Erin Virtue (born April 13, 1983) is an American volleyball head coach at

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and assistant coach for the

United States women's national volleyball team The United States women's national volleyball team participates in international volleyball competitions and friendly games, and is governed by USA Volleyball. Their last head coach was three-time Olympic gold medalist and retired dominant be ...

Early life

Virtue attended St. Francis High School where she helped lead the team to back-to-back Suburban Catholic Conference Championships. She was named to the 2000 all-state team by the

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

and all-area teams by the

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

, the Daily Herald and the

Naperville Sun The ''Naperville Sun'' is a newspaper based in Naperville, Illinois, USA. It is published three days a week, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. It is owned by Tribune Publishing's Chicago Tribune Media Group, a group that also includes the ''Aurora B ...

College career

Virtue played college volleyball at

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. As a true freshman in 2001, she played in 14 matches on the season, as both a setter and as a defensive specialist, and recorded 88 assists. As a sophomore in 2002, she played in 26 matches and recorded 81 assists on the season. She recorded a then career-high 34 assists in her first career start at setter in a game against

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

. During her junior year in 2003 she transitioned to a full-time setter. She ranked second in the Big Ten in assists per game (13.56), while ranking seventh in the league in service aces (0.34). During the season she recorded 1,627 assists, the fifth most in a single season in Illinois program history. Following the season she was named to the first-team All-Big Ten and named AVCA Honorable Mention All-American. During her senior year she suffered a torn

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation. In ...

(ACL) in her right knee in a game against

Ball State Ball State University (Ball State or BSU) is a public university, public research university in Muncie, Indiana, United States. The university has three off-campus centers in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Fort Wayne, and Fishers, Indiana. T ...

on September 17, 2004, and missed the remainder of the season. She was not granted a fifth year of eligibility.

Coaching career

Virtue began her coaching career at Loyola in 2006, where she worked with the setters and handled recruiting. On August 7, 2007, she was named an assistant coach for

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

. During four seasons with the Bearcats she helped lead the team to a 101–36 record. On April 17, 2011, she was named an assistant coach for

. She served as Michigan's recruiting and offensive coordinator. During her five seasons at Michigan the team advanced to four NCAA Tournament, including two Sweet 16s and their first ever Final Four appearance in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

. The 2012 Wolverines recorded seven victories over top-25 opponents en route to a modern-day school-record 27 wins. In 2016, she was named associate head coach for Northwestern. On January 17, 2023, she was named the head coach for Michigan.

U.S. National Team

She served as head coach of the U.S. Girls' Youth National Team that won silver at the 2016 NORCECA Women's U18 Continental Championship and the coach at the 2017 FIVB Women's U18 World Championship. She has also served as a coach at the Select (U16), Youth (U18) and Junior (U20) age groups. On March 3, 2017, Virtue was named an assistant coach for the

. In 2019 she was named director of the USA National Team Development Program, where she oversees all U15-U23 development programs for both boys and girls. She served as an assistant coach for Team USA at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

, helping lead the team to their first Olympic gold medal.

Personal life

Virtue was born to Patrick and Carol Virtue. She has two brothers and two sisters. Her older sister, Katie, played college volleyball at

Ohio State The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...

and was named the Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Year in 1999.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Michigan Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Virtue, Erin 1983 births Living people American volleyball coaches American women's volleyball players Cincinnati Bearcats women's volleyball coaches Illinois Fighting Illini women's volleyball coaches Illinois Fighting Illini women's volleyball players Loyola Ramblers women's volleyball coaches Michigan Wolverines women's volleyball coaches Northwestern Wildcats women's volleyball coaches People from St. Charles, Illinois Coaches at the 2024 Summer Olympics