Missouri State University Director of Athletics Kyle Moats officially announced the hiring of Gretchen Hand as the Bears new beach volleyball head coach, on July 2, 2021
Hand comes to Missouri State after spending the last two-and-a-half years as director of volleyball at Webber International University in Babson Park, Fla. During her tenure with the Warriors, she worked with the men’s and women’s indoor programs in addition to the beach team and contributed to the beach team’s conference title and NAIA national fourth-place finish in 2019.
She brings nearly 20 years of volleyball coaching experience at the high school, club and collegiate levels to the Missouri State beach program. Prior to her time at Webber, she spent two years at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., where she helped develop a beach program for the community and started a beach volleyball club at Wilson. Before that, she was the head volleyball coach at Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) High School where she was named All-Star Coach of Broward County Schools in 2014.
Hand’s other previous collegiate coaching experiences include stints as a recruiter and assistant at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, Mo., and as an assistant at Missouri-St Louis.
Originally from the St. Louis area, Hand prepped at Hillsboro High School where she was volleyball team captain and earned all-conference, all-district and all-region distinction. She played collegiately at Jefferson College, New Orleans and Missouri-St Louis. As an outside hitter and setter, she garnered all-conference honors in college while serving as a team-captain three of her four years. She graduated magna cum laude from UMSL with a bachelor’s degree in education in 2002.
From 2001-2015, she transitioned into beach volleyball by playing professionally worldwide. She had main-draw finishes in the AVP (American Volleyball Professionals), the NVL (National Volleyball League), Corona Wide Open, the EVP (Extreme Volleyball Professionals) and the FIVB, competing across the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Ireland and Thailand.
She was coached by beach volleyball Olympians Liz Masakyan and Holly McPeak. After a shoulder injury and surgery, Hand transitioned to coaching and teaching at the high school and collegiate levels, including time in the Parkway School District in St. Louis from 2002-05.
She becomes the third head coach in the history of the Missouri State beach volleyball program and replaces Russ Friedland who held the beach Bears head coaching role during the 2021 campaign before turning his attention to the MSU’s indoor volleyball squad full-time.
