Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Volleyball Adds Matt Affolder To Staff
05/09/2002 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
May 9, 2002
Carbondale, Ill. - Southern Illinois University head volleyball coach Sonya Locke has completed her staff with the recent hiring of Matt Affolder as an assistant coach.
"I know we'll be better as a staff with Matt working here. He was the person who I wanted to hire and I had the chance to see him work while he was at Indiana State the last three years. Matt has a wealth of knowledge about the sport and great recruiting contacts, which will make our staff and program much better," said Locke.
"I wanted someone to come in here and help me train this team at a higher level and Matt can do that. I think he will help us reach the goals we have for this senior-laden team."
Affolder comes to SIU after three years (1999-2001) as a volunteer coach at Indiana State University, where he was responsible for training middle blockers and right-side hitters.
"Being at Southern Illinois is very exciting. It's been a dream of mine to be a full-time college coach since 1997. I'm ready to do the job. I've been around volleyball for a long time and it will be nice to be a main part of a program. I've had experience coaching against SIU and spent two years coaching Debbie Barr, one of SIU best players in history, when she was in high school," stated Affolder.
Affolder has watched the SIU program and Sonya Locke closely the last three years. Now he's looking forward to doing what he can to assist the volleyball team and make a difference as a coach.
"I know what Sonya can do to make me a better coach. My goals are to do everything I can to help SIU get to the upper echelon of the MVC and just enjoy my coaching experience. I love being in the gym. I'll be busy training this team and recruiting, but I'm looking forward to this opportunity. I've had great experiences at the prep, club and college level, which I hope will help me here at SIU. A lot of people helped me get to this point and I'm going to do my best to make them proud," added Affolder.
A native of Decatur, Indiana, Affolder is a May 2002 graduate of Indiana State University with a degree in Political Science. Although he would have coached anywhere, he's pleased to get his first full-time job in the Missouri Valley Conference.
"It's interesting to stay here in the MVC. I have an idea of what all the other teams have from my work the last three years. It will be fun to see the other coaches in the league from this position," stated Affolder.
In addition to coaching at Indiana State, Affolder served as the head coach at Wapahani High School in Selma, Ind. from 1996-98 and coached SIU's all-time assist leader Debbie Barr, as an assistant varsity coach for three years (1993-95) at Muncie Central High School in Muncie, Ind.
He also was the coach for the Munciana (Muncie, Ind.) Volleyball Club for seven years, which included winning the 1998 USA Volleyball National Championship in the 16 & Under Division.
