June 10, 2011
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Matthew Botsford, an assistant coach on the Notre Dame volleyball staff, was recently named the head coach for the Swedish club team Lindesberg Volley. A 13-year veteran in the college coaching ranks, Botsford spent over three seasons with the Irish after being hired in February of 2008.
Botsford is already a well-known icon within the Swedish professional ranks, having spent the spring of 2003 playing for the Vingaker Volleyball Club. He displayed his all-around skills by emerging as one of the team’s most prolific players, leading the squad in blocks and hitting percentage throughout the playoffs. Botsford helped guide Vingaker to the finals of the Swedish Elite Series and a berth in the European CEV Cup for the first time in the team’s 30-year history.
“While I’m sad to see Matt leave our program, I’m so very happy for him to have this unique opportunity to return to Sweden to coach,” Irish head coach Debbie Brown said. “The time and energy Matt has invested in our program over the past four years has been tremendous. He is an excellent teacher and recruiter, and his passions for the game and for Notre Dame have been infectious. I would like to publicly thank him for the huge positive impact he has had on our program.”
Botsford was an instrumental part of Notre Dame’s recent success on the court, including a BIG EAST regular season title and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2009. In fact, three Irish players – Jamel Nicholas, Christina Kaelin and Serinity Phillips – copped All-American honors during his tenure under the Golden Dome.
Well respected by his peers both on and off the court, Botsford has been triumphant at each of his coaching stops since his playing days at Tri-State University in 1998, a school which later inducted him into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006. Botsford led the Thunder to its first NAIA/MIVA Championship in 1998 and was a four-time all-conference and academic all-conference selection. He finished his collegiate career as the school’s all-time leader in kills, blocks, and digs.
As an assistant coach at the University of Miami from 2004-07, Botsford developed a reputation for not only attracting, but also developing highly talented players for the program at Miami. He tutored a trio of All-Americans in Val Tipiana (Miami’s all-time kills leader and the first Hurricane to ever reach the 1,000-kill plateau), Frannie Savage (all-Atlantic Coast Conference and all-AVCA Region honoree) and Karla Johnson (ACC kills leader in 2005). He also spearheaded the recruiting efforts to help bring Arielle Cook, Miami’s first-ever Fab 50 recruit, to the Coral Gables campus.
Botsford made his way to Miami courtesy of IUPUI, where he spent three seasons as an assistant coach with the Jaguars. As part of the IUPUI coaching staff, Botsford helped lead a number of players to success on the court, including two-time Mid-Continent Conference Player of the Year Rebekah Pallikan.
Prior to his three-year stay at IUPUI, Botsford served as the interim head coach for both the men’s and women’s teams from 1998-99 at Tri-State. He then ventured to the University of Indianapolis where he was an assistant coach during the 1999 season.
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