Jolene Shepardson

Jolene Shepardson has guided the University of South Florida volleyball program into a new era of competitive success since being named head coach on January 8, 2020. A former USF student-athlete, Shepardson blends deep personal ties to the program with a proven ability to rebuild and elevate teams. Under her leadership, the Bulls captured the 2024 American Athletic Conference Regular Season Championship, the program’s first since 2002, and she was honored as the 2024 AAC Coach of the Year. Her recent teams have produced multiple conference award winners, including AAC Player of the Year Maria Clara Andrade and AAC Setter of the Year Caroline Dykes, while also delivering the longest postseason run in program history with a Fab Four appearance in the 2023 National Invitational Volleyball Championship. Before returning to her alma mater, Shepardson accumulated nine seasons of head coaching experience and engineered dramatic turnarounds at both San Jose State and Cal State Bakersfield. At San Jose State, she led the Spartans from the bottom of the RPI rankings to sustained competitiveness, posting the program’s first back-to-back winning seasons in more than a decade. At Bakersfield, she took over a winless program and built it into a 21-win team, guiding the Roadrunners to a second-place finish in their first season in the Western Athletic Conference. As a player, Shepardson enjoyed championship-level success at the University of Tampa and USF, competed professionally overseas, and earned numerous individual honors, including Gatorade Florida Player of the Year in high school. Her career reflects a consistent commitment to player development, academic excellence, and building programs capable of sustained success.