A former UC Davis volunteer assistant coach and honorable mention All-American for the Aggie men's club, Bryce Williams enters his fifth season on the women's volleyball staff, serving as an assistant for the first four years before being promoted to associate head coach prior to the 2021 campaign.
The 2013 UC Davis graduate and 2020 honoree on the American Volleyball Coaches Association's "Thirty Under 30" list has helped lead the Aggies to a combined 49-39 record during his time at UC Davis, serving as the team's defensive coordinator and developing the team's defensive game plans and systems. Those efforts played a crucial role in helping the Aggies to 17 wins and the program's first postseason tournament berth in more than two decades in 2019, taking on Tulsa in the opening round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship in Long Beach, Calif.
The 17 victories were the most for the program since 2012, while the team's nine wins in the always competitive Big West Conference were the most since 2015.
During his time at UC Davis, Williams has helped mentor 11 student-athletes to All-Big West honors — including a quintet of first-team selections — and the league's freshman of the year in 2017. In addition, Aggie student-athletes have also shined in the classroom, earning a spot on the conference's all-academic team 18 times.
Graduating with a degree in neurobiology, physiology, and behavior, Williams was a member of the Aggie women's staff for most of his undergraduate career while also starring for the men's club. After receiving his degree, he took a position with Big Ten Conference member Northwestern as a volunteer assistant, helping develop two AVCA All-Region setters — Caleigh Ryan (2013) and Taylor Tashima (2014) — in addition to his primary duties of statistical analysis and video breakdown.
His on- and off-court expertise then led him to his first full-time position as assistant coach at the University of Montana. Williams' scope widened to include travel, recruiting, coordinating the team offense during matches, and managing the team's student staff and practice players.
Williams then served on the USA Women's Volleyball staff during the spring 2016, where he continued to perform his mastery of stats/video analysis to prepare Team USA for the Rio Olympic Games. His work included contributions to a USAV study on beach volleyball, which provided a perfect segue to his next stop in Fort Worth, Texas, where he was hired as the director of operations for TCU's indoor volleyball team and an assistant coach for the Horned Frogs' beach program.
As the director of ops, Williams managed all administrative aspects of TCU's program, ranging from stats/video analysis to game-day operations to compliance to camps. Meanwhile, he kept his on-court instructional skills sharp as an interim head coach for beach team prior to the arrival of Hector Gutierrez. During that time, Williams developed daily practice plans, managed student-athlete academic progress, and held weekly meetings with support staff.
As a collegian, Williams was the starting setter for an Aggie club that won back-to-back Northern California Club Volleyball League championships. He was selected as team captain and club president for three years, helped the team to fifth- and ninth-place national finishes, earned two first-team All-NCCVL nods plus the All-America honorable mention honor.
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