Virginia Volleyball Coach Dennis Hohenshelt Resigns

Virginia Volleyball’s head coach Dennis Hohenshelt has resigned, acting director of athletics Jon Oliver announced on Thursday morning. Over his five years as the UVA coach, Hohenshelt amassed a 69-88 record, including a 7-25, 4-16 ACC record in his final this past year.

“I would like to thank Dennis for his contributions to Virginia Volleyball,” Oliver said in a released statement. "He recorded three winning seasons in his five years with our program and brought many talented student-athletes to the University.”

His coaching career at Virginia ends with a 38-60 conference record, slightly skewed by his first season’s 9-22, 3-17 ACC record and his final season’s losing record. Hohenshelt’s three middle seasons, 2013-2015, each finished with winning overall records (18-14, 17-14, and 18-13 respectively), and non-losing ACC records (11-9, 10-8, 10-10, respectively).

“I’ve appreciated the opportunity to be a part of the University of Virginia athletics department and to run the volleyball program over the last five years,” Hohenshelt said in the same release. “I would like to thank all of the student-athletes who have been part of Virginia Volleyball during my time at UVA and the alumni of the program whose support has been tremendous.

“The commitment by the administration to raise the level of the program has been significant. I believe we’ve made strides over the last five years and the future is very bright.”

According to the release, Virginia will “fulfill the financial obligations of the contract,” the details of which were not immediately released. (See update below.)

Virginia has not reached the NCAA Tournament since 1999 under then head coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton, who reached the tournament in back to back years, Virginia’s only two appearances since the tournament began in 1981. With Hohenshelt’s resignation, Virginia has now had back-to-back head coaches that were unable to bring the Cavaliers to postseason play. Lee Maes, who coached Virginia from 2008-2011, became an assistant at Louisville and is now an assistant at Colorado.

Associate head coach Aaron Smith will take over as interim head coach while the national coaching search is underway. Smith joined the coaching staff in April 2012 alongside Hohenshelt, for whom he had played while a student at Penn State.

Update 1/19/17 11:32 a.m.: Hohenshelt’s contract was set to expire on January 25, 2017, so Virginia’s financial obligations aren’t hefty by any stretch of the imagination. Hohenshelt’s base salary started at $125,000, subject to annual increases in accordance with Commonwealth and University’s policy and discretion. According to The Cavalier Daily’s Faculty Salaries Index 2015-2016, his salary was $136, 592 last year.