Hometown: Pacific Palisades, Calif.
High School: Palisades High School (Pacific Palisades, Calif.)
College: Cal State Northridge ’91
Graduate Degree: Kinesiology
Years as Head Coach: 6
Years as Texas Head Coach: 4

With high expectations, a team full of powerful hitters and blockers, and a renewed commitment to overall defense, head coach Jerritt Elliott will guide the Texas volleyball team into the 2004 season with the goal of not just returning to the NCAA Tournament, but making waves in the tournament. Elliott begins the 2004 campaign with a host of powerful outside hitters, depth and experience at the setter position, talented and explosive middle blockers and a platoon of back-row players, all who have the goal of bringing Texas back to its place among the nation's elite programs.

In three previous seasons at Texas, Elliott has placed Texas back on the national volleyball map. Since taking the reigns of the program after the Longhorns posted their first-ever losing season in 2000, Elliott has turned the program back towards national prominence. Elliott, who holds a 105-49 career record, has brought enthusiasm, experience and growing success to UT.

Last season, beset by injuries and several off-court family emergencies for some players that forced him to use 11 different line-ups, Elliott guided the Horns to a 15-14 overall record and a 10-10 mark in Big 12 Conference matches. While the team looked out of it with a month left in the season as many prognosticators and opponents wrote off the Horns, Elliott led his team to a 4-1 mark down the stretch, including a season-ending 3-1 victory at home over No. 5 Kansas State. Two players – juniors Mira Topic and Bethany Howden – earned honorable mention All-America honors from the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) after both garnering first-team AVCA All-Central Region and first-team All-Big 12 accolades. Additionally, Volleyball Magazine ranked his freshman class -Jenny Andrew, Leticia Armstrong, Jessica Curtis, and Brandy Magee - second in the nation marking the third top-five recruiting class in his head-coaching career.

Without a senior on the squad in 2002, Elliott led the Longhorns to their second NCAA appearance since his arrival and moved up to a fourth place finish in the ever-competitive Big 12 Conference. He also developed his first All-American at Texas with Mira Topic when she was named an AVCA third-team All-American. He also guided Kathy Hahn's return to the court after a redshirt season in 2001 as Hahn claimed All-Central Region honors, along with Topic.

In his first season in 2001, Elliott guided the young Longhorns to three wins over top-25 opponents, including a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over then-No. 11 BYU in only the team's second match of the season, and then later on to UT's 19th NCAA appearance. He also was responsible for developing the nationally-recognized freshmen duo of Mira Topic (Big 12 and AVCA Central Region Freshman of the Year) and Austin native Bethany Howden (Big 12 honorable mention), who both earned ASICS/Volleyball Magazine Freshman All-American honors.

Prior to his appointment as head coach at Texas in April of 2001, Elliott posted two remarkable seasons as the interim head coach at the University of Southern California as he compiled a career record of 50-12 while leading the Women of Troy to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 15 years and first-ever share of the Pac-10 Conference title. In 2000, USC finished the season ranked No. 4 nationally by both the American Volleyball Coaches Association and Volleyball Magazine while going 29-3 en route to the NCAA semifinals. Elliott was honored as Pac-10 Coach of the Year both seasons, as well as being named the 2000 Pacific Region Coach of the Year.

Under the leadership of Elliott, the Trojans featured two All-Americans in 2000 (April Ross and Jennifer Pahl) and six all-conference players, including the Pac-10 and Region Freshman of the Year (Ross). In both 2000 and 2001, Elliott's recruiting class was regarded as No. 1 in the nation. The USC women's volleyball program landed its first-ever No. 1 recruiting classes in these last two years, according to Volleyball Magazine and Student Sports Magazine.

In 1999, Elliott's USC team was picked to finish seventh in the Pac-10 race before finishing the year third in the conference; in 2000, the squad was picked third before tying for the conference championship with Arizona. Elliott became just the second head coach in Pac-10 history to post more than 13 league wins in his rookie season. By leading USC to a 13-5 mark in the conference, Elliott also recorded the best-ever winning percentage by a first-year coach in the conference (.722).

Elliott accepted the interim head position at USC in 1999 and 2000 in the absence of former Texas volleyball coach Mick Haley, who was serving as the USA National Team head coach through the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Prior to his two years as interim head coach, Elliot spent four years at USC as an assistant coach under head coach Lisa Love. As an assistant at USC, Elliott helped guide the Women of Troy to finish nationally in the top 15 all four years. He also was instrumental in developing two-time All-American middle blocker Jasmina Marinkovic (1995-98).

Elliott earned another honor when he was appointed head coach of the USA Junior National Team for the summer of 2001. But due to his appointment at Texas, Elliott had to relinquish the role with USA Volleyball. Elliott was an assistant coach on the 1998 U.S. Junior National Team, which won the NORCECA gold medal and qualified for the World Championships.

Additionally, he served as the director/head coach of the Westside Volleyball Club from 1992-95, where he led his 1994 squad to a fourth-place finish in the Nike Volleyball Festival. In 1992-93, Elliott assumed the role as head coach for the Forum Team Cup Volleyball. He gained his first collegiate level coaching experience as an assistant with the Cal State Northridge men's volleyball program in 1993, when the Matadors advanced to the NCAA Championship match before losing to UCLA.

Among his high school head coaching experiences, Elliott spent three years (1992-1994) at Marymount High in Westwood, Calif., where he guided his girl's squad to the league championship in 1993. He also spent one year (1991) at his alma mater, Palisades High, in Pacific Palisades, Calif., leading the girls team to a 16-3 record and the Los Angeles City title.

Elliott played collegiate volleyball at Pepperdine in 1986-88 and at Hawaii during the 1989-90 season. The Pacific Palisades, Calif., native attended Palisades High. As an outside hitter in 1985-86, Elliott was high school teammates with 1996 US Olympic beach volleyball gold medalist Kent Steffes. Elliott was an All-L.A. City second team selection as he helped Palisades to 36-0 record in his final season.

Born April 28, 1968, Elliott earned his bachelor's degree in kinesiology from Cal State Northridge in 1991. He married the former Sarah Silvernail, a two-time All-American at Washington State and former member of the U.S. National Volleyball Team, on May 5, 2004. The couple has one child, Kaylee (6), and resides in Austin.