Columbia Names Burdette to Lead Women's Volleyball Program

(Story provided by Columbia Sports Communications)

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Director of Athletics Glen M. Crawford announced the hiring of Drew Burdette to lead the Koala Volleyball program on Monday morning.

Burdette, who hails from Naples, Florida, spent the past decade in California, splitting time coaching between professional beach volleyball, women's collegiate volleyball, and juniors volleyball.

Most recently, Burdette coached for the #1 ranked Sunshine Volleyball Club in Los Angeles, coaching the 13-1, 17-1, and 18-1 teams for the past five seasons while directing the beach volleyball program and managing the club's private training facility.

During his time in Los Angeles, Burdette also served as an assistant coach for the Women of Troy at the University of Southern California under head coach Mick Haley. His responsibilities included team serve and pass training, pin attacker training, defense scouting, and in-game duties related to both.

During his time with USC, the team finished 2nd in the PAC 12 while leading the conference in service aces, pass rating, and digs per set. The team finished in the Elite 8 of the NCAA tournament, knocking out #8 Minnesota before narrowly missing out on the final four by two points against host team #1 Florida. Burdette was crucial in producing two first-team All-Americans, one second-team All-American, and over a dozen PAC 12 player of the week honors.

Before moving to Los Angeles, Burdette served as the collegiate recruiting coordinator for COAST Volleyball Club in San Diego for five years, in addition to his head coaching duties for the 12-1, 16-1, and 17-1 teams.

Before going to the West Coast, Burdette served as an assistant at the University of South Carolina for three seasons. His duties ranged from training the team's defenders, serve and pass, and offense scouting. During his time with the Gamecocks, the team finished first in digs in the SEC twice, received defensive player of the week awards a dozen times, and had one 2nd team All-American outside hitter.

In addition to his experience at the collegiate and club levels of volleyball, Burdette has been the coach at La Jolla High School (San Diego, CA), Santa Fe Christian School (Solana Beach, CA), and the Marlborough School (Los Angeles, CA). He has trained dozens of NCAA Division-1 bound student-athletes, three Under Armor All-Americans, and one Gatorade National Player of the Year.

Burdette started coaching at Blue Ridge High School and Carolina One Volleyball Club in Greenville, SC. He then accepted an offer to play at Pfeiffer University on its inaugural men's volleyball team and received the school's first scholarship for the sport. While playing at Pfeiffer, he led the team in kills, hitting %, aces, and still holds the record for solo blocks in a match.

Coach Burdette also coached professional beach players in AVP and FIVB events, including Olympian Brooke Sweat, who took 3rd at the FIVB 5-star event in Ft. Lauderdale.