Volleyball coaching sits at the intersection of a growing participation base, a broad coaching occupation, and increasingly formal requirements for junior-club and sanctioned-event coaches. The figures below show the scale of the opportunity and the differences between national employment data, school participation, college athletics, and volleyball-specific credentialing.
Contents
- The coaching occupation in the United States
- Employment outlook and pay
- Where coaches and scouts work
- High school volleyball participation
- College volleyball and women’s sports
- Coach well-being and leadership
- USA Volleyball coaching requirements
The coaching occupation in the United States
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics groups volleyball coaches with coaches and scouts rather than publishing a separate national employment series for volleyball coaching. That broader category included 306,500 workers in May 2024, according to the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. The category is therefore useful for understanding the employment environment around coaching, while its totals should not be read as volleyball-only counts.
The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook identifies a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry-level education for coaches and scouts. It also reports that workers typically need no prior work experience in a related occupation and no on-the-job training. Those are occupation-wide measures, not a statement that every volleyball program or governing body uses the same hiring standard.
The occupation’s projected employment growth is 6% from 2024 to 2034. The same BLS outlook projects about 41,800 openings for coaches and scouts each year, on average, during that period. Openings can reflect new employment as well as replacement needs, so the annual figure is best read as a measure of labor-market activity rather than a count of new volleyball coaching jobs.
Employment outlook and pay
The May 2024 median annual wage for coaches and scouts was $45,920, according to the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. This median is close to the May 2023 median of $45,910 reported in the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics May 2023 release. The two measurements come from different BLS products and periods, so they should be compared as published figures rather than treated as a detailed year-over-year wage analysis.
The May 2023 wage distribution illustrates how widely pay can vary across the occupation.
| May 2023 annual wage point | Coaches and scouts wage |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $27,040 |
| 25th percentile | $32,440 |
| Median | $45,910 |
| Mean | $58,700 |
| 75th percentile | $62,070 |
| 90th percentile | $95,620 |
Source: BLS OEWS May 2023.
The mean annual wage of $58,700 was higher than the median because the distribution includes higher-paid positions. The 90th-percentile wage of $95,620 was more than three times the 10th-percentile wage of $27,040. These figures describe coaches and scouts as a combined occupation; they do not isolate club volleyball, high school volleyball, college volleyball, or a particular coaching role.
Where coaches and scouts work
State employment totals from the BLS May 2023 data provide context for the geographic scale of the occupation. California had 28,700 coaches and scouts, followed by Ohio with 15,820, Texas with 13,900, New York with 12,710, and Florida with 11,220. These are all-coach-and-scout counts, not volleyball-coach counts.
The BLS location quotient measures the concentration of an occupation relative to the national employment pattern. In May 2023, the location quotient was 2.01 in Kansas, 1.93 in North Dakota, 1.74 in Washington, and 1.71 in Iowa, according to BLS OEWS May 2023. A higher location quotient indicates a stronger relative concentration; it does not necessarily mean that a state has the largest absolute number of workers.
Mean annual wages also differed among metropolitan areas in the May 2023 data. The listed metropolitan figures were:
- Lubbock, Texas: $119,730
- Tuscaloosa, Alabama: $114,330
- Iowa City, Iowa: $114,290
- Lansing–East Lansing, Michigan: $112,580
- Lafayette–West Lafayette, Indiana: $112,070
- Blacksburg–Christiansburg–Radford, Virginia: $106,110
- Durham–Chapel Hill, North Carolina: $104,880
- Morgantown, West Virginia: $100,930
- Champaign–Urbana, Illinois: $98,330
- Lexington–Fayette, Kentucky: $95,240
These are annual mean wages for coaches and scouts in the named metropolitan areas. They are not forecasts, and they should not be interpreted as standard volleyball-coach salaries. Differences can reflect the mix of coaching and scouting jobs represented in each area.
High school volleyball participation
The NFHS 2023–24 High School Athletics Participation Survey counted 8,062,302 participants across high school sports: 4,638,785 boys and 3,423,517 girls. The following year, the NFHS 2024–25 High School Athletic Participation Survey counted 8,266,244 participants across high school sports. Those totals describe all sports, while the volleyball-specific figures show a more direct coaching audience.
