PROVO, Utah – In his third season as the head coach of the BYU men’s volleyball team, Shawn Olmstead has been named the 2018 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Coach of the Year.
Olmstead was previously named the conference’s coach of the year in 2016, his first season at the helm of the Cougars.
He is just the fourth coach at BYU to earn league coach of the year honors, following previous head coach Chris McGown in 2013, his father Carl McGown in 1999 and 2001 and Tom Peterson in 2003.
Backed by a 22-6 overall record and an MPSF regular-season and tournament championship, the Cougars are returning to the NCAA tournament for the fifth time in six years. This is first time BYU has ever been to three-consecutive NCAA tournaments.
The Cougars began the year with a 5-4 record and proceeded to win 17 of 19 matches through the MPSF Championship.
BYU (10-2) won the regular-season title by a one-match margin (UCLA finished second at 9-3). The Cougars then defeated No. 6 seed USC and No. 2 seed UCLA at the Smith Fieldhouse to claim the conference tournament title.
Olmstead’s honor goes with five Cougars who received All-MPSF accolades this year: Brenden Sander, Gabi Garcia Fernandez, Leo Durkin and Price Jarman on the All-MPSF First Team; Fernandez and Felipe de Brito Ferreira on the MPSF All-Freshman Team; Ferreira on the All-MPSF Honorable Mention squad and Fernandez being named the MPSF Freshman of the Year.