Russ Rose

Russell David Rose (born November 29, 1953) is an American author, professor and was the women's volleyball coach at Penn State University (1979–2021).

His lifetime head coaching record is 1330–229, which ranks first in NCAA Division I history.

He has the most wins and highest winning percentage of any Penn State intercollegiate athletic coach in Penn State history.

He was a member of the school's volleyball team that won the 1974 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) national championship.

Rose graduated from George Williams College in 1975.

He was the captain of the 1975 team that finished third in NAIA competition.

After graduation, Rose remained at George Williams for two years as a part-time coach, helping the women's volleyball team win two state titles and place sixth in national competition.

He also assisted the men's team that won the national championship in 1977.

In 1978, he completed his master's degree at Nebraska, where he was the defensive coach for the Cornhusker women.

While writing his thesis on volleyball statistics, he led the second team to a two-year varsity mark of 52–5.

In 1986, Rose married Lori Barberich, a former three-time All-American at Penn State.

They are the parents of four sons, Jonathan, Michael, Christopher, and Nicholas.

Bremner won back-to-back Big Ten Player of the Year honors in 1997 and 1998.

Amanda Rome and Carrie Schonveld were recognized with honorable mention All-Big Ten status, while Mishka Levy was named to the conference's All-Freshman squad.

In 1999, Lauren Cacciamani was named the AVCA National Player of the Year, Big Ten Player of the Year, Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year and the Honda Award winner.

Bonnie Bremner and Katie Schumacher joined Cacciamani as All-Big Ten selections in 1999.

Penn State also placed six players on the Academic All-Big Ten Team in 1999, as Bremner, Cacciamani, Kalna Miller, Schonveld, Rome and Dawn Ippolito were honored.

In his first 32 seasons, he coached at least one All-American on his team every season except for 2001.

Rose's players earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors for a record six straight years and ten of eleven years (2002–07, 2009–12), Big Ten Player of the Year six straight years (2005–2010), and also picked up AVCA National Freshman of the Year in 2005, 2006, and 2010.

Rose earned his 900th career victory at Penn State on September 21, 2007, with a win over Michigan State (only the third Division I coach to reach the milestone).

Rose was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame in December 2007, and has been named the AVCA National Coach of the Year five times: 1990, 1997, 2007, 2008, and 2013, more than any other Division I coach.

At one point in his career, Rose had coached 28 different All-Americans (earning 64 selections in all, with eleven 3-time selections and three 4-time selections), All-Big Ten players (earning 74 selections in all), and Academic All-Big Ten players (earning 100 selections in all).

In 2007, four players were named All-Americans, with Megan Hodge, Nicole Fawcett and Christa Harmotto taking first team and Alisha Glass named to the second team.

In 2007, Christa Harmotto finished the season with the second highest hitting percentage in the nation (.492) and freshman Arielle Wilson finishing fifth in the nation with a .446 percentage.

The 2008 national championship team that went 38–0 featured six All-Americans.

In 2008, an AVCA record six All-Americans were named to Rose's squad.

Hodge, Fawcett, Harmotto, and Glass earned first team honors while sophomores Blair Brown and Arielle Wilson earned second team honors.

Senior Nicole Fawcett became Penn State's second ever AVCA National Player of the Year.

Megan Hodge repeat as the NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player in 2008 after leading her team to the victory over Stanford for Penn State's second consecutive NCAA championship.

In 2009 Penn State captured its seventh consecutive and 13th overall Big Ten title after completing the regular season 32–0 (20–0 in the Big Ten) with a 114–8 record in sets played.

Covering the two consecutive 38–0 perfect seasons (238 sets), Penn State established a set record of 228–10 (96%).

The Nittany Lions did not lose a set in the NCAA tournament until the national semi-finals against Hawaii; however, they won that match 3–1 to set up a showdown against the #2 Texas Longhorns.

In the championship match, Texas grabbed a 2–0 set lead.

During their winning streak, Penn State had never been down 0–2, but the Lions clawed their way back to win the match, 3–2, and extended their win streak to 102 games with another perfect season.

In 2010 Penn State won the first seven matches, before having their record win streak snapped at 109.

They went 16–4 in Big Ten play, but still managed to win their eighth consecutive conference championship (14th overall), matching the streak of eight consecutive Atlantic 10 championships set during all eight years in the conference.

Even though they dropped five matches, including four in conference, all losses were away from University Park, as they won all 20 home matches and extended their Rec Hall winning streak to 94 games.

Rose led the Lions to a regular season record of 26–5 and earned the fourth overall seed in the NCAA tournament.

They only dropped one set, in the regional finals versus Duke on their way to the Final Four.

At Penn State, Rose's teams never posted fewer than 22 wins in a season until the Covid-19 shortened 2020 season and never had a losing season in program history.