Rich Pickrell

Rich Pickrell enters his fourth season as an assistant coach for the Stevens Institute of Technology men’s volleyball team in 2010.

In his first three seasons at Stevens, Pickrell has helped guide the Ducks to an overall mark of 80-28. Last season he helped guide the Ducks to a 26-7 mark, its fourth NECVA tournament title and an appearance in the Molten Division III Men’s Volleyball Championship. The Ducks finished the season ranked as the national runner-up and No. 2 in the Bison/AVCA Men’s Volleyball Division III Coaches Poll after falling to No. 1 Juniata in the national championship game. Helped develop two all-NECVA honorees and three AVCA All-Americans including NECVA Player of the Year and AVCA National Player of the Year Andrew Cranford.

In 2008, he was part of a staff that led the Ducks to the ECAC Championship game and the quarterfinals of the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association Tournament. Pickrell also served an important role in helping Andrew Cranford earn second-team All-America accolades as given by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.

In 2007, he assisted Head Coach Patrick Dorywalski in taking the men’s team to the NECVA Championship for the third time in the last five years. He also helped produce two AVCA Division III All-Americans (Michael Schulte and Tomas Bochicchio).

Prior to Stevens, Pickrell spent 11 years coaching the men’s and women’s volleyball squads at Springfield College, the University of Colorado and Seton Hall University. His standout year on the sidelines came in 1981 when he led the Springfield women’s volleyball team to a No. 8 national ranking in the last AVCA poll of the year.

Pickrell has also been a staff member of the USA Men’s National Team. Consequently, he received the gold medal at the Pacific Ocean Games in which he guided the 1995 Men’s USA Select Team as well as a silver medal at the 1997 NORCECA Championships. In addition, he has played in the Columbian Professional League Invitational as well as several other tournaments in Europe.

As a player, Pickrell was a student-athlete at Springfield College, in which he was part of a group that was an NCAA Division I Final Four national semifinal participant in 1976. Moreover, he garnered All-New England and All-Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association honors as a member of the Pride.
Pickrell has also played for USA Volleyball, where his team won national titles in 1999 and 2007.

Furthermore, he has competed for several squads that have placed in the Top 4 at the USA Volleyball Open Nationals. As a result, he has been tabbed as an All-American six times, while being selected an “All-Time Great Player” in USA Volleyball’s New England Region in 1995.

Pickrell, who also serves as the NJ Director for the TCA Volleyball Club, captured an 18 & Under Regional Open Championship as a head coach in 2009 and represented the Garden Empire Region at the 2009 USA Volleyball National Junior Olympics.