Brittany Harry was named the 10th women's volleyball head coach in program history on Jan. 3, 2025.

In 16 seasons as a collegiate head coach, Harry has compiled a 310-178 record. In 2024, she led West Texas A&M to a 26-5 record and a Lone Star Conference championship, guided the team to the Division II national tournament and was named the league's coach-of-the-year.

"I'm extremely excited to welcome Brittany to SIU," said Tim Leonard, director of athletics. "We were looking for a proven head coach, a winner, and a leader with integrity and high character. That's exactly what we found in Brittany."

A native of Champaign, Illinois, Harry was just 23 years old when she was named head coach at Spartanburg Methodist College in 2007. In two seasons, she posted a 49-12 record, her teams made back-to-back appearances at the NJCAA Division I Championships, and she was named the district coach-of-the-year in 2007 and 2008.

Harry's extensive head coaching portfolio also includes an 88-38 record in three seasons at Vincennes University (2011-13), an 11-9 mark at Cumberland University (2014), an 84-65 record in five seasons at Laredo College (2015-19), and a 52-49 record in four seasons at Texas A&M International (2020-23).

"I feel really grateful and blessed to have the opportunity to lead this program," Harry said. "My conversations with Tim and (Senior Woman Administrator) Katie Gerlach gave me a good sense of the direction Saluki volleyball can go."

Harry continued, "being from Champaign, it's closer to family, and I have deep-rooted recruiting connections in Illinois. I'm excited to get started and build upon the progress of the previous staff."

Harry has won coach-of-the-year honors four times during her career, and has mentored three All-Americans and 27 all-conference players. Her 2024 squad featured the conference defensive player-of-the-year and freshman-of-the-year. Harry's teams have achieved outstanding academic success as well, earning AVCA All-Academic team honors in each of the last four seasons.

Harry was a member of the volleyball team at South Carolina Upstate from 2002-05 and graduated with a degree in communication-journalism. She has one daughter, Melia (14).

Name	Title	Phone	Email Address
Brittany Harry	Head Coach	618-453-5473	salukivolleyball@siu.edu
Chris Yates	Assistant Coach		christopher.yates@siu.edu
Bryleigh Buchanan	Assistant Coach, Director of Operations		bryleigh.buchanan@siu.edu

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Southern Illinoise University Athletics

2026 Women's Volleyball Coaching Staff

Coaching Staff