08-08-2024
033 | OLYMPIC EPISODE: Medal-Winning Athlete & Coach with Paula Weishoff
Join us for another Olympic episode as we chat with three-time Olympian and CUI Women's Volleyball Coach Paula Weishoff!
Weishoff is the all-time winningest coach in CUI Women's Volleyball with an all-time record of 286-127. She first served as CUI head coach from 2004-2008 and returned to Concordia in 2015 after serving as the head coach at UC Irvine for six seasons. She guided CUI to the NAIA finals twice, the NAIA semifinals twice, and was named NAIA Coach of the Year in 2008 after leading the Eagles to a 31-6 overall record and the national championship match.
Weishoff has coached 10 NAIA All-Americans and 16 of her players were named to the All-GSAC team during her tenure at Concordia. Under her leadership, the Eagles claimed the first PacWest Conference title for CUI in any sport in 2016 with a 17-3 conference mark and a 26-3 overall record. Following that successful run, Weishoff was named the 2016 PacWest Coach of the Year.
Weishoff was also part of three NCAA Division I National Titles at USC. One was as a player in 1980 and the other two came when she was an assistant coach for the Trojans during the 2002 and 2003 seasons. She started her coaching career at USC in 1997, serving as the primary recruiting coordinator for seven years before being promoted to associate head coach in 2003. In 2005, Weishoff was inducted into the USC Hall of Fame.
During her professional career, Weishoff played overseas in Japan, Brazil and Italy. She was named the MVP after leading the Daiei Volleyball Club (Japan) to the 1995 pro league championship. She was a four-time MVP in Italy (1986-89) and spent 10 years playing for various teams in the Italian First (A1) Division. The former middle blocker has been involved with USA Volleyball as a coach for more than a decade and joined the organization in 1998 as an instructor for the USA High Performance Camp. She was an assistant on the youth national team that won the silver medal at the 2000 NORCECA Youth Tournament and captured gold as an assistant with the A2 training team in Atlanta in 2003. In 2008 Weishoff led the juniors team to gold at the NORCECA Women’s Junior Tournament.
Weishoff was inducted into the USA Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1998 and received the All-Time Great Player Award that same year. She was also named to the USA Volleyball 75th Anniversary All-Era (1978-2002) Team in 2003. She represented Team USA as a player at the 1984, 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games, earning Most Valuable Player of the 1984 team in Los Angeles. Following a silver medal in those games, Weishoff was selected as the USOC Female Volleyball Athlete of the Year and her Olympic ambitions continued in Barcelona, Spain, where she guided Team USA to a bronze medal and was voted the MVP of the 1992 Games. She also captured silver at the 1983 Pan American Games and bronze at the 1982 World Championships, 1986 Goodwill games and the 1992 FIVB Super Four. Weishoff, a three-time Olympian, also served two seasons as an assistant coach with the U.S. Women’s National Team and helped Team USA capture a silver medal at the 2012 London Games. It was Weishoff’s first appearance in the Olympics as a coach, but represented three decades of involvement with USA Volleyball.
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Special thanks to Concordia University Irvine alum Godesulloh Bawa for the TIPS podcast music.
