Keylor Chan
Head Coach
Samford Director of Athletics Martin Newton and Senior Associate AD Michelle Durbanannounced that Keylor Chan has been named the volleyball program's eighth head coach on Wednesday, Feb. 17.
"We're excited to add Keylor Chan to our Bulldog family. Keylor comes with an impressive resume and credentials but more importantly his values, character, commitment to academic excellence and vision for winning championships makes him the perfect fit to lead our program," Newton said. "I'd like to thank Michelle Durban for her hard work on vetting the candidates and bringing to the table a very impressive candidate list. We had a large pool to pull from and Michelle did a great job of doing her due diligence in the search process."
Durban spearheaded the efforts on the nationwide search for the Bulldogs' next head coach and filtered through the large candidate pool that eventually led to the hiring of Chan.
"We are extremely excited to have Keylor and his family joining our Bulldog family. Keylor is an excellent coach who understands the importance of a well-rounded student-athlete," Durban added. "Through the entire search process, the committee felt that Keylor would be a perfect fit at Samford and we look forward to him continuing the program's winning ways."
Chan comes to Samford after having a substantial and successful 15 years as the head coach of Big Ten member Northwestern University. Chan's teams at Northwestern recorded four NCAA Tournament appearances (2002, 2003, 2005 & 2010) including the program's first two tournament wins (2005, 2010). With his experience, he hopes to continue to build on Samford's winning traditions.
"First, I would like to thank President (Andrew) Westmoreland, Director of Athletics Martin Newton, Senior Associate Athletic Director Michelle Durban and the search committee for entrusting me to lead the Samford volleyball program," Chan stated. "On my interview it was very clear that Samford is a community built on fellowship, academic and athletic excellence. We will strive daily to uphold these principles and build upon the success already in place."
Through the years at Northwestern, Chan not only led his teams to multiple NCAA Tournament appearances but kept his program in the nation's Top 50 RPI in 2005, 2006, 2010 & 2012 and finished in the Top 25 in 2010.
The team success achieved throughout his career was fueled by four All-Americans, nine All-Region players, eight All-Big Ten selections and five Freshmen All-Big Ten honors.
Although it has been several years, Chan is no stranger to Southern Conference volleyball as he served as the head coach at Furman University during the 1999 season before advancing to Northwestern. While at Furman he increased the program's RPI by 22 points and took the Paladins to the SoCon Tournament Championship.
"Volleyball has grown tremendously over the past fifteen years especially in the Southeast," Chan continued. "The SoCon has evolved during this time as well and I believe Samford volleyball can be at the forefront of leading the SoCon into the national spotlight."
Chan's commitment to excellence extends well off the court as his players have achieved a 100 percent graduation rate which includes 111 Academic All-Big Ten players, three Academic All-District honorees and a team GPA of 3.2 or higher over his 15 years. The squad also received the highest team GPA at Northwestern in 2010, 2013 & 2014.
"I have built my career at universities that believe in academic excellence. Academia is the center of every collegiate athlete's experience and it needs to be embraced and nurtured," Chan said. "We will constantly seek to challenge ourselves in the classroom and on the volleyball court. The foundation of our program will be learning."