Lincoln Memorial University women’s volleyball head coach Alison Williams named Connor Crawford as the program’s full-time assistant coach in early May of 2020.
With three seasons of women’s collegiate volleyball coaching experience, Crawford spent two years at NAIA member the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky, where he served as the volleyball team’s assistant coach. Previously, Crawford was on staff at NAIA Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee, for the women’s volleyball program’s 2015 season.
Attaining his Master of Science degree in health and human performance (MSHHP) in the process, Crawford helped lead the Patriots to 39 match wins over two seasons. Handling a large portion of recruiting, in addition to assisting with practice plans and developmental drills, Crawford was instrumental in helping guide several Cumberlands student-athletes to both all-conference and all-academic recognition.
Hired in July of 2018, Crawford’s impact was immediate as the Patriots went 22-13 overall and 7-7 in the Mid-South Conference that fall. Finishing fourth in the conference race, Cumberlands saw four players earn All-Mid-South Conference honors, 14 student-athletes garner academic All-MSC accolades and six named Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes. The Patriots also had the Mid-South Conference Libero of the Year. In his second season in Williamsburg, the Patriots posted another winning season with a 17-13 overall mark as 11 student-athletes picked up academic All-MSC plaudits and the program had a Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-American®. Among Cumberlands’ success in 2019 was a four-set victory over Georgetown College, marking just the third time in program history the Patriots defeated the Tigers. At the conclusion of both the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Cumberlands collected an American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award and was tabbed a NAIA Scholar Team.
From the winter of 2016 until 2020, Crawford was the head coach of the Horizon Volleyball Club in London, Kentucky, a position he held after spending three and a half years at Bryan College.
Following his playing career at Bryan, where he played outside hitter and middle blocker for the Lion men’s volleyball team for two seasons, Crawford served as a volunteer assistant coach for the women’s program. During his lone season assisting the Lions in 2015, Bryan captured the Appalachian Athletic Conference with an impressive 18-2 league record and finished 25-13 overall. Among Crawford’s responsibilities were developing and implementing practice plans, player relations and academic supervision.
Crawford graduated from Bryan in December of 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in secondary math education. He is a native of London, Kentucky.
