Jan. 29, 2008
TEMPE, Ariz. - The Arizona State Athletic Family is proud to announce the hiring of Jason Watson, whom they will welcome as the new Head Coach of the ASU Women's Volleyball Program. With his hiring, Watson is slated to be the sixth coach in program history, and comes to ASU by way of Provo, Utah where he spent the last three years as the Head Coach of the highly successful BYU Women's Volleyball team.
In his three seasons at the helm of the Cougar program, Watson compiled a 74-18 (.804) overall record while leading BYU to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances. In only his first season as Head Coach, he was named the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year after leading his team to a 25-4 record, the program's best record since 1998. In addition to leading BYU to the MWC regular-season title, Watson also helped lead them back to the NCAA Tournament as well, where his teams have resided and succeeded in the last few years.
In 2007, he led the Cougars to a 24-8 overall record and finish in NCAA Regional Final (Elite 8) as well as final national ranking of 12 and at one point through the season as high a rank as ninth. No stranger to the best competition, Watson's teams have been ranked as high as eighth on RPI, showing the character and strength of the teams he builds and that they shy away from no challenge.
Prior to his head-coaching debut, Watson had amassed 11 years as an assistant coach at four universities. After an All-American playing career at BYU, Watson coached for two years under his former coach, Carl McGown before beginning his career in women's volleyball with extremely successful stints at Kansas State, Arkansas State and Montana State.
Pending the contingent completion of his human resources paperwork, Watson will begin his tenure immediately at Arizona State, where we are proud to call him one of our own and look forward to the future success of the Sun Devil Women's Volleyball program which we are confident he can bring.
