The Santa Monica College men’s volleyball team has one of the most distinguished histories in community-college athletics. The program competes in California community-college volleyball and plays its home matches at Corsair Gym. Over the decades, SMC has won numerous conference and state championships and has produced players and coaches who went on to compete at major universities, professionally, and at the Olympic level. The program’s greatest period came in the 1960s, when Santa Monica regularly competed against—and defeated—four-year powers such as UCLA and USC.

Beginning in 1961, Santa Monica captured four consecutive USVBA National Collegiate Championships under legendary coach Edward “Burt” DeGroot, winning titles in 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964. The Corsairs lost the 1965 championship to UCLA but returned to win again in 1966 under coach Mike O’Hara; SMC records credit the program with seven national championships overall during this era. The USVBA tournament was the principal national collegiate championship before the NAIA created its own championship in 1969 and the NCAA followed in 1970. Because those new championships were restricted to four-year institutions, Santa Monica was thereafter excluded from competing for the national collegiate title despite its extraordinary record.

Men's Volleyball

Memories

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