Heading into his 10th season in 2010, SIUE head coach Todd Gober continues to push the volleyball program into new heights.Gober led the Cougars to a 2-27 record last season in their second year at the NCAA Division I level and will turn to an experienced roster to improve in 2010.In 2007, their final season at Division II, the Cougars advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season and finished with a No. 14 national ranking in the final American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, equaling their best-ever ranking at SIUE.Gober posted 20-plus victories in each of his first seven seasons at SIUE and completed the last five years at the Division II level with 25-plus wins each season. SIUE completed the 2007 season with a 27-7 record overall. In 2006, the Cougars tied the school record for wins with 29.Gober enters the 2010 season with a career record of 191-97, averaging more than 21 victories a season in his nine years at the helm of the Cougars. He has more wins than any other SIUE volleyball coach, which includes a mark of 68-15 on his home court.Gober's teams have produced six All-Americans and four Academic All-Americans, including two Division I Academic All-Americans.His 2005 team won the program's first Great Lakes Valley Conference championship, and Gober made his first trip to the NCAA Tournament. He has since taken SIUE to two other NCAA Tournaments.Prior to coming to SIUE, Gober posted a record of 204-50 (80.3 percent) as the head coach at Southwestern Illinois College (SWIC). He produced five junior college All-Americans, 22 All-Region selections, four conference Most Valuable Players and four Conference Freshmen of the Year. All of his teams at SWIC earned national rankings.Gober's teams had not dropped below 20th in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) rankings and rose as high as seventh in the nation. In 1998 and 1999, SWIC appeared in the NJCAA tournament and finished fifth and ninth nationally, respectively. Gober was honored as the Conference Coach of the Year four times, the Region 24 Coach of the Year twice and District 15 Coach of the Year twice.Gober's teams held a 96 percent graduation rate from 1996 through 1999. Twenty-one of 24 graduating sophomores under Gober received scholarships to four-year institutions. One of his graduates at SWIC was former Cougar Shanan McLean.While Gober was working as SWIC's head volleyball coach, he also was an adjunct instructor of volleyball at SWIC as well as a Vice President and Compliance Officer at Citizens Community Bank in Mascoutah, where he continues to serve as a part-time consultant.Gober has also collaborated with the Grenadian Ministry of Sports to bring Volleyball to the Caribbean Island nation.Gober earned a bachelor of arts degree in business (economics) from Northwestern (Iowa) College in 1985 and a master of arts in finance from Saint Louis University in 1991. Gober and his wife, Joan, have three children: 16-year old Lexi, 13-year old Liza and nine-year old Cole. The family resides in Edwardsville.
