Men's Volleyball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- donan.cruz@bsu.edu
- Phone:
- 765-285-1744
Cruz also guided the Cardinals to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002. Ball State earned the No. 2 seed in the event, as well as a bye into the national semifinals, which took place at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, Calif.
The second coach in program history to earn AVCA National Coach of the Year honors while leading the Cardinals, joining 1995 & 1996 honoree Dr. Don Shondell, Cruz helped restore Ball State's historic traditions of success by guiding the program to its first outright MIVA regular season championship since 1997. Ball State went 12-2 in league play in 2022, earning Cruz the title of MIVA Coach of the Year.
Under Cruz, Ball State reached 20 wins for the first time since the 2016 campaign. The Cardinals started the season off hot, earning back-to-back wins over national champion and then-No. 1 ranked Hawai'i. The Cardinals also secured a notable win on the road at then-No. 9 BYU this season.
In conference action, Cruz helped the Cardinals defeat Lewis on the road for the first time since 2010. BSU also swept the two-match season series versus its longest rival, Ohio State, for the first time since 2014.
The Ball State men's volleyball team ended the season as the 2021-22 Division NC men's volleyball statistical champion for Assists Per Set, Kills Per Set and Winning Percentage.
Since leading the inaugural Grand View men’s team to a 13-13 mark during the 2012 season, Cruz compiled a 211-55 record and is still currently the winningest coach in National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) men’s volleyball history with his .793 winning percentage.
The only head coach in the 10-year history of the Vikings program, Cruz has led GVU to a pair of NAIA Men’s Volleyball National Championships, with the first coming in 2018 and the latest this past season. The 2021 Grand View squad finished the season with an unblemished 26-0 record and swept all four of its matches in the NAIA Men’s Volleyball National Championship, including a 25-23, 25-18, 25-15 victory over No. 2 Benedictine University at Mesa in the championship match.
In addition to leading the Vikings to a pair of national championships, his teams have finished as national runner-up three times (2016, 2017, and 2019) and national semifinalists twice (2014 and 2015). For his work at Grand View, Cruz is a four-time American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) NAIA Men’s National Coach of the Year. He is also a three-time Heart of America Conference Coach of the Year and two-time NAIA Midwest Conference Coach of the Year.
On the conference level, his teams have won eight consecutive conference titles. The first two championships came in the NAIA Midwest Conference, while the last six were in the Heart of America Conference.
Cruz has helped seven of his student-athletes earn First Team All-America honors, including three this past season. In addition, he has coached a pair of NAIA Player of the Year award winners, highlighted by Felix Chapman, who garnered his third career selection this season.
Cruz started his coaching career at Grand View as an assistant women’s coach in 2009 and continued to work with the program through the 2016 season. During his time on staff, he helped the women’s squad win multiple conference titles and earn several national tournament appearances.
In addition to his work at Grand View, Cruz is an active member of the USA Volleyball coaching community. He has been the associate head coach for three camps, most recently the USA Boys A1 Camp at the High-Performance Championship in Ft. Lauderdale in July of 2019. He was also involved in High-Performance Championships from 2012-17 and served as an apprentice training coach for the USA Boys Youth National Team in 2015 and the USA Women’s Junior National Team in 2012.
As a student-athlete, Cruz played three seasons (2004-06) at Graceland University, where he was an outside hitter and defensive specialist for the Yellowjackets.
He also began his collegiate coaching career at his alma mater, spending two seasons as a student intern (2004 and 2005) for the women’s program before becoming the recruiting coordinator (2006).
Cruz graduated from Graceland in 2006 with a degree in marketing communications. He currently resides in Muncie, Ind, with his wife, Anna, and their sons, Nixon, Nevon and Micah
