2025 Sun Belt Coach of the Year
Collin Wilson was named the fourth head coach in Coastal Carolina beach volleyball history in February 2024.
After leading the Chants to a perfect 6-0 record in Sun Belt play and a 21-14 mark overall in 2025, Wilson was named the Sun Belt Coach of the Year. During the campaign, the Chants took down No. 15 Georgia State for the first time in program history, and made an appearance in the Sun Belt championship match. Under his leadership, Frida Meincke Lyø was named the conference freshman of the year, Lyø and Emma Kunaus were named to the All-Sun Belt first team, and the pair of Raychel Ehlers and Ava Novello were named to the All-Sun Belt second team.
In his first season at the helm, Wilson led the Chants to a program-record 27 wins and an appearance in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship match. The Chanticleers also won a record 17 consecutive matches and set additional program records with 124 flights won and eight all-conference selections.
Coastal went undefeated at home for the first time in program history, outscoring its opponents 39-1 in eight home matches. The Chanticleers also notched their first win ever over in-state rival South Carolina, knocking off the No. 20-ranked Gamecocks 4-1 in Columbia.
Madison Allred and Raychel Ehlers were honored as an AVCA Top Flight duo after going 19-3 at the No. 5 flight and became the winningest pair in program history with 59 victories. Denisse Morgenstern became the first player in program history to earn Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year honors and joined Martine Kragholm, Sarah Riedell, Julia Blazek, Emma Plutnicki, and Madie Lichty on the all-Sun Belt second team. Ellie Hanford and Emma Kunaus earned first-team all-Sun Belt accolades and Hanford set a program record for individual career wins with 93.
Wilson, a former assistant for the Chanticleers, returned to Conway after serving as the head coach at Southeastern Louisiana during the 2023 season.
Wilson was recognized by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) as part of the first class of Thirty Under 30 Beach Award winners in 2021, an award created to honor up-and-coming beach coaching talent at all levels of the sport.
Wilson also served as the director of operations for the indoor volleyball team and head coach Jozsef Forman during the 2021-22 season.
Following a record-setting season in 2021, Wilson helped to lead the Chanticleers into the Conference USA for the first time in 2022. With an experienced core returning, the Sandy Chants went 18-16 overall despite missing two key players in Lucy Campbell and Sarlota Svobodova, who both missed the entire spring season due to injuries.
Playing perhaps the toughest schedule in program history, the Chanticleers registered 18 wins overall in 2022, including going 7-3 at home and 10-9 at neutral sites. In fact, of their 16 losses on the season, 13 came to either nationally-ranked teams or teams receiving votes in the national top-20 polls.
Receiving votes in the 2022 AVCA Collegiate Beach Volleyball Top-20 Poll on April 4, the Chants had three pairs record double-digit wins in Ellie Hanford and Natalie Honzovicova (18-4), Rayche Ehlers and Carli Ginther (14-8), and Martine Kragholm and Sarah Riedell (10-12). The duo of Hanford and Honzovicova were awarded the AVCA Top Flight Award at the No. 3 flight, while Ehlers earned a spot on the 2022 C-USA Beach Volleyball All-Freshman Team.
Hanford went on to set a new CCU single-season record in individual wins with 27 on the year, while both Irena Drobnjak and Ginther reached the 50-career wins milestone on the season.
In his first year at CCU in 2021, Wilson helped guide the Sandy Chants to a 24-8 overall record and advance to the final four of the 2021 ASUN Conference Beach Volleyball Championship Tournament.
In fact, seven of the Chants' eight losses came to nationally-ranked opponents in South Carolina, Stetson, Georgia State, FIU, and Florida Atlantic, while the eighth defeat came to the eventual 2021 ASUN Champions in North Florida.
The Sandy Chants received votes all season long in the 2021 AVCA Beach Volleyball Top-20 Poll, posted a single-season program record of 24 wins, and posted a new program-long winning streak of 11-straight matches from March 20 to April 7.
The Chants had two pairs record over 20 wins on the season in the duo of Lucy Campbell and Martine Kragholm with 22 wins and the team of Irena Drobnjak and Sarlota Svobodova recording 21 wins with the latter earning ASUN Championship All-Tournament team honors. The duo of Drobnjak and Svobodova was named ASUN All-Conference first team and was a recipient of the 2021 AVCA Top Flight Award. Both Drobnjak and Svobodva were named to the ASUN All-Freshman team, while Drobnjak also picked up 2021 ASUN Freshman of the Year honors. The pair of Campbell and Kragholm was named to the ASUN All-Conference second team.
Overall, the Chants went 109-50 in their matches over the 2021 spring season, a .686 winning percentage, including posting records of 24-7 at the No. 1 flight and 23-9 at the No. 2 flight on the year.
Wilson came to Coastal after spending the 2020 fall semester working with the University of Oregon beach volleyball program.
Prior to returning to his home state of Oregon, Wilson served as a volunteer assistant coach with the CSUN beach volleyball program in 2020 and worked as an assistant coach with USA Volleyball before joining the Matadors. He also has experience as an assistant coach at LA Beach Volleyball Club and Platform 1440.
A 2019 graduate of the University of South Carolina, Wilson earned his bachelor's degree in hospitality, retail and sport management. He also served as the team manager for the Gamecocks' beach volleyball program and coach at the Magnum Volleyball club while at USC.
A native of Portland, Ore., Wilson prepped at Jesuit High School where he played football and baseball. He is a member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA).
