Coach Mick Haley – volleyball
Women’s volleyball coach Longhorn Mick Haley is a Winner.
Haley, a two-time All-Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association choice, was named MIVA Most Valuable Player in 1965. From 1973 to 1980, Haley coached both the men’s and women’s volleyball teams at Kellogg Community College, leading the men to four national championships and the women to two. In 1980, Haley became head women’s volleyball coach at the University of Texas, which won four Southwest Conference titles.
Mick Haley is a three-time NCAA Division I National Champion with 1 AIAW National Championship and 6 Junior College National Championships. In his head coaching volley career, he won more than 1300 games and finished 4th place in the 2000 Olympics. This talented clinician, a tactician with an eye for quality recruits, coached three athletes to AVCA National Players of the Year. Combining the Pac 12 and SWC 16 conference players of the year, 47 All-Americans, and 115 All-Conference athletes.
With greatness, honor follows. Mick’s successes resulted in
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being named the AVCA Coach of the Year and the Volleyball Magazine Coach of the Year twice
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two-time PAC 12 Coach of the Year and six-time Southwest Conference Coach of the Year
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He has been inducted into the Hall of Fame for the AVCA, the Hall of Fame for Junior College Coaches, and the Hall of Fame for Ball State University.
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Mick ranks 3rd in NCAA Division I career wins and among the top in NCAA Division I career win percentage.
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Mick is presently sharing his successful formula as a national and international speaker and as an author.
Below in the black rectangle, TLSN captures Mick’s past to share with the present and inspire the future in an oral history format supplemented by text and photos.
Below is a link to Mick’s oral history podcast with photos and written content.
https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/coachmickhaley-volleyball
Under Coach Mick Haley, The University of Texas women’s volleyball program evolved quickly into a national powerhouse. In 1981, he led the Longhorns to a volleyball national title as the Longhorns won the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national title.
National champs in 1981
In 2023 the 1981 national champions are honored by UT.
1988 National Champions
The team only returned two starters from last year’s final four teams. In 1988, the Horns won 33 conference games and a 6th consecutive SWC championship. Haley says this team is one of his best because of their training, skills, and eating habits.
This was the first non-Pacific volleyball team to win the Final Four.
Haley said beating the West Coast teams was a “time-warp, quantum leap victory “ for the rest of the country.
Texas won the national championship-winning all five matches by 3-0 scores. Volleyball outside of California finally gained some well-deserved respect. Four of the six starters were from Texas. Texas had three players make the all-tournament national championship team – Dawn Davenport, Sue Schelfout, and Nichols. Katie Salen played her heart out for the team despite a broken nose and hand during the season.
Coach Mick Haley at work !
