Arizona volleyball returns to the familiar with the hire of assistant coach Brandon Chan

When Arizona volleyball head coach Dave Rubio hired Lauren Plum as an assistant last February, it was a bold move. She didn’t have a lot of coaching experience and she didn’t have ties to the Arizona program. After Plum was suddenly dropped from the staff in the late spring, Rubio opted to return to the family with the hire of former Arizona manager Brandon Chan.

The reasons for Plum’s unexpected departure are still hazy, but Chan comes in knowing what to expect in the Arizona program. The former Dartmouth associate head coach started as a manager for the Arizona indoor program and then moved on to serve as the volunteer assistant coach for the Arizona beach program.

“Brandon brings a vast knowledge of the game along with an endless supply of energy,” Rubio was quoted in Arizona’s press release. “Brandon started out as a student manager for my volleyball team and has spent the last several years honing his craft. He will be a great addition to our staff.”

Chan spent three seasons at Dartmouth beginning in 2019. For the two seasons before that, he served on Steve Walker’s Arizona beach volleyball staff as a volunteer coach.

Last season at Dartmouth, the team finished third in the Ivy League. It was a big move up from their last-place finish in 2019. The conference did not play sports during the 2020-21 academic year due to the pandemic.

Chan’s first stop after college was as an assistant coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. There, he helped the Islanders go undefeated in the 2015 regular season and reach the NCAA Tournament.

Chan is a 2015 graduate of UA who spent his undergraduate years as a student manager for Rubio. He also worked in club coaching and ran volleyball camps in Arizona.

Chan doesn’t have much time to prepare for the season. Arizona takes the court for the Red-Blue game on Aug. 20 before doing it for real in the Cactus Classic beginning on Aug. 26.