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Meet Head Volleyball Coach: Fred Sturm
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Fred Sturm is plunging into his third year as head volleyball coach for Boise State. He began his career here in 1999 and has been nothing but successful.
Sturm racked in a total of 18 wins for the Broncos last season, placing BSU in the upper half of the pre-season coaches’ poll going into the Western Athletic Conference.
The Broncos are ranked fourth, just under Hawaii, San Jose State and Nevada, and neck-and-neck with UTEP.
Now, Sturm and his current team are focusing on the teams they will be facing in the WAC.
“I’m excited about the move to the WAC,” Sturm said. “It will give this team a chance to grow and experience a different level of play.”
Sturm looks forward to coaching this year’s Bronco team with an extensive history of coaching already behind him. His career as a coach extends over a 20-year period.
Sturm began his coaching career at Stanford University in 1978 as the head coach for both men’s and women’s volleyball.
During the eight years he coached the women’s team, they had a remarkable share of winnings. They succeeded in going to the final four in both 1982 and 1983, and placed second twice at the NCAA National championships in 1984 and 1985.
Sturm then began exclusively coaching the men’s volleyball team at Stanford in 1986 as both the teams and the coaching staff grew. He reigned as head coach for the men’s Cardinals until 1990 while bringing in a second place finish at the NCAA in 1989. That same year he was named NCAA Coach of the Year.
In 1991, Sturm moved on to become the head coach of the USA men’s national volleyball team. That same year they brought in the Bronze Medal in the World Cup. While coaching the USA men’s team, they proceeded in winning two more Bronze Medal’s in the 1992 Olympic Games and in the 1994 World Championship.
Between those two years, in 1993, he was credited as assistant coach for the Federal International Volleyball Association World Gala All-Star Team.
In 1995, his USA men’s team won the Silver Medal in the Pan Am Games. Sturm closed out his coaching career for the USA men’s team in 1996 when he went to the head coach position for the men’s professional league in Croatia in 1997. He served as head coach until 1998 in Croatia and then became head coach for Boise State in 1999.
Sturm came to Boise for a number of reasons.
“I was engaged and I wanted to find a place that my wife would like as well as a team I liked,” he said. When he came to interview for the head coach position, “It all happened very fast,” Sturm explained.
The process of interviewing and hiring happened within a week.
“When I came here I knew I liked the team, I had a great feeling about the them and also about Boise,” Sturm said.
He accepted the job quickly and has been the head coach at Boise State for the past two years. Sturm married Irene Rudan in May of 2000 and they live in Boise.
Renae Hall
