David Hunt has the Pepperdine men’s volleyball program continuing to compete at an elite level as he begins his fifth season as head coach in 2022.
In 2019, just his second season as head coach, Hunt led the Waves to MPSF regular-season and tournament titles, as well as to the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament. It was the first NCAA appearance and MPSF Tournament title since 2008 and the first MPSF regular-season title since 2014. The Waves finished with a #3 national ranking. He was rewarded with Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Coach of the Year honors.
Hunt returned the Waves to the NCAA Tournament in 2021 with an at-large bid, and Pepperdine ended the season ranked #5 in the country.
Through four seasons in charge, Hunt has a record of 59-28 (.678). There have been a total of 11 All-American selections during his tenure.
He was named head coach in July 2017 but has been a long-time member of the program, starting in December 2007 as a video coordinator and volunteer assistant coach. He became a full-time assistant in 2010 and was elevated to associate head coach in 2014.
Hunt earned national acclaim during his time as an assistant with three American Volleyball Coaches Association Thirty Under 30 Awards (2010, 2016, 2017).
For nearly the entire time that Hunt has been working at Pepperdine, he’s also been associated with USA Volleyball. In the summer of 2016, Hunt was an assistant coach with the U.S. Women’s National Team and helped lead Team USA to a bronze medal finish at the Olympic Games.
In the fall of 2008, Hunt was selected to travel with the U.S. Men’s National Team to the Pan American Cup in Cuiaba, Brazil, where he was the technical coordinator.
In the summer of 2011, he worked as an assistant coach for the U.S. Men’s Junior National Team that competed at the FIVB World Championships in Brazil. The squad earned its highest-ever finish with a fourth-place showing.
He traveled to Tijuana, Mexico in July 2012 as an assistant coach for the U.S. Boys’ Youth National Team where the squad won the bronze medal at the NORCECA Boys’ Youth Continental Championship and qualified for the 2013 FIVB Youth World Championships.
Following the 2013 collegiate campaign, Hunt briefly resigned from his post to serve as an assistant coach for the Japanese Men’s National Team. Hunt was hired by Gary Sato, a former coach for both the Pepperdine men’s and women’s squads. While Hunt was in Japan, the team moved up two spots in the FIVB World Rankings and earned its first FIVB World League win in over two years.
He returned to the Pepperdine sideline just prior to the start of the 2014 collegiate campaign.
In 2014, Hunt was picked as head coach for the U.S. Women’s National Team as they battled at the NORCECA World Championship Qualification Tournament at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Under Hunt’s leadership, Team USA was dominant, posting four shutout victories to punch its ticket into the 2014 FIVB World Championship.
Hunt later helped the U.S. Women’s National Team make history in October 2014. He served as a consultant coach during Team USA’s gold-medal run at the FIVB World Championships in Italy. It was the U.S. women’s first-ever gold medal at any major tournament, including the World Championships, World Cup and Olympic Games.
He's been the head coach for Team USA at the Pan American Cup in 2015 and 2018, and was an assistant coach in 2019, as well as the head coach for the 2019 U-19 World Championships. During summer 2021, he was the assistant coach of the Men’s Collegiate National Training Team.
A native of Glendale, Calif., Hunt played volleyball at Pierce College for two years before going on to graduate from UCLA in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in history.
While he was a college student, Hunt worked at Harvard-Westlake High School as an assistant to former Pepperdine assistant coach Adam Black. The pair led the boys’ volleyball team to a state championship in 2007.
