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A former All-MIVA outside attacker and Charleston assistant coach will be the inaugural head coach for men’s volleyball program at a historically black university.
Fort Valley State announced Monday that it hired Larry Wrather to take over the new NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball team along with the women’s volleyball team.
“I’m excited to have coach Larry Wrather join the Fort Valley State University family,” athletics director Anthony Holloman said in a statement. “He is a dynamic young coach who has the experience needed to build a championship level program.”
Wrather as an assistant coach at Charleston guided the Golden Eagles to 13 wins during the last two seasons and helped the team end the shortened 2020 season in seventh place in the EIVA. Before coaching at the college level, Wrather was on the coaching staff at Burris Laboratory and coached the high school program to an undefeated season and an Indiana state championship.
Wrather began his coaching career at Burris while still playing for Ball State.
The outside attacker finished his college career with 747 kills — the ninth most career kills for a Ball State player during the rally scoring era. He also had a career-high 2.63 kills per game along with a 1.37 digs per game average in 2011 en route to making the Second-Team All-MIVA.
Fort Valley State is one of six schools from the SIAC, a HBCU Division II conference, to announce last year that it would start a men’s volleyball program. The Wildcats are slated to play their inaugural season in 2022.