Rick Squiers completed his 24th season as the University of Nebraska at Kearney head volleyball coach with the end of the 2022-2023 academic year. He is the third head coach in school history, following Patty Sitorius and the late Rosella Meier.
In 24 years at the helm, Squiers has led UNK to two National Runner Up finishes, 24 NCAA Tournament appearances, four Elite Eight appearances, 16 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference/Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association regular season crowns, 11 RMAC/MIAA tournament titles and a 403-24 home mark. That includes two winning streaks of 66 matches in a row, both among the longest in NCAA D2 history.
The Iowa native and 11-time RMAC/MIAA Coach of the Year is 729-102 in his UNK tenure, good for a winning percentage of 88 percent. This doesn't include the "non-countable" 2021 spring season when the Lopers went 16-3. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 fall season was canceled at the D2 level.
In 30 years as a college (four-year institutions only) head coach, Squiers has a record of 1036-195, a winning percentage of 84 percent. Including a year at a junior college and two seasons at the high school level, his overall mark stands at 1083-216 over 35 seasons.
Continuing the Lopers long tradition of volleyball success, the five-time American Volleyball Coaches Association Region Coach of the Year has seen 24 different players earn All-American honors at least once in their careers.That includes his daughters, Anna and Madison.
The 2004 campaign was one of the most successful campaigns not only in UNK history but D2 history as well. The Lopers became the seventh team, at the time, to go through the regular season unbeaten (33-0), were ranked No. 1 in the nation for 12 straight weeks and advanced to the national semifinals. A slew of individual honors included four Lopers earning AVCA All-American honors. Squiers earned his second RMAC COY honor while repeating as Region COY.
In 2005, UNK went 38-2 and finished as National Runners up, falling to Grand Valley State (Mich.), 3-1, in the title match. The Lopers went 19-0 in the RMAC for the second straight year as well as winning a second straight RMAC Tournament. UNK hosted the Elite Eight, drawing record crowds to the Health & Sports Center with a crowd of 5,025 watching the Loper-GVSU match.
Also in 2005, Kearney native Erin Gudmundson was named the AVCA Division II National Player of the Year. She is one of seven Loper middle hitters since 2000 to earn All-American honors. Right side Annie Wolfe won the same award as a senior in 2016. The Omaha Marian graduate worked her way from the back row into a starting right side over her final two seasons.
The Lopers dominated the RMAC individual awards in the Squiers era, earning the Player of the Year, Setter of the Year and Freshman of the Year multiple times. Academically middle hitter Kelli Brummer earned Academic All-American honors in 2001 and was one of 35 UNK players to make the Academic All-RMAC squad between 1999-2011. In 2008 and 2009 middle Nikki Scott was voted the RMAC Academic Player of the Year.
The 2012 season marked a change for all UNK teams as the Lopers moved into the MIAA. Loper volleyball didn't miss a beat, winning both the regular season and tournament titles en route to a 35-3 record and a No. 3 national ranking. Having three All-Americans, the Lopers reached the Sweet 16 where six-time defending national champ Concordia-St. Paul stopped them.
In 2016, Kearney again won both MIAA titles in posting a 35-2 overall mark. Finishing the year ranked fifth, the Lopers went 17-0 in the Health & Sports Center, pushing its home court win streak to 35 in a row. Subsequently, Squiers was named the Central Region and MIAA Coach of the Year, Wolfe picked up MIAA Player of the Year honors with middle Mackenzie Puckett tabbed the region and MIAA Freshman of the Year.
The Lopers had a 66-match winning streak come to an end in 2018. UNK went 33-3 that season, winning both the MIAA regular season and tournament titles before falling to Harding (Ark.) in the first round of the NCAA's. Kearney has hosted the Central Regional six times in the Squiers era (2004, 2005, 2007, 2012, 2018 and 209) with senior libero Ellie McDonnell representing the program on the All-American team that fall.
In 2019, the Lopers went 38-1 and reached the National Championship match. UNK won the MIAA regular season and tournament titles once again and finished the regular season with a 30-0 mark. It was the second undefeated regular season in program history.
UNK hosted the NCAA Central Regional for a second straight season and staged a comeback for the ages in the in the finals to reach the Elite Eight in Denver. The Lopers downed Concordia-St. Paul in five sets before beating Gannon (Pa.) and Rockhurst (Mo.) in Colorado to reach the national title mach. Squiers picked up a slew of coaching awards including being tabbed the region COY and the State College COY by both the Omaha World-Herald and Lincoln Journal Star. Individually UNK had three All-Americans led by co-captain Julianne Jackson, the MIAA Co-Player of the Year.
Squiers has seen 22 players make the All-Region team with 54 different Lopers earning All-RMAC or All-MIAA honors the past two decades.
Prior to UNK, Squiers was head coach at Hastings College, a school that Sitorius coached at before UNK. In his tenure, Squiers’ teams posted a 206-59 record and averaged 34 wins a year. From 1993-98, his teams were a fixture in the NAIA polls. In three of those years (1994, 1996 and 1998), Hastings qualified for the NAIA National Tournament. The Broncos also collected three Nebraska-Iowa Athletic Conference (NIAC) championships (1996-1998). In each of the years Hastings won the league, Squiers was named the NIAC COY. Before Hastings, Squiers was the head coach at Seward County J.C. in Liberal, Kans. In 1992, he led the Lady Saints to a 28- 23 record. Squiers first volleyball coaching job came at Remsen Saint Mary High in Remsen, Ia. In two years, his teams went 73-11 and won two conference titles with Squiers being named league Coach of the Year in 1990.
His coaching career began in men’s basketball as he was a graduate assistant at Wyoming in 1989. Squiers also coached basketball at the North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton, N.D.
Graduating in 1988 with a degree in physical education from Simpson College in Indianola, Ia., Squiers received his Master’s degree in physical education, emphasizing in administration, from Wyoming the following year.
Squiers lives in Kearney with his wife, Kim. They have six children; Jordan, Rebecca, David, Madison, Anna and Callie. David (football, UNK), Jordan (volleyball, UNK) and Rebecca (basketball, Rockhurst) were college student-athletes like Anna and Madison. Callie is a junior in high school.
