COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina volleyball head coach Tom Mendoza announced two changes for his coaching staff and finalized the roster ahead of the start of year seven of his tenure. The Gamecocks add five newcomers to the team and a new member of the staff this fall.
Mendoza promoted Ethan Pheister to Associate Head Coach and hired Jimmy Kim as the team’s Technical Coordinator. Pheister is also preparing for his seventh season at South Carolina, serving predominantly as the team’s defensive coordinator. In his time with the Gamecocks, he has developed the team’s middle blockers into one of the best positional groups in the Southeastern Conference. In the modern scoring era (since 2001), he has trained four of the 11 student-athletes who have totaled 250 or more blocks, highlighted by Mikayla Robinson (2017-21) and Ellie Ruprich (2020-Present). The duo rank third and fifth, respectively, for total blocks in the program’s 50-year history. As a team, the Gamecocks have consistently ended the season in the top three of the SEC and top 50 nationally for average blocks per set during Pheister’s tenure.
“This is a title that is well deserved and probably overdue,” Mendoza said. “Ethan has been here for some of the best seasons in program history and is a driving force across many aspects of our program. He’s one of the top coaches in the country because of his dedication to helping our student-athletes develop and I’ve felt fortunate to keep him on staff for the last six seasons and hopefully many more successful years moving forward.
“Along with Brittany Farrell, Madelyn Cole and Jimmy Kim,” he continued, “I think we have one of the best coaching staffs in the SEC and we are fired up to get started with our group this fall.”
Kim comes to South Carolina from UC Irvine. He began working with the UCI women’s volleyball program in 2022 as its technical coordinator, and added the same duties with the Anteater’s men’s program the following year. This summer, Kim also added Technical Coordinator duties for USA Volleyball, working with the national team during its run in the Volleyball Nations League.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Jimmy to the staff,” Mendoza said. “His work will be such an asset to our team and the players as we work to achieve our potential. Jimmy’s work on the men’s collegiate game and with USA Volleyball is going to bring great insight as we look for any way to improve or differentiate ourselves in…