Head Camp Coaches

Keegan Cook took over as the Head Coach for the Huskies in January 2015, guiding the program to back-to-back Pac-12 Championships and consecutive Elite Eight finishes in his first two years. Since then, the Dawgs have returned to the Final Four (2020) and won the Pac-12 Championship in back-to-back years in 2020 and 2021.

As an assistant coach in the 2013 and 2014 seasons, Cook had a huge impact on the serving and offensive success that upgraded the Husky Volleyball program exponentially to a Final Four and Sweet Sixteen.

Prior to Washington, the northern California native spent eight years at St. Mary’s, working his way up from a student volunteer, to the second assistant coach for three years, then the top assistant coach for three more years while helping the Gaels become one of the top perennial teams in the West Coast Conference.

HUSKY HIGHLIGHTS:

• 5 Pac-12 Championships (2013, 2015, 2016, 2020, 2021)  
• 2 Final Fours  
• Husky record the 4 years before Cook: 97-30  
• Husky record the 4 years after Cook: 123-14  
• In Cook’s first year as Head Coach (2015), he lead the Huskies to the longest win streak in program history: 25-0 
• Currently the President of the AVCA

"A former standout pro player, Derek Olson has established himself as one of the rising beach volleyball coaches with a decade of experience at club, NCAA, and National Team levels. Olson begins his first season leading the Washington Beach Volleyball program in 2021-22 with the vision to take the Huskies to national prominence.

Washington is the second Pac-12 stop for Olson after spending the previous four seasons at California. In all four years Olson spent in Berkeley, he helped the Golden Bears to year-end Top-20 national rankings. In his two years as head coach, Olson led the Bears to a No. 9 final AVCA ranking in 2020 and a No. 11 final AVCA ranking in 2021 with five wins over Top-10 teams in those two years. During the 2021 season, Cal had four wins over Top-10 opponents, matching the total number of Top-10 wins in program history going into the year. The Bears achieved a program-high No. 8 ranking during the season, and Mima Mirkovic and Caroline Schafer were named to the All-Pac-12 First Team. 

Olson has also been influential in helping shape the future of the U.S. Beach program, starting out coaching USA High Performance Camps in 2016 and moving on to multiple Head Coach and Assistant Coach roles. Olson was Head Coach for the U19 Boys National Team at the 2019 World Championships, Head Coach of the U15 Girls National Team in 2020, and Associate Head Coach of the U19 Girls National Team in 2021. He also was an assistant on the 2019 U17 Girls National Team and A2 Head Coach of the U15 Girls squad in 2018. 

During his long and successful pro beach playing career, Olson competed in 41 career events on the AVP Tour and in 14 career FIVB tour events. He also represented the United States in nine NORCECA events internationally. Olson had 13 top-10 finishes on the AVP Tour and three top-10 finishes in the FIVB. He qualified for the FIVB's prestigious Rio Grand Slam in 2016." - GoHuskies.com

 Leslie Gabriel (formerly Leslie Tuiasosopo), a former UW standout and four-year letterwinner, has been a driving force in turning the Huskies into a national power.

Gabriel, who played for the Huskies from 1995-98, has helped develop numerous All-Americans at every position, in addition to assisting Head Coach Keegan Cook with all administrative and recruiting responsibilities.

In her playing days as a Husky, Gabriel, along with All-American Makare Desilets, formed one of the nation's best blocking tandems, leading the Huskies to the top of the NCAA blocking rankings in 1997. A Pac-10 First Team selection as a junior, Gabriel ranks in the UW career top-10 in four categories, including total blocks and block assists. She also ranked in the top-25 nationally in blocks per game in each of her four seasons at Washington.

HUSKY HIGHLIGHTS:

• 20 years coaching UW Volleyball
• 7 Pac-12 Championships (2004, 2005, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2020, 2021)
• 5 Final Fours (2004, 2005, 2006, 2013, 2020)
• 20+ straight NCAA tournaments

One of the most experienced and accomplished assistant coaches in volleyball will be sitting on the Husky bench this fall as Jason Mansfield joins the staff of the Washington Huskies. Mansfield knows the Pac-12 as well as anyone, having spent fourteen seasons coaching at Stanford before coaching the two seasons at Illinois.

Since arriving to Seattle, he has helped the program win two Pac-12 Championships and appear in the 2020 Final Four

Mansfield started out his collegiate coaching career as a volunteer assistant with the Cardinal in 2002, and in 2004 he became a full-time assistant, helping Stanford win the NCAA title that first year. Over his Stanford tenure, he helped the Cardinal reach six Final Fours and win seven Pac-12 titles.

As an assistant coach at Stanford, Mansfield worked with 17 different All-Americans, four National Players of the Year, and three future Olympians. At Illinois he coached three more All-Americans in two seasons, which culminated this past fall with a trip to the NCAA Round of 16 for the Fighting Illini, and an upset of his new team in the second round in Seattle.

HUSKY HIGHLIGHTS: 

• 2 Pac-12 Championships (2020, 2021) 
• 1 Final Four (2020)