FLORENCE – University of North Alabama director of athletics Josh Looney has announced the hiring of Kaleb VanDePerre as the school's beach volleyball head coach. VanDePerre comes to UNA from Liberty, where he has served as the school's head beach coach since 2016.

"The addition of Head Coach Kaleb VanDePerre is a major advancement in the evolution of our beach volleyball program," said Looney. "Thanks to generous philanthropic giving supporting the enhancement of women's athletics at UNA, we are now able to formally separate our beach and indoor volleyball programs by providing beach volleyball athletes with their first head coach dedicated solely to recruiting, developing and growing the program. Coach VanDePerre pairs an impressive beach volleyball background with an enthusiastic coaching style that will provide positive impact for UNA Beach Volleyball in the years to come."

While at Liberty, VanDePerre led the beach program at the club level, and helped the Flames secure many program firsts, including its first victory over a Division I program in 2021. He also served as the director of marketing and promotions for club sports at the school and was the men's volleyball head coach the past four seasons, leading the Flames to their first ever No. 1 national ranking and finishing 3rd at the 2021 NCVF national championships.

"I'm so honored to join the Lion family and am blessed to be taking over such an incredible group," said VanDePerre. "I want to thank Dr. Looney and the entire search committee for their time and dedication during this process. It's very apparent that the UNA Athletics Department, and UNA as a whole, is in great hands and trending in a fantastic direction. We are excited to get to work with such amazing people and continue to pursue the tradition of excellence on and off the sand."

VanDePerre graduated from LU in 2013 with a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in 2015 with a master's degree in sport management. While at Liberty, he was a member of the beach volleyball team, before taking over the program in 2016 and leading the men's beach team to its highest-ever finish at the USA Collegiate Beach Championships.

He also coached high school indoor club volleyball for several seasons in Lynchburg, Va., before taking over the men's indoor program. VanDePerre is also the director of VA Sand Volleyball, a year-round beach club for juniors in the Central Virginia region.

"We are very excited to have Coach VanDePerre as our next head beach volleyball coach," said Anna Milwee, who served as the chair of the search committee. "His knowledge of the game and vision for this program stood out from the beginning. There is no doubt he will have an immediate impact on this program and our department."

Throughout its first four years of existence, the UNA beach volleyball program operated with a director model, where the team was led by a director of volleyball, who was also the UNA indoor volleyball head coach. Since the 2019 season, Thais Yancey has helped run the program on a part-time basis and will remain on staff in 2023.

Since the creation of the program in 2019, the UNA beach team has posted a 43-43 record, including back-to-back winning seasons.

VanDePerre comes to Florence with his wife, Piper, and sons, Hudson and Cooper.