Cullen Irons joins the Rebels after spending the 2021 fall season at Texas A&M. Prior to his time with the Aggies Irons spent the summer of 2021 training with the women's Olympic team. He also worked as an assistant coach with the senior women's program at the 2021 NORCECA Continental Championships. In this role, Irons guided several national champions and All-Americans into their first international competition representing Team USA.
Prior to working with the USA NORCECA Championship Team, Irons spent a two-year stint at Oklahoma as an assistant women's volleyball coach. Before coaching at Oklahoma he spent six years coaching the UC Santa Barbara men's volleyball team. Irons was involved in all facets of the volleyball program, including recruiting, scouting, game planning, practice coordination, operations and community service.
In 2016, he was named the AVCA Division I-II Men's National Assistant Coach of the Year after guiding the Gauchos to their second 20-win season in the last 25 years. After being named UCSB's assistant coach before the 2014 season, Irons was named the associate head coach at the beginning of the 2019 season. In April of 2019, he was one of the recipients of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Thirty Under 30 Award. The award is distributed annually to 30 up-and-coming volleyball coaches under 30 years old in the sport at all levels of the game. Irons was one of just two recipients from the men's NCAA Division I-II level.
Irons played collegiately at UCSB from 2008-11, totaling at least 250 kills and 100 digs in all three of his seasons as a starter. He was named to the 2011 All-NCAA Tournament Team after leading the Gauchos in kills and ranking second in blocks and digs at the national tournament, guiding his squad to a runner-up finish.
Cullen is a native of Hanford, California and received a Bachelor of Arts in geography from UCSB in 2011.
