Truman State University Athletics

Ben Briney completed his 11th season as the head coach of the Truman volleyball program in the fall of 2019 and his 15^th season overall at the University after serving as the program’s top assistant from 2005-2008. He is the ninth head coach in program history and has a 235-131 (.642) career record.

Coach Briney's teams have always scheduled some of the top competition in Division II Volleyball. The Bulldogs had an impressive streak of 29 straight winning seasons from 1990-2018. His 235 match victories is second on the all-time wins list at Truman trailing 12-year head coach Debbie Masten's 262 wins.

During his first 11 seasons, Briney has led the Bulldogs to six NCAA postseason tournament appearances and 40 total selections to all-conference teams. In addition, he coached middle blocker Megan Sharpe to becoming the program’s first four-time AVCA all-American, including being named the National Freshman of the Year in 2009. Two players from his 2014 squad - Allie Brak and Ali Patterson - earned back-to-back AVCA All-American accolades, while Molly Sinclair, a 2011 graduate, was named CoSIDA Academic all-District following her junior season.

Two of his most impressive seasons at Truman came in the 2016 and 2014 seasons. The 2016 campaign looked like it would be a rebuilding year for the Bulldog volleyball program with 12 underclassmen on the roster. Briney’s young squad was tested early by playing seven teams ranked in the AVCA top 25 in the first 14 matches to start the year. The team found itself with only three wins, but following the loss to Rockhurst inside Pershing Arena on the night of Friday, Sept. 30, the Bulldogs began to gel. The Purple and White proceeded to close out the regular season with a 12-5 record and went into the GLVC Tournament as the No. 2 seed in the West Division. Truman would take the tournament by storm with wins over Drury in the quarterfinals (3-1), No. 15 Lewis in the semifinals (3-2) and McKendree in the finals (3-0), marking the program’s second GLVC title in three years. That effort earned the Bulldogs their 15th NCAA Tournament appearance in the last 17 seasons, in addition to their 27th-straight season with a winning record.
 
In 2014, he earned GLVC Coach of the Year honors after leading the Bulldogs to the Midwest region’s No. 1 seed and a 29-4 overall record. He coached Brak to the GLVC’s Player of the Year award, while fellow senior Abby Moser was named the GLVC’s Libero of the Year, as well. The Bulldogs won the GLVC West Division with a 17-1 record and carried the conference’s top seed through the league tournament en route to a tournament title – defeating McKendree in the championship match.

Briney has coached nine different players – Sarah Shearman (05/06), Kelsey Wackerman (05/06), Micaela Walter (05), Allie Cherven (06/07/08), Melissa Keck (07/08), Eli Medina (08), Sharpe (09/10/11/12), Brak (13/14), and Patterson (13/14) – who have been named AVCA all-Americans during his stints on the Truman sideline. His players have demonstrated success in the classroom also, as evidenced by numerous players being named to all-MIAA and all-GLVC Academic Honor Rolls.
 
During his tenure as an assistant, the Bulldogs advanced to the NCAA Division II tournament in all four seasons, won two South Central regional championships and advanced to the national semifinals one time (2008). He helped coached two players to MIAA MVP awards and led the team to its first No. 1 ranking in the AVCA top-25 coaches’ poll in school history.
 
Briney was the assistant coach for the Carolina Region Junior High Performance Team – a feeder program for the U.S. National Team – during the summers of 2004 and 2005 and came to Truman after serving as an assistant coach for two seasons at St. Andrews College in North Carolina. At Div. II St. Andrews, he helped lead the Knights to a 40-25 overall record and a trip to the conference finals in 2003. The following year, the team tied a school record with 14 conference victories and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

Briney coached seven all-conference athletes at St. Andrews and one conference freshman of the year. The Knights also excelled academically during his final two seasons, ranking 10th in the nation in 2003 with a 3.54 team GPA. Briney was also the assistant athletic trainer at St. Andrews, where he helped with the coverage of all 14 sports at the school.
 
Prior to moving to North Carolina, Briney was the graduate assistant athletic trainer at Southwest Baptist. He was the head athletic trainer for the men's basketball, volleyball and tennis programs at the school and was the host athletic trainer for the 2003 NCAA Division II regional tennis tournament. Other volleyball experience includes being a member of the Athletics in Action men's volleyball team that toured Nigeria on an international sports ministry trip in 2003 and also being an assistant coach of the Carolina Region High Performance youth team in the summers of 2004 and 2005.
 
The Missouri native graduated from Southwest Baptist (Mo.) University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science in Sport Management and a minor in Psychology. He became a certified athletic trainer in April of 2002 prior to earning his Masters of Education from SBU in 2004. That same year, he passed his strength and conditioning test to gain CSCS credentials from the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
 
Briney also serves as the faculty advisor for Truman’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes huddle. In March of 2018, Ben married the former Beth Clausing, and they reside in Kirksville.