Omaha Officially Names Buttermore New Coach
OMAHA – Omaha Athletics announced today that Matt Buttermore will be the sixth head volleyball coach in program history, taking over for Rose Shires who retired after 29 seasons leading the Mavericks. Buttermore most recently served as the head coach of Hastings…
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Continue ReadingOMAHA – Omaha Athletics announced today that Matt Buttermore will be the sixth head volleyball coach in program history, taking over for Rose Shires who retired after 29 seasons leading the Mavericks. Buttermore most recently served as the head coach of Hastings College for the past seven seasons.
“I would like to thank Trev Alberts and UNO for this opportunity,” said Buttermore. “I was impressed by the growth of Omaha’s campus, the resources available to our student-athletes and the leadership team’s vision for continuing to grow Maverick Athletics. Even more importantly, I was impressed by their focus on the well-being of the student-athletes. I’m excited to get in the gym and work with our current team, as well as connecting with the Omaha volleyball community.”
Buttermore’s pedigree includes an NAIA National Championship at Hastings in 2016. He guided the school to three Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) crowns (2012, 2016-17), back-to-back GPAC Tournament titles (2016-17), five NAIA National Tournament appearances and an NAIA Elite Eight (2012).
“We are thrilled to welcome Matt to the Maverick family as our head volleyball coach,” said Alberts, Vice Chancellor of Athletics. “Matt is a winner and embodies all of the qualities that we were looking for in our next head coach. Most importantly, Matt is someone who is deeply committed to seeing student-athletes achieve their full potential on and off the court which makes him a perfect fit for our Maverick family.”
Buttermore has coached 37 all-conference honorees, three GPAC Players of the Year and a two-time NAIA Libero of the Year (2016-17). He also has had 12 of his players achieve All-America status.
Among his coaching accolades, Buttermore has garnered GPAC and West-Central Region Coach of the Year recognition three times (2012, 2016-17) and earned NAIA National Tournament Coach of the Year honors for his team’s 2016 national championship run. For that season, he also was the American Volleyball Coaches’ Association (AVCA) NAIA National Coach of the Year.
“It was not an easy decision to leave Hastings and I will miss it dearly, but I would like to thank them and the community for the support they provided our program and our family over the last seven years,” added Buttermore. “I owe additional gratitude to Rachel Miller at Concordia and Trish Siedlik at Bellevue University for giving me my first college coaching jobs, and to Patty Sitorius and Ian Roberts for when they took a chance on me at Hastings.”
A native of Lincoln, Buttermore played collegiately at the University of Findlay in Ohio (NCAA I-II). As a middle blocker, he was a four-year letterwinner and earned academic all-conference honors. He still holds the program’s records for blocks in a single match and total blocks in a season.
Buttermore earned his bachelor of arts in English from Findlay and completed his master of arts in leadership at Bellevue where he also developed a leadership program for the college’s student-athletes. He is married to the former Laura Pilakowski who was an All-American and former volleyball student-athlete at Nebraska. The couple has two daughters: Emelyn and Lainey.
What They Are Saying:
John Cook – Nebraska Head Volleyball Coach
“Matt is another great example of a coach who started as a ball boy in the Coliseum, played on the first boys’ club team in Nebraska, found his passion for coaching and took Hastings to a national championship. He has been patient, worked hard and now is prepared to be the head coach for a Division I program in the state of Nebraska. Congratulations to Matt, his wife Laura, Trev and the Maverick volleyball program.”
Kirsten Bernthal Booth – Creighton Head Volleyball Coach
“Omaha is in good hands with Matt Buttermore at the helm. Matt is a man of high character and integrity, and the success he has had at Hastings speaks for itself. Congrats to Matt on the new job, and I look forward to watching and supporting him as he continues to elevate the Omaha volleyball program.”