El Camino College hires April Ross as beach volleyball coach

TORRANCE - El Camino College recently hired Olympic gold medalist April Ross as the new head coach of the Warriors’ beach volleyball team.

Ross becomes the second head coach in the history of the college’s beach volleyball program, which began in 2015. She replaces illustrious ECC head coach LeValley Pattison, who retired from the position following the 2024 spring season.

A three-time Olympic medalist, Ross is one of four U.S. beach volleyball Olympians to have more than one Olympic medal, joining a prestigious group of standouts that includes Kerri Walsh Jennings, Misty May-Treanor, and Karch Kiraly. She won the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with partner Alix Klineman after taking home the bronze medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

Ross began playing volleyball at Newport Harbor High School where she was a member of two CIF State Championship teams. She went on to attend the University of Southern California in 2000 where she played for four years and helped the Trojans win back-to-back NCAA National Championships in 2002-03. At USC, Ross was named the PAC-10 Freshman of the Year as well as the National Freshman of the Year in her first campaign to go along with AVCA Second Team All-American honors.

Following another Second-Team All-American nod as a sophomore, Ross netted consecutive First-Team All-American honors in her final two years, helping lead the Trojans to a national title in both seasons, including an undefeated season in 2003.

By the time her career at USC came to an end, Ross finished among USC’s all-time career record-holders, ranking in the top-6 in eight statistical categories, including first in points (1,430) and points per game; second in service aces (161) and service aces per game (0.38); fourth in attacks (3,859); fifth in kills (1,576), kills per game (3.73) and digs (1,296); and sixth in digs per game (3.06).

Ross graduated from USC with a degree in global marketing and went on to play three professional indoor volleyball seasons in Puerto Rico for the Ponce Leonas. In 2006, Ross transitioned her professional career to the beach as she joined the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Tour.

In 2013, Ross partnered with Kerri Walsh-Jennings and the pair went undefeated during the 2015 AVP season.

Aside from qualifying for three Olympics as a professional, Ross also won a gold medal at the 2011 World Championships in Norway along with silver medals at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships.

Ross has been named the USA Volleyball Women’s Beach Player of the Year eight times (2009, 2011, 2013-17, 2019) and is a three-time member of the USA Volleyball Beach Team of the Year (2009 and 2012 with Jen Kessy, 2016 with Kerri Walsh-Jennings).

Ross earned her master’s degree in coaching and athletic administration from Concordia University, Irvine. She looks forward to growing El Camino College’s beach volleyball program, competing as a Warrior, and mentoring student-athletes at ECC. 

(Rafael Guerrero, El Camino College Athletics)