Girls’ volleyball participation reached 479,125 in 2023–24, with the sport offered by 16,849 schools, according to the NFHS 2023–24 participation survey. In 2022–23, girls’ volleyball had 470,488 participants and was offered by 16,610 schools. Both the participant count and the number of schools were higher in 2023–24 than in 2022–23.
The longer NFHS comparison begins in 2014–15. Total volleyball participation then was 486,594, including 432,176 girls and 54,418 boys. Girls’ volleyball was offered by 15,534 schools, while boys’ volleyball was offered by 2,287 schools. These historical figures are from the NFHS 2014–15 participation survey and should be understood as period-specific reported counts.
| NFHS survey period | Girls’ participation | Girls’ schools | Boys’ participation | Boys’ schools |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014–15 | 432,176 | 15,534 | 54,418 | 2,287 |
| 2022–23 | 470,488 | 16,610 | Not supplied | Not supplied |
| 2023–24 | 479,125 | 16,849 | Not supplied | Not supplied |
Source: NFHS participation surveys for the periods shown. The table does not fill missing cells with estimates.
Boys’ volleyball reached 95,972 participants in the NFHS 2024–25 survey. The survey also reported that 25 state associations now conduct state volleyball championships for boys. Together, those figures point to a larger boys’ volleyball coaching footprint than the 2014–15 participation count alone would suggest, although the supplied figures do not provide a complete year-by-year series.
College volleyball and women’s sports
NCAA women’s volleyball participation was 19,810 in 2024–25, according to the NCAA women’s sports participation report. The report states that participation was up 4% from 2023–24 and up 16% over 10 years. These are NCAA participation comparisons, not a count of coaching positions.
Across NCAA women’s sports, total participation was 242,341 in 2024–25. Championship women’s sports accounted for 235,349 participants, while emerging sports for women accounted for 6,992. By division, participation totaled 94,935 in Division I, 59,999 in Division II, and 87,407 in Division III.
Beach volleyball provides another volleyball-specific trend. The NCAA women’s sports leadership report records growth of 194% over 10 years, from 611 to 1,799 student-athletes. Because the report supplies both the starting and ending counts, the percentage should be read as its reported long-term comparison rather than recalculated from rounded values.
Coach well-being and leadership
The NCAA’s 2022 Coach Well-Being Study included more than 6,000 coaches across NCAA sports. More than 80% of head, assistant, and associate coaches reported spending more time discussing mental health with student-athletes than before COVID-19. The survey finding spans NCAA sports and coaching levels; it is not limited to volleyball.
Leadership measures from the NCAA women’s sports leadership report add context to the coaching pipeline. Female head coaches across NCAA women’s sports totaled 5,126, up 13% over 10 years. Female presidents and chancellors across the NCAA totaled 378, up 27% since 2017. These figures describe women’s sports leadership across the association, not volleyball-specific head-coach totals.
For volleyball coaching, the figures matter because participation growth and coach responsibilities develop together. A larger athlete population can expand the need for instruction, team management, communication, and athlete support, while the NCAA well-being finding shows that mental-health conversations are part of the reported coaching environment. The supplied NCAA measures quantify those trends without assigning a separate volleyball value to them.
USA Volleyball coaching requirements
USA Volleyball sets a more specific framework for coaches working in its sanctioned environment. The USA Volleyball Coach Education information identifies IMPACT, SafeSport Training, and a background check as required coaching items for sanctioned participation.
USA Volleyball requires IMPACT for junior-club coaching eligibility. It describes IMPACT as the minimum level of coach education required to coach a junior club. For member coaches in sanctioned events, USA Volleyball requires SafeSport Training and a background check. These are requirements stated by USA Volleyball for the contexts identified; they are not presented here as universal requirements for every volleyball coaching job.
The three-part requirement can be summarized as follows:
- IMPACT: required for junior-club coaching eligibility and described by USA Volleyball as the minimum junior-club coach education level.
- SafeSport Training: required for member coaches in sanctioned events.
- Background check: required for member coaches in sanctioned events.
Taken together, the participation data and employment data describe a sizeable coaching ecosystem, while the USA Volleyball requirements show how one governing body formalizes eligibility for specific settings. The BLS figures help frame the broader occupation, NFHS figures show the school-age participation base, NCAA figures show college-scale volleyball and leadership trends, and USA Volleyball defines concrete education and safety steps for sanctioned coaching.