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After spending four years as the Rutgers-Newark head coach, Karl France is returning to NYU.
The Division III school announced Monday that it has hired France for the second time in his career to be an assistant coach on the NYU men’s volleyball team.
“I am very happy to be back working with Coach [Jose] Pina,” France said in a statement released Monday. “We work well together and have had success in the past. I feel that with the added excitement of a NCAA Division III Men’s Volleyball Championship and a solid nucleus returning, the sky is the limit for NYU men’s volleyball.”
As the Coordinator of Volleyball Operations at Rutgers-Newark, France was the head coach for the both the men’s and women’s volleyball team.
With the Rutgers-Newark men’s volleyball team, France had a 46-57 career record. However, the Scarlet Raiders increased their win total in each of his four seasons.
France also coached Rutgers-Newark to one of the biggest upsets in recent EIVA history as it defeated the then-11-time defending EIVA champions Penn State during the 2010 regular season. This remains the Nittany Lions’ only loss to an EIVA team in the last three years.
Rutgers-Newark finished the 2011 season 17-12 — the program’s first winning record in seven years — and advanced to the EIVA Tournament semifinals. In addition, the team earned the school’s AVCA Team Academic Award for having more than a 3.30 culumative team grade point average.
Prior to coaching at Rutgers-Newark, France was an assistant coach on Pina’s staff at NYU from 2003-07. The Violets were ranked in the top five of the final Division III coaches poll each of the five seasons during France’s first coaching stint at NYU.
The Violets announced in January it would leave the EIVA and join the newly-formed United Volleyball Conference in 2012 to compete for the inaugural NCAA Division III Men’s Volleyball championship. The Division III national championship in previous years had been a non-sanctioned NCAA event.
Playing its final year in the EIVA, NYU ended the 2011 season in second place in the EIVA Hay Division and lost to George Mason in the first round of the conference tournament. NYU finished tied for No. 3 in the final Division III coaches poll.
Rutgers-Newark has not announced who will replace France as its head coach. The school also has not publicly posted the head coach job opening.