Peggy Martin

One of the most highly respected and successful volleyball coaches in the country, Peggy Martin is the head women’s volleyball coach at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. She accepted her current position at Spring Hill College in 2009 after a short retirement, following 33 seasons as the head women’s volleyball coach at the University of Central Missouri. She guided UCM’s program with unprecedented success. Her teams won or shared 19 Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association championships and made a record 25 consecutive appearances in the NCAA Division II Tournament. Martin’s career record at Central Missouri was 1,064-281-8, for a winning percentage of  .790. Under her guidance the Jennies won at least 25 matches for 31 straight seasons. She took the Jennies to the Division II Elite Eight six times, finishing second in 1987 and fourth in 1994, 1995, and 1996.

Martin has served on numerous AVCA committees and has chaired the NCAA Division II Volleyball Committee. She has won 22 Coach of the Year awards, including the 1987 AVCA Division II Coach of the Year for guiding the Jennies to a 42-4 record and a runner-up finish at the national tournament. She was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame in 2009.

Martin joined the University of Central Missouri staff in 1975, after coaching the volleyball and softball programs on the club level for one season at Florida Southern College. In addition to her 33 years as UCM’s volleyball coach, Martin was also head softball coach from 1975 to 1987, compiling a 175-156 record and winning two MIAA championships. She served as assistant women’s basketball coach at Central Missouri in 1976–77 and as assistant athletic director from 1986 to 1988.

A native of Mobile, Alabama, Martin was all-city in age-group swimming and diving, earning all-state honors. In high school, she was a three-sport star (basketball, volleyball, and track and field). She then continued her athletic career at Indiana University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in 1972 and lettered in basketball, softball, and field hockey. She completed work on her master’s degree in 1974 at the University of North Carolina–Greensboro and earned her doctorate in 1980 from Indiana University.