Volleyball Coaches

Tom Shoji

• Head Coach
• (3rd year)
• BA, University of California - Santa Barbara  '71
  M.A., University of California - Santa Barbara  '78
  
• Sparks 219
• (503) 370-6230 voice
• tshoji@willamette.edu

Tom Shoji begins his third season at Willamette University. Last season, he coached the Bearcats to a .500 conference record.

Under his guidance, the Bearcats went 6-2 in the second half of conference play and finished at 8-8 in the NWC in 2009. It was the most successful season since 2004 for Willamette volleyball.

Shoji has developed a long and respected career as a volleyball coach. His head coaching experience in women’s volleyball covers 25 seasons, including six years at New Mexico State University and six seasons at Indiana University. He was at Westmar University in Iowa for one year and coached at Colorado State University-Pueblo for 11 years.

He became the head volleyball coach at New Mexico State in 1981. He worked at NMSU through the 1986 season, then took over as the head coach at Indiana. Shoji led the Hoosiers for six years through 1992.

In 1993, he served as the head coach and was a physical education instructor at Westmar in LeMars, Iowa. He became the head coach at CSU-Pueblo (then known as the University of Southern Colorado) in 1994 and remained there through 2004.

After several years away from four-year collegiate coaching as the associate athletic director for compliance and student services at the University of California-San Diego, Shoji was ready to return to the sidelines. Willamette stood out as a great place for him to focus on the entire student-athlete, both on the court and in the classroom.
Shoji completed work on his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He earned a B.A. degree with a major in Ergonomics and Physical Education in 1971 and received an M.A. degree in Ergonomics and Physical Education in 1978.

In 1996, he was chosen as the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Northwest Region Coach of the Year for NCAA Division II and was named Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Coach of the Year. He worked with the NCAA Division I West Region Committee from 1984-85 and chaired the AVCA All-America Committee for NCAA Division I from 1989-91.

Shoji is originally from Hawaii. He lives in Salem with his wife, Chris. They have a daughter, Malia, who graduated from UC-San Diego. Tom’s brother, Dave Shoji, has been the head women’s volleyball coach at the University of Hawaii since 1975.