University Southern California Trojans
Photo by: John McGillen
Get to Know: Matt Jones
August 20, 2026 | Women's Volleyball
New USC associate head coach Matt Jones is sharing his coaching philosophy on and off the court
USC women's volleyball welcomes new associate head coach Matt Jones to the sidelines. A former professional player and head coach, Jones sat down to talk about sharing his experience, coaching advice and philosophy, and what to look forward to this upcoming season.
Looking back, what made you want to become a coach?
My first college job was at Santa Barbara City College, which I started after I finished playing. When I was doing that, I was also coaching club and trying to go the AVP route a little bit as well. It was kind of during that stint that I really started enjoying the coaching aspect and I didn't want to walk away from the team aspect of volleyball. Sports have always been a big part of my life, so I decided to give it a try and go full-time D1 and then it worked out. So far so good.
What made USC the right opportunity for you?
It's a great program with a lot of history. I've also known Brad Keller for a while and one day, he called me and he caught me at the right time when my wife and I were open to listening. That was the exciting part; getting the chance to work here in an athletic department of this scale and with this history. I think that was probably the best thing.
What do you think playing professionally—both domestically and overseas—taught you about coaching?
It's given me empathy for when I'm coaching foreign players, knowing what it's like to have to go to another country, the culture shock that comes along with it, and maybe they don't understand the terminology and the different volleyball culture of that place. Everyone's a little bit different. I think it's probably giving me some empathy there. Also, I went to a place that taught and played differently. So being there, there were some things I liked that I picked up, some things I didn't. And even if there's something that doesn't work for me or anyone as a coach, it just makes you more certain of the things that you do believe in and you do want to coach to players. As someone who enjoys teaching players, it just gave me a lot of perspective.
You studied applied math with a focus on statistics. Has that analytical education influenced how you coach today?
I believe data is a useful tool for sure, but I believe coaching is a lot more about relationships, communication, and the teaching pieces. We definitely want to make data-informed decisions when possible, but I do think some people can get too absorbed in the data or they're literally staring at their clipboard the entire game with their head in the book. And they're not watching the actual game, so you need that balance: we want to make data-informed decisions, but we also want to be able to be watching the game and gathering data with our own two eyes. It's so important to be able to pick up on patterns ourselves, not just having to rely on retroactively going to the data to tell us things. We need to be able to pick up on things live in-game. I think you can know everything in the world, have all the data in the world, but if you can't communicate it to players or get them to believe in it, then it's not going to matter.
You've built your career from the ground up and were an AVCA Thirty Under 30 award winner. What advice would you give to a young coach—or even a student-athlete—who hopes to follow a similar path?
Do a lot of listening. Don't assume you're always right and look at networking and making connections as a positive. Put it in a positive framework. I think for a lot of people, they work hard and they feel like they know things, they know the game well, and then they're frustrated because they haven't found the job that they want yet. But at the end of the day, you have to get hired by someone, and you've got to make connections with people. I suggest working as many camps as you can; get yourself around high-level coaches, and don't force it. Be yourself and eventually you'll find the people that you align with and that you want to work with in the industry. But if you don't make connections, you're limiting yourself 100-percent, and I think it's probably one of the more overlooked parts of the job.
What are some things you can tell about this team's culture within the first 15 minutes of practice?
We're a pretty close unit and we have a lot of fun together. The way the seniors treat the freshmen is representative that we have a really healthy culture here. We're all super united and want to equally work hard. The players make it really enjoyable to be around and besides their clear leadership, it's wonderful how quickly people get integrated. I don't see a ton of negative body language when younger and newer people are making mistakes, which is what you see in a lot of teams. There's a nice balance of understanding with a level of accountability. We also must uphold our standards of how we play in the gym, and then once we've taught something one, two, or three times, we need engagement and someone to start making changes and picking those things up. At the same time, I think there's a patience with the process that is clearly established by the upperclassmen.
With volleyball becoming faster and more physical over the last decade, where do you think the game is headed next?
