ROCK HILL, S.C. —
Heather Gearhart has been promoted to head volleyball coach, the Winthrop athletic department announced Wednesday.
Gearhart served as interim head coach in 2022, a season in which the Eagles won 16 matches, finishing third in the conference and having six players named Big South All-Conference, including setter
Isabella Murray winning the Conference's Freshman of the Year award. Gearhart has been with the program since February 2021, when she was an assistant coach for that season.
"I am proud to remove the interim tag and officially name
Heather Gearhart as Head Coach of this storied volleyball program," athletic director
Chuck Rey said. "She has earned this position, not just with the success of this past season but through a year where most will never know the major obstacles she led this team to overcome. Her genuine passion and interest in the overall well-being and growth of each student-athlete speaks volumes of her character, but it's the student-athletes voice that is heard loudest when not a single one entered the transfer portal at the end of this season. This program is obviously close to my heart and she is absolutely the right fit at the right time for this next generation of student-athletes. She 'gets-them' and is already driving a culture of success, resilience, and integrity, all of which is deeply embedded in her DNA. She will lead this program to the greatest successes it has yet seen."
In her time at Winthrop, Gearhart has made Winthrop a force to be reckoned with defensively. Under her tutelage, the Eagles ranked 39
th in Division I in opposing hitting percentage at .175. Murray was also ranked 42nd in Division I in assists per set with 10.35. She has coached all-Big South selections in
Morgan Bossler,
Nikkia Benitez,
Alayna Jansky,
Avery Jolley,
Leah Metzger,
Isabella Murray,
Jana Owens,
Brookelynn Thomas, and
Karli Shepherd.
Prior to her time in Rock Hill, she served as an assistant coach at Akron (2019) and Tennessee (2018). Akron won their most matches in a season since 2003 and reached the conference tournament for the first time since 2012, while Tennessee finished second in the Southeastern Conference and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Gearhart coached several all-conference selections at each stop.
She played collegiately at North Carolina, playing a key role on four NCAA Tournament teams. During that time, she contributed to a team that won an ACC Championship and reached their first-ever Elite Eight. In 2015, Gearhart earned a spot as libero on the USA Collegiate National Team.
Gearhart earned a bachelor's degree in exercise and sport science in the fall of 2015 and then traveled to Nottingham, England to get a master's degree in marketing from the University of Nottingham, where she also served as the captain of the women's performance volleyball team.
