Blaine Nielsen has completed six seasons coaching UC Santa Barbara Men's Volleyball after the conclusion of the 2025 season, spending the past two years as Associate Head Coach.
In 2021, Nielsen and the Gauchos won the Big West Championship, making a run to the NCAA Championship semifinal. Overall, he has helped develop eight AVCA All-Americans and recruited the second-best class in 2023 according to VolleyballMag.com.
After spending a few years away from athletics, Nielsen accepted an offer after the 2019 season to join his former head coach, Rick McLaughlin, on the bench. He has previously been a coach for Team USA's beach volleyball program, specifically the duo of Jennifer Fopma and Whitney Pavlik. Nielsen also played professionally overseas in Luxembourg's Professional League from 2012-2013.
During his playing days at UC Santa Barbara, the four-year outside-hitter played in 67 matches for the Gauchos collecting a career 282 kills and 170 digs. The former captain was a part of the legendary 2011 team that against all odds fought to make a run to the NCAA Championship in what Karch Kiraly called "one of the greatest runs in the history of collegiate sports." Along the way he would pick up an MPSF Championship and back-to-back wins over then-No. 1 USC.
Nielsen graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2012 with a degree in History with an Art History minor. The Corona de Mar native is back in, as he says, "the best place on earth" with his wife, Gaucho alum Erica Nielsen, and their daughter, Poppy.
