Since accepting his first Head coaching job in 2015, Nick Rawls hasn’t looked back, establishing himself as one of most dedicated and passionate volleyball coaches and program builders in the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.)
Rawls, who has been heading the Rio Grande’s men’s volleyball program for the past four seasons, discovered volleyball when he first moved to Brantford as a child.
“I moved to Brantford when I was in the fourth grade [and] attended Briar Park Elementary School. I had my first exposure to volleyball [with] an extracurricular after school program for first to fifth graders, where they had nine people on the court, and they had this big over inflated volleyball,” he said. “I was lucky enough that the school offered Grade six, seven and eight volleyball, and I was able to play those years. I remember I had a teacher say that I was talented at it. It was something that I enjoyed doing and was good at.”
However, when Rawls entered high school, his sights were set on another sport.
“I wanted to play football when I got to North Park Collegiate., so I had no aspirations of [continuing with] volleyball. My dad had walked on at Iowa State for football…so I wanted to follow in his footsteps [and] play football. Unfortunately, that year, for whatever reason, there was only a varsity team, and I did not make it. But I still wanted to be involved in athletics [which was] something I wanted as part of my high school experience. So, I decided to try out for the junior volleyball squad and made it,” he said.
He would then be coached by a local hall of fame volleyball coach.
“And so, I first met Sandy Beetham [as] she had been coaching the varsity team. That team was quite successful…after playing juniors for two years, I made the varsity team and then was coached by her for three years because I did the victory lap in high school. Through North Park and her volunteering there, that’s how I came in contact with both Rick and Sandy,” Rawls explained.
However, despite helping the team win two consecutive City championships, Rawls considered his options as he truly wanted to continue a career in volleyball.
“During my first year as a senior, I looked around and was playing with guys that I thought were more talented than I was. I started, but I was a fringe starter…[and soon] realized if I wasn’t good enough to be a stud on this team, then what were the chances of me playing at the next level?” he recalled. “I asked Sandy if I could start coaching, because I love sports and I knew volleyball well…I started coaching with her at the Brant Youth Volleyball Club. And between that and my victory lap year [at high school], I probably coached three to six other teams, including a team that went to Thailand in the international children’s games. In that time, I got to work closely with Sandy for those three and a half to four years.”
However, he would then gain further experience in coaching during his time at West Virginia University when he decided to head to the United States and get his bachelor’s degree in athletic coaching education.
“When I went on my visit, I set up a meeting with Veronica Hammersmith, the head coach of the women’s volleyball program, and asked if I could volunteer in any capacity. I would end up spending four years as a student manager, practice player, and eventually a volunteer assistant coach with the D1 team women’s volleyball team at WVU. It was life changing. I’m incredibly thankful to Veronica [and] to Bakeer Ganesharatnam, who is currently the coach at Syracuse (he was an assistant while I was there) as well as to Ashley Pappas, and then to Jill Cramer, who came in my junior year,” he said. “I’m very thankful that they took the time to mentor me, [and] to allow me to learn [and get me to] the next level. I would then get an opportunity to move forward where I went to grad school at the University of Rio Grande [and] got to do a master’s degree working under Billina Donaldson at that time.”
After that, Rawls’ would get an opportunity to build upon his coaching skills as an assistant at Rio Grande women’s volleyball program.
“It was a dream come true to me. I had done four years of education, hoping for an opportunity like this. I was very energetic, [and] very excited. And the very first practice that I showed up to, coach Billina Donaldson, told me that she wanted me to run the first ten minutes of practice. I told her I would do it…and after the first ten minutes, she told me to go ahead and just run the rest of practice. It was awesome to get to run a practice,” he stated. “At that point, I had probably spent eight or nine years witnessing coach Sandy running practices [and] now I had a chance at the D1 level to run practices and to be able to get to be in charge of the court, decide transitional drill, [and] have a game plan for passes and attack, it was really exciting…I was lucky that coach Billina allowed me to do that quite regularly [and in turn gave me a chance to] transition quickly to a head coaching role when I did get an opportunity to be one.”
However, in 2015, Rawls was offered a chance to build the men’s volleyball program at St. Andrews University from the ground up. Despite a tough first year where they went without a win, he would coach the team into a winning program, earning Mid-South Conference titles in both 2018 and 2019.
“That was the first opportunity I had to coach a men’s volleyball team…I am very thankful for my time at St. Andrews, but the first year was really tough. I got hired in May to start the program and had to have a team ready for that August. We had probably two recruits who knew what they were doing, and the rest of them were junior soccer and basketball players. Somehow, we got through that first year [and] we were able to have a great second recruiting class.” He recalled. “By year three, we had gone 19 and nine [and] were able to win the conference tournament and go to the national tournament, where we finished ninth overall in the country. The following year, we went 20 and eight…going undefeated in conference play, and again, getting the opportunity to go to the national tournament and represent our conference. So, I’m very thankful for the young men who were in that program who believed in me. And right now two of them are coaching at the NAIA-level in my conference. It’s great to have a full circle moment with those guys and see [how my] own coaching tree is now competing against me.”
After a successful six years at St. Andrews University, Rawls was offered the head coaching position at Rio Grande’s program; but it was a lot of work once again, as he had to build the team from scratch.
“It was an opportunity that I really couldn’t turn down. I looked at the staff and how long a lot of them had been here, and I realized that it was a place where I could set up roots and be here a long time. I am very thankful that Jeff Lanham extended the offer to me as the athletic director,” he noted. “Starting a program from scratch is incredibly difficult…finding the right people with the right mentality who then can set the culture and be a part of setting that culture for your team is critical. And I think I underestimated how much of it was me versus the team when I went about it a second time, I basically did everything the same, but we didn’t have the same results as quickly that I had with St Andrews.”
Nevertheless, Rawls has truly defined himself as a committed coach and mentor to his players, making his mark on both the St. Andrews and Rio Grande programs.
“During my first year here at Rio, we played against St. Andrews and the coach at the time was Ben Twigger, who was somebody who was a first-team all-conference basketball player. He was a player I converted to a volleyball player [and] he fell in love with the sport during his last year at St. Andrews… [and just] looking down on the court before that match, seeing that I recruited 90% of the St. Andrews roster at that point, and I also had a hand in recruiting everyone at Rio,” he reminisced. “And I just had a moment to myself where I realized that there are 40 men here who are getting this opportunity in part because of my dedication and willingness to grow the sport. And that was a cool kind of introspective moment.”