I think it's going to keep progressing that way. On average, in the 10 years I've been in college coaching, the game has gotten faster and people play with more speed across the country. I think the back-row attack continues to become more a part of the game, but there's still a lot of room for growth there, and there's more people starting to jump-serve as well. I do believe there needs to be a balance there as well. You need enough heat for it to be effective, so maybe that's one area for growth. I think there could be more people jump-serving in the college women's game. I know at the international level, when you're playing the best passers in the world, you've got to hit the ball pretty darn hard, and there's a few women that are doing it now. At the college level, we're playing a lot of very good passers, but also a lot of people who are learning and growing. I think if you can hit a good heavy jump serve, it has a lot of value in our game. It's just good for our mechanics so maybe there'll be more of that in 10 years.
What do you think is a statistic that people overlook?
It's hard for me to think about what the public thinks about when they think about stats, because I'm so biased by being in the coaching position. But in general, the biggest thing that I would care about in a match is the difference in hitting efficiency between the two teams. Are we hitting for a higher efficiency than the other team? But matches are weird and there's lots of anomalies, but that's generally a good indicator. Are we making good swing choices and challenging the defense?
If you weren't coaching volleyball, what do you think you would be doing?
At times, I've thought about being a homeschool teacher. I've thought about teaching a small group of kids for a group of parents that have a similar vision of how they want to get homeschooled. It'd still be in this same mentorship field—something like this—but I'm also kind of interested in finance or I could see myself using more of my applied math skill set and doing something in the finance space.
What's the biggest lesson you've learned about leadership as a former coach that you'll bring to USC?
I'm grateful to the coaches and parents that I had as a young person because I feel like these are values I was taught an earlier age. But the longer I've been in coaching, the more I've just been reaffirmed that holding yourself accountable, especially the higher you go up the chain is the most important skill to have. For example, when I was the head coach, if I'm not willing to hold myself accountable and show some vulnerability to the team and admit that I occasionally make mistakes, I think that's huge. It's important to have consistency as a coach. There's a time and a place for a great speech. Obviously, if you can get the troops a little more motivated, that could be helpful in the moment. But day in, day out, it's so important to just have consistency. Being consistent for the team and doing your job over and over and over again. The biggest thing is to be a model for the team.
What should fans expect to see from our USC women's volleyball team this year?
They should expect to see what has been building over the last couple of years. We'll continue to play a fun, fast style of volleyball. We have a lot of returners and a young team with some new additions, but the fans can expect us to keep playing with a fun, creative style and it'll definitely be enjoyable to watch.
Looking back, what made you want to become a coach?
My first college job was at Santa Barbara City College, which I started after I finished playing. When I was doing that, I was also coaching club and trying to go the AVP route a little bit as well. It was kind of during that stint that I really started enjoying the coaching aspect and I didn't want to walk away from the team aspect of volleyball. Sports have always been a big part of my life, so I decided to give it a try and go full-time D1 and then it worked out. So far so good.
What made USC the right opportunity for you?
It's a great program with a lot of history. I've also known Brad Keller for a while and one day, he called me and he caught me at the right time when my wife and I were open to listening. That was the exciting part; getting the chance to work here in an athletic department of this scale and with this history. I think that was probably the best thing.
What do you think playing professionally—both domestically and overseas—taught you about coaching?
It's given me empathy for when I'm coaching foreign players, knowing what it's like to have to go to another country, the culture shock that comes along with it, and maybe they don't understand the terminology and the different volleyball culture of that place. Everyone's a little bit different. I think it's probably giving me some empathy there. Also, I went to a place that taught and played differently. So being there, there were some things I liked that I picked up, some things I didn't. And even if there's something that doesn't work for me or anyone as a coach, it just makes you more certain of the things that you do believe in and you do want to coach to players. As someone who enjoys teaching players, it just gave me a lot of perspective.
You studied applied math with a focus on statistics. Has that analytical education influenced how you coach today?
I believe data is a useful tool for sure, but I believe coaching is a lot more about relationships, communication, and the teaching pieces. We definitely want to make data-informed decisions when possible, but I do think some people can get too absorbed in the data or they're literally staring at their clipboard the entire game with their head in the book. And they're not watching the actual game, so you need that balance: we want to make data-informed decisions, but we also want to be able to be watching the game and gathering data with our own two eyes. It's so important to be able to pick up on patterns ourselves, not just having to rely on retroactively going to the data to tell us things. We need to be able to pick up on things live in-game. I think you can know everything in the world, have all the data in the world, but if you can't communicate it to players or get them to believe in it, then it's not going to matter.
