The sport and the world of volleyball have forever been changed.
Women found their place within sports, coaching has become
honorable–lives have been touched. Marilyn Nolen has accomplished
this through her intuition and undying drive.
Nolen graduated from Southwest Texas State University in 1966.
She traveled throughout the western half of the United States
during the late 1960s playing volleyball with club teams and
through other amateur options.
Nolen and her teammates were forced to do this because Southwest
Texas did not sponsor women’s sports at the time. She traveled with
her teammates willing to play anyone, including men’s teams.
At open tryouts in 1967, Nolen was selected to the United States
National Team. That same year, she was introduced to international
play in the Pan American Games in Montreal. At these games, the
U.S. team finished with the gold medal. The following year Nolen
competed in the Mexico City Summer Olympics.
Her success did not stop there. In 1972, she was a member of the
first U.S. women’s team to defeat Japan. She continued until she
retired from international play in 1975.
Nolen began working toward her master’s degree in education at
this time. While trying to accomplish this at Sul Ross State, she
took on the role as a coach.
“I got into coaching because I was always involved,” Nolen said.
There, Nolen helped form the school’s volleyball program.
At this time, the Division of Girl’s and Women’s Sports (DGWS)
was formed and sponsored several national championships. Nolen
assembled a team of athletes who won the first two DGWS national
titles in 1970 and 1971.
Nolen then left Sul Ross to focus on her international play.
During this time she helped develop the first national training
center for the U.S. Olympic women’s team in Pasadena, Texas.
Continuing with her coaching career, she led Utah State to its
first national title in any sport in 1978.
Then, she moved on to the University of Kentucky in 1982. There,
she took the volleyball team to its first NCAA championship. Later,
Nolen coached at the University of North Florida.
In 1993, UNF won the Sunshine State Conference championship.
After winning this title, Nolen was named conference coach of the
year.
Nolen’s final stop was Saint Louis University. She followed good
friend Debbie Yow to SLU, who was taking over the position of
athletic director and wanted Nolen to coach along side of her.
Nolen has made many remarkable achievements during her 10 year
coaching span at SLU. In 1995, she led the Billikens to their first
postseason tournament since 1975.
The Bills competed in the National Invitation Volleyball
Championships where they finished fifth out of 20 teams.
During her reign at SLU, she has achieved many personal coaching
feats. In 1998, Nolen was named Conference USA Coach of the
Year.
On Sept. 28, 2000, Nolen coached her 1,000th match, becoming
only the third NCAA Division I coach to accomplish this.
On Nov. 23, 2002, she earned her 80th coaching victory of her
career. Not only was Nolen just the third Division I coach to
achieve this, she managed to do it during the 2002 Conference USA
Tournament quarterfinals.
The next step in Nolen’s outstanding career is retirement. Nolen
announced that she is concluding her career with the end of the
2003 season.
She is married to Lt. Randolph C. Nolen, who is now a minister.
She also has been blessed with twin sons, Travis and Ryan. Nolen
looks forward to spending time with her children and family.
Nolen feels that SLU was the right place for her to coach.
“Being at SLU has been a great fit because of what the
University does,” Nolen said.
“Sports have a place within the University and have a lot to
offer the students,” Nolen added.
Nolen has nothing but praise for the university’s athletics.
“Being at SLU is the best of both worlds for students. Our
university has so much to offer because we are an elite, private
school. There are so many advantages to being here. Athletics truly
have a wonderful place within SLU,” Nolen said.
Nolen prides herself in her relationships with her players. She
enjoys coaching them and also being there for her students off the
court as well. One of the perks of coaching at a school such as
SLU, where the student aspect of “student-athlete” is stressed more
than that athlete portion, is that she gets to work with women who
are not only gifted athletically, but are also genuine and
intelligent.
It is just one more thing she will be able to take away from the
sport she has given so much to.
“I usually end up with a life long relationship with the
players,” Nolen said.
