Delaware State University, which won the MEAC volleyball championship for the first time in 37 seasons, enters 2023 with a new head coach.
David Brooks, who led Elizabeth City State to the CIAA championship and its first NCAA D-II tournament appearance in 13 years last fall, will now serve as Hornets head coach, the university announced Monday.
Brooks will replace Bruce Atkinson, who accepted the head volleyball coach position at East Tennessee State University in May.
Brooks took over a Vikings program that had gone 25-119 in the six seasons prior and quickly turned them into winners, finishing 2021 with a 27-6 mark. The team then recorded a 26-9 record last season, defeating top-seed Shaw in four sets to win the CIAA tournament crown.
ECSU fell to Atlantic Region top seed Gannon (W. Va) in three sets in the NCAA tournament first round.
The Hornets went 24-7 in 2022 under Atkinson and won their first MEAC tournament championship since 1986, with wins over North Carolina Central, Howard and Coppin State.
The Hornets played in the NCAA Division I Volleyball Tournament for the first time in school history, losing in three sets to Nebraska.
Brooks shared a statement with the university, saying that he wanted to “thank (DSU athletic director) Alecia Shields-Gadson and the entire search committee for their belief in me to lead the Hornets’ volleyball program. From the moment I stepped on campus it felt at home, and I am excited to get to work with such a talented group of student-athletes to build champion volleyball players, champion scholars, and champion citizens.”
Delaware State begins its 2023 volleyball season at Temple University on Aug. 29.
