Ryan Wills - Assistant Coach - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Ryan Wills

Title:
Assistant Coach
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Former Tulsa head coach Ryan Wills joined Liberty volleyball’s coaching staff under Head Coach Jeremy White in Dec. 2024 and currently serves as an assistant coach.

Wills spent nine seasons as Tulsa’s head coach (2014-22), compiling an overall 137-126 record for a .521 winning percentage. His best season came in his first as the Golden Hurricane posted a 22-9 record in 2014.

Wills became the first Tulsa coach to lead his team to three postseason tournaments, all coming in the National Invitational Volleyball Championships (NIVC). His 2019 team reached the NIVC semifinals and finished with an 18-16 record. In his career at TU, Wills has coached 16 all-conference selections, including 11 first-team performers and also had two players earn Conference Libero of the Year and one Conference Freshman of the Year.

In his 16 seasons coaching on the collegiate level, Wills has been involved in 11 winning seasons, seven 20+ win seasons and eight postseason appearances, including five NCAA Tournament appearances. He has led Tulsa to two postseason appearances as head coach.

During his final season at Tulsa, the Golden Hurricane produced a 13-18 record, falling to Wichita State in the first round of the AAC Tournament. Senior Kayley Cassaday was named to the AAC All-Conference first team for the second year in a row, finishing the regular season ranked second in the AAC in kills, kills per set, points and points per set.

In 2021, Tulsa returned to the postseason play, earning a bid in the National Invitational Volleyball (NIVC) Championship. Tulsa finished the season 14-16 overall and 9-11 in American athletic Conference play. The Hurricane registered a 7-5 road mark, including a 3-2 win at second-place Houston and a 3-0 sweep of fourth-place SMU in Dallas. Cassaday was named to the all-conference first team after having the third-most kills in the league with 455.

In the Covid-19 affected season in 2020, the shortened season was moved to the spring of 2021. Tulsa played only league games and posted a 2-8 record.

In 2019, the Hurricane finished 18-16 and sixth place in The American. For the second straight season, Tulsa earned a postseason bid to the NIVC, the first back-to-back postseason appearances since 2011-12. Tulsa UC-Davis and Santa Clara, both 3-1 wins in Long Beach, Calif. The Hurricane advanced to the semifinals with a 3-2 home victory over Weber State in the NIVC quarterfinals. Tulsa’s postseason run ended in the semis by a 3-1 score to South Dakota.

A year earlier in 2018, Wills guided the Hurricane to a 19-12 overall record and fourth place in the American Athletic Conference, while earning an NIVC invitation for Tulsa’s first postseason showing since 2012. Tulsa was dominant at home throughout the campaign, boasting an 11-2 mark at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Tulsa ended the 2017 campaign with 15 wins, finishing sixth in the conference after being projected to place ninth in the preseason coaches’ poll. Wills’ squad led the AAC with 2,229 digs, slotting them at eighth-best in the nation. Sophomore Taylor Horsfall set a school record with a single-season conference and program record 755 digs, which was also the second-most in the NCAA that season.

The Hurricane opened the 2016 campaign with an 11-1 start, rattling off nine straight wins heading into conference play. Tulsa strung together five straight wins in league play and finished the season with a 19-13 record, ranking among the top-five nationally in digs per set and team digs. Brooke Berryhill led the conference in digs and ranked 10th in the nation. Erica Bohannon earned her third all-conference first-team nod after posting a team-best 466 kills for an average of 3.73 per set.

Tulsa finished the 2015 season in fourth place in American play with a 10-12 record as junior Erica Bohannon and senior Ashley Hooper were named first-team all-conference.

In Wills’ first year at the helm of the Tulsa program, the Hurricane posted 22 victories for the program’s 10th straight 20-win season. Tulsa finished with a 22-9 overall record and a 14-6 league mark in Tulsa’s first season as an American Athletic Conference member. Bohannon was a first-team all-conference selection, while senior Valerie El Houssine was a third-team Academic All-American.

Before returning to his alma mater as head coach, Wills spent three years as an assistant coach at Alabama.

Wills helped the Crimson Tide post an overall 53-44 record. In 2013, Alabama compiled the most wins in school history with a 24-10 mark and made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Before joining Allen at Alabama, the Tide had won just 19 matches in the previous two seasons, and in their first two years the Tide posted 29 wins, including an 18-14 mark in the 2012 campaign.

Before joining Alabama, Wills was an assistant coach for the Hurricane in 2010 under Head Coach Ed Allen. Tulsa posted a school-record 31 wins, including 30 straight victories, and winning the program’s first NCAA Tournament match with a victory over 15th-ranked LSU. Tulsa finished the 2010 season with a 31-3 overall record, a perfect 20-0 mark in Conference USA play, a conference regular season crown and the nation’s No. 20-ranked team in the AVCA Coaches poll.

Wills was a student assistant coach at Tulsa for the 2006-07 seasons and helped the Hurricane win its first Conference USA regular-season title in 2006, followed by the program’s first C-USA Tournament Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2007. Tulsa compiled an overall 54-15 record during those two seasons.

Upon his graduation from Tulsa in 2008, Wills was a volunteer coach at UCLA for two seasons (2008-09) under National Volleyball Hall of Famer Andy Banachowski, the all-time winningest NCAA Division I women’s volleyball coach and winner of six national championships.

UCLA reached the NCAA regional semifinals in 2008 and the NCAA second round in 2009. Wills helped train three AVCA All-Americans, two Pac-10 Conference Freshmen of the Year performers and one AVCA National Freshman of the Year. The Bruins posted a 46-20 record in his two years and was ranked as high as sixth nationally.
Wills was also the Beach Program Director at the Mizuno Long Beach Volleyball Club, where he developed and directed the sand volleyball program for the club. In 2009, the program won the inaugural National Club Championship for beach volleyball.

He trained nine girls who received Division I scholarships while coaching for the Mizuno Long Beach program and had five players earn Junior Olympic All-America honors, including future Tulsa athlete and all-region performer Kellie Culbertson, who was the Junior Olympic 17 Open Division Most Valuable Player.

Wills also assisted with Club ONE Volleyball in Tulsa from 2006-08, where the program won three Oklahoma Regional Volleyball Association Championships and received three bids to the Junior Olympic National Championships.

A native Tulsan, Wills graduated from Wright Christian Academy before attending The University of Tulsa. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from TU in 2008.

Wills’ wife, Evyn, was a four-year letterwinner for the Golden Hurricane volleyball team and completed her career ranked first on the school’s all-time digs list as a libero.

He and Evyn have one son, Ryder.