TROY VOLLEYBALL CAMPS | HEAD COACH

Josh Lauer
Head Coach

Josh Lauer is in his sixth season as the Troy volleyball head coach and enters 2022 with a 73-72 record. Lauer is the sixth head coach in Troy University’s Division I volleyball history.

In 2021 Lauer became the first coach in Trojan volleyball history to lead the Trojans to three consecutive winning seasons in Sun Belt conference play last season. The 2021 season also saw Troy knock off three power five opponents for the first time in program history (Alabama, LSU, Virginia Tech).

The Trojans made their second post-season appearance under Lauer last season when Troy hosted and competed in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC), defeating Middle Tennessee in the first round. It was the second consecutive year the Trojans had made a post-season tournament.

Lauer led the Trojans to a 23-10 record and one of the best seasons in program history in 2019. The Trojans earned their first-ever postseason berth – a trip to the NIVC – where they became the first Troy women’s team to win a postseason competition in the Division I era. Troy’s +12 win differential from 2018 to 2019 was the sixth-best turnaround in Division I that season.

Lauer’s efforts on and off the court turned Trojan arena into a formidable place to play volleyball with a 14-1 home record. At one point during the season Troy owned the seventh-longest home winning streak in the nation.

Under his leadership, two Trojans were tabbed all-conference performers in the same season for the first time since 2012.

Prior to the 2018 season, Troy signed the best recruiting class in school history by bringing in eight extremely talented freshman to the program. PrepVolleyball.com, the nation’s foremost volleyball news website, ranked the class in the “High Honorable Mention” category in its listing of the top Division I classes of 2018 – one of just three Sun Belt teams on the list.

In his first season at the helm, the Trojans reached the Sun Belt Conference Tournament where they knocked out rival South Alabama in a first-round upset.

Lauer joined the Troy staff after spending the past nine seasons as an associate head coach and assistant coach in the Southeastern Conference. Most recently, Lauer spent the past six years as the associate head coach at Georgia after a three-year stint at Alabama as an assistant coach and the Crimson Tide’s recruiting coordinator.

While at Georgia, Lauer’s primary in-game focus was the Bulldogs’ defense and they would go on to lead the SEC in blocks with 285 and blocks per set with 2.39 in 2014. Lauer also guided the team to an NCAA Tournament in 2013, the first for the Bulldogs since 2004. That year, Georgia also put together its first 20-win since 2002 and recorded the most wins in a season since 1994.

Individually, the program had five SEC Player of the Week and two All-SEC honors. Off the court, Georgia had 25 SEC Academic Honor Roll members, eight SEC Freshman Academic Honor Roll selections, a CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree and four SEC Community Service Team picks during his tenure.

In his stint at Alabama, he helped the Crimson Tide land their first top-30 recruiting class and a trio of high school All-Americans in 2010.

Prior to his time in Tuscaloosa, Lauer spent four seasons as the head coach at Missouri-St. Louis. He took the Tritons from the bottom of the conference to consecutive berths in the Grand Lakes Valley Conference tournament in 2006 and 2007 before joining the Crimson Tide staff in 2008.

Lauer's squads collected numerous team and individual accolades including the American Volleyball Coaches Association Academic Award, the Great Lakes Valley Conference Sportsmanship Award, one ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Third Team honoree and several all-conference and academic all-conference selections.

Lauer's coaching career began at the club level where he spent eight years with the St. Louis CYC Volleyball Club. He had three top-five national finishes in the open division at the United States Junior Olympic Volleyball National Tournament and two additional top 20 finishes. More than 20 of Lauer's club team players were recruited and played at the NCAA Division I level.

A native of York, Pa., Lauer is a 1999 graduate of Washington University - St. Louis where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry with a minor in religious studies. He is married to the former Debra Reckase. They have two children, Eli and Jonah.