in Arizona. Flossie Givens played college volleyball at Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo, California. She currently coaches at Orion Junior High School in Harrisville, Utah.
Givens has two daughters, Stephanie and Cori, and he and Flossie have a 17 year-old son Matt. Al has one eight-year-old grandson, Drew, and in August 2005 he was presented with three grandchildren born on the same day. Cori had twins, Caleb and Christopher, and Stephanie had Rebecca, all on August 9, 2005. In October 2007, a new grandson, Nicolas Alexander joined the family, born to Stephanie.
