STEPPING UP THE COMPETITION

New Sooner Volleyball Coach Aaron Mansfield Prepares for First Season

As the passion for Oklahoma Volleyball grows, so do the expectations. After setting a single-game attendance record, with 3,702 fans against Texas, the Sooners were unable to carry the momentum and the energy into the postseason, missing the NCAA tournament for the third straight season. When Oklahoma decided to make a change in leadership, they turned to Aaron Mansfield to get the Sooners on a path toward a national championship. Now, Mansfield is in the midst of preparing for his first season as the head coach at Oklahoma with a reconfigured roster and a fresh and innovative approach.

“It’s been amazing. We put our head down right when we got here, had a lot of work to do,” Mansfield said of his first six months on the job. “We had a solid spring training session with our players and worked really hard to develop a lot of new systems offensively and defensively. We’re asking them to make a lot of changes and they’re resilient to change.”

Mansfield’s track record is impressive. During the last six seasons as head coach at Loyola Marymount, he led the Lions to a 94-68 (.580) record while taking them to a pair of NCAA tournaments. But once he arrived on campus at OU, Mansfield found himself in a numbers crunch when spring practices kicked off.

“We didn’t have enough players for six on six. It was a blessing and a curse because, with the small group, there was a lot of high-level learning taking place. We just didn’t have the numbers to do something that represents playing the game competitively,” Mansfield said. “I know our players are itching to start competing in August.”

The Sooners hit the portal for help to replace talented players like Peyton Dunn and Megan Wilson, who transferred to Auburn and Kentucky respectively. The newest Sooners included junior setter Rylee Faye, who joins the Sooners after spending her sophomore season at New Mexico State where she led the team and conference in aces. Outside hitter Daleigh Ellison joins the roster after transferring from Texas State, while 6-foot-4 middle blocker Lydia Burks was added to the roster after three stellar seasons at Liberty.

“My investment is always in the players we currently have and the players who decided to stay and are here for all the right reasons,” Mansfield said. “They are great kids who work extremely hard and want to get good.”

“We’ve wanted to be strategic about who we add to our group. Our culture is good, our team chemistry continues to improve. We want to bring people in that are skilled, that can not only be a part of that culture but add to it... I feel like the players we’ve added are going to be really nice additions.”

In addition to building a roster, Mansfield also had to put together a coaching staff that was aligned with how he wants to build a program. The carryover from his staff at Loyola Marymount helped to bring a sense of consistency with the hiring of Brian Thornton and Meredith Teague. Thornton spent the last two seasons with Mansfield at Loyola Marymount. Teague follows Mansfield from LMU as well, her alma mater, where she served on the staff the past two years in multiple roles and had an accomplished career as a player (2017-21).

“We have a good amount of continuity from our last staff. We understand what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to do it,” Mansfield said of his staff. “We also added Reagan Hood. She came from Dartmouth, and played professionally overseas for 15 years in seven different countries. She has a tremendous amount of experience seeing a lot of assorted styles of volleyball.

“Plus, with Drake Stenberg continuing as our operations director and Andi Pigeon as our athletic trainer, those who have been in this program for a few years, it’s a really good combination of some new blood and people that knew how things work around here.”

As Mansfield embarks on season one, the foundation is being set. From building a coaching staff to rebuilding a roster to implementing his systems, the process is ongoing and exciting. While the decision was hard to leave a Loyola Marymount program that he had helped build and start fresh at the University of Oklahoma, the people helped seal the deal.

“Joe Castiglione made a great impression on me. I think we were supposed to talk for a half hour, and we talked for two. I felt I could be myself,” Mansfield said. “Then when I got here, my wife came, and being on campus and seeing the resources and the people behind them, I could picture myself here.

“I could build something special if I got the right people around me and I feel like I have.”

As the building process continues, the support of the community and fanbase is a necessity. Over the past three seasons, the Sooners’ overall attendance increased by 36.5% per match while student attendance increased by 24% per match from 2019 to 2022. And of course, the record-setting crowd for the Texas match was the largest McCasland Fieldhouse crowd for a volleyball match ever. But that support goes beyond just showing up for matches, it’s showing up and bringing some energy and noise.

“Coming and watching our team compete and creating an environment that is a special place to play volleyball is great,” Mansfield said. “Our team does an excellent job in engaging in the community with the great personalities on our team. As a team, we’re starting to believe in what is possible, but we need the support of our community.

“When they come to our matches, they’ll see a team that competes really hard and takes some chances and some risks.”

In a short amount of time, Mansfield has been able to put his stamp on the University of Oklahoma volleyball program. Now as we approach the season, it’s time to see that hard work behind the scenes and on the court come to fruition. And in a short amount of time, it’s a team that has built a strong bond, according to the players.

“They’re extremely supportive of one another,” Mansfield said of the Sooner volleyball squad. “We asked our group to describe itself at the end of the spring and they said they felt they were very supported by each other. The coaching staff and I think that goes a long way and you’re going to see that when we play.”– BSM

BY: CHRIS PLANK