You've built your career from the ground up and were an AVCA Thirty Under 30 award winner. What advice would you give to a young coach—or even a student-athlete—who hopes to follow a similar path?
Do a lot of listening. Don't assume you're always right and look at networking and making connections as a positive. Put it in a positive framework. I think for a lot of people, they work hard and they feel like they know things, they know the game well, and then they're frustrated because they haven't found the job that they want yet. But at the end of the day, you have to get hired by someone, and you've got to make connections with people. I suggest working as many camps as you can; get yourself around high-level coaches, and don't force it. Be yourself and eventually you'll find the people that you align with and that you want to work with in the industry. But if you don't make connections, you're limiting yourself 100-percent, and I think it's probably one of the more overlooked parts of the job.
What are some things you can tell about this team's culture within the first 15 minutes of practice?
We're a pretty close unit and we have a lot of fun together. The way the seniors treat the freshmen is representative that we have a really healthy culture here. We're all super united and want to equally work hard. The players make it really enjoyable to be around and besides their clear leadership, it's wonderful how quickly people get integrated. I don't see a ton of negative body language when younger and newer people are making mistakes, which is what you see in a lot of teams. There's a nice balance of understanding with a level of accountability. We also must uphold our standards of how we play in the gym, and then once we've taught something one, two, or three times, we need engagement and someone to start making changes and picking those things up. At the same time, I think there's a patience with the process that is clearly established by the upperclassmen.
With volleyball becoming faster and more physical over the last decade, where do you think the game is headed next?
I think it's going to keep progressing that way. On average, in the 10 years I've been in college coaching, the game has gotten faster and people play with more speed across the country. I think the back-row attack continues to become more a part of the game, but there's still a lot of room for growth there, and there's more people starting to jump-serve as well. I do believe there needs to be a balance there as well. You need enough heat for it to be effective, so maybe that's one area for growth. I think there could be more people jump-serving in the college women's game. I know at the international level, when you're playing the best passers in the world, you've got to hit the ball pretty darn hard, and there's a few women that are doing it now. At the college level, we're playing a lot of very good passers, but also a lot of people who are learning and growing. I think if you can hit a good heavy jump serve, it has a lot of value in our game. It's just good for our mechanics so maybe there'll be more of that in 10 years.
What do you think is a statistic that people overlook?
It's hard for me to think about what the public thinks about when they think about stats, because I'm so biased by being in the coaching position. But in general, the biggest thing that I would care about in a match is the difference in hitting efficiency between the two teams. Are we hitting for a higher efficiency than the other team? But matches are weird and there's lots of anomalies, but that's generally a good indicator. Are we making good swing choices and challenging the defense?
If you weren't coaching volleyball, what do you think you would be doing?
At times, I've thought about being a homeschool teacher. I've thought about teaching a small group of kids for a group of parents that have a similar vision of how they want to get homeschooled. It'd still be in this same mentorship field—something like this—but I'm also kind of interested in finance or I could see myself using more of my applied math skill set and doing something in the finance space.
What's the biggest lesson you've learned about leadership as a former coach that you'll bring to USC?
I'm grateful to the coaches and parents that I had as a young person because I feel like these are values I was taught an earlier age. But the longer I've been in coaching, the more I've just been reaffirmed that holding yourself accountable, especially the higher you go up the chain is the most important skill to have. For example, when I was the head coach, if I'm not willing to hold myself accountable and show some vulnerability to the team and admit that I occasionally make mistakes, I think that's huge. It's important to have consistency as a coach. There's a time and a place for a great speech. Obviously, if you can get the troops a little more motivated, that could be helpful in the moment. But day in, day out, it's so important to just have consistency. Being consistent for the team and doing your job over and over and over again. The biggest thing is to be a model for the team.
What should fans expect to see from our USC women's volleyball team this year?
They should expect to see what has been building over the last couple of years. We'll continue to play a fun, fast style of volleyball. We have a lot of returners and a young team with some new additions, but the fans can expect us to keep playing with a fun, creative style and it'll definitely be enjoyable to watch.
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