Gustavo Rocha - Women's Beach Volleyball Coach

Gustavo Rocha — USC Trojans Beach Volleyball

Photo by: John McGillen

Gustavo Rocha

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
rochagus@usc.edu

GUSTAVO ROCHA is in his eighth season (2024-25) with the USC beach volleyball program, his second as the Trojans’ associate head coach. He previously served as the team’s assistant coach for six years (2018-23).

Rocha helped the Women of Troy capture four consecutive NCAA championships from 2021 to 2024; the program’s fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh national titles. He also helped lead the Trojans to three Pac-12 Championships (2019, ’22, ‘24) and an NCAA runner-up finish in 2019.

With Rocha on staff, the Trojans became the first team in the history of the sport to win four straight championships and were the first USC women’s team ever to capture four consecutive national titles.

Following USC’s third straight national championship in 2023, Rocha was chosen as the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) National Assistant Coach of the Year.

Rocha also serves as co-head coach for Team USA’s pair of USC alumnae and All-Americans Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng (formerly Claes). He helped coach the duo to gold medals at the 2023 World Championship in Tlaxcala, Mexico, and served as the pair’s co-head coach at the 2024 Paris Games where they finished in a fifth-place tie after advancing to the quarterfinal round.

In the summer of 2021, Rocha served as the first-ever head coach of the Latvian women’s beach volleyball national team and coached four-time USC All-American Tina Graudina and partner Anastasija Kravcenoka (Samoilova) to a fourth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympic Games. For his efforts, he was named Latvia Volleyball’s 2022 Beach Volleyball Coach of the Year.

In the lead-up to the Tokyo Games, he also helped Graudina-Kravcenoka claim a pair of fourth-place finishes at FIVB World Tour stops in Sochi, Russia, and Gstaad, Switzerland. He continued to serve as coach to Graudina-Kravcenoka in the summer of 2022 and helped the duo to a second-place finish at the FIVB Mexico tour stop and a fourth-place finish in Gstaad.

Rocha served as the USA High Performance assistant coach for the 2019 U16 Girls Summer Camp and was head coach of the USA HP U16 Girls Holiday Camp. He helped guide former USC All-American Terese Cannon and her partner Kelly Reeves to a third-place finish in the 2019 AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open.

Prior to his arrival at Troy, Rocha served as the volunteer assistant coach at Pepperdine for two seasons (2016, ‘17) and helped the Waves to a 47-10 overall record. In 2017, Pepperdine finished as the NCAA runner-up to USC and compiled a 27-5 record. In 2016, the Waves were 20-5 and received the No. 5 ranking in the final AVCA coaches poll. Rocha had a hand in coaching AVCA All-Americans Taylor Racich and Heidi Dyer and was on staff as Pepperdine claimed back-to-back West Coast Conference titles.

In other international competition, Rocha was the assistant coach under Marcio Sicoli to the U.S. Olympic duo of Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross. He was responsible for training the world-class athletes for the seven months leading up to and during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

On the pro level, Rocha coached the pair of Bill Kolinske and Avery Drost during the 2016 AVP tour. The pair earned a best finish of third place at the New York event. Drost teamed with Chase Frishman in 2017 as Rocha helped the duo to a third-place finish at the Hermosa Beach Open.

Rocha was also the assistant coach to the American duo of Jake Gibb and Tyler Crabb, which won the 2017 AVP Gold Series New York event and finished fifth at the FIVB event in Brazil. With Sicoli, he also coached Walsh Jennings and Nicole Branagh. In 2018, Rocha helped the pairs of Drost and Marty Lorenz and Frishman and Troy Field to successes at the Hermosa and Manhattan Beach AVP events.

In the summer of 2018, Rocha served as co-head coach with Ricardo Guimares for the U.S. in the Munich World University Games and helped take women’s pairs to third and fifth place finishes; and men’s pairs to 13th and 17th place finishes. He also served as head coach for the USA High Performance U15 boys’ squads and led his pairs to first, second, and third-place finishes in AVP First events; and first and second-place finishes in the High Performance Championships.

Rocha’s other coaching experience includes time with Elite Beach Volleyball Club in Manhattan Beach, Calif., and San Diego Beach Volleyball Club. He served as the SDBVBC Director of Independent Study Physical Education (ISPE).

Indoors, Rocha was the head coach for Genuine Volleyball Club’s (Vista, Calif.) 14-2 squad and the assistant coach for the 16-1 and 18-1 teams. He was also the head coach for both seventh and eighth-grade girls’ teams at Diegueno Middle School (Encinitas, Calif.) where he led both teams to championships in 2014.

Rocha was the head coach for UC San Diego men’s volleyball club team from 2006-09, and was an assistant coach for the men’s team at Holy Names (Oakland, Calif.) in 2005. He also coached the men’s team at Park University (Parkville, Mo.) in 2004-05.

As a collegiate athlete, Rocha played four seasons as a setter at Park (2001-04) and helped lead his squad to the MAMVIC national championship in 2003 and a MISAR national championship in 2001. Rocha was named all-conference in 2001, 2002, and 2004; and to the all-tournament team as the MVP in 2003. He received all-tournament status at the NAIA National Invitational in 2003 and 2004. He was also named the national tournament’s MVP in 2001. In his senior campaign, Rocha averaged 11.8 assists and 1.40 digs per set. Rocha earned the Dr. Dorothy Howell Student Leadership Award in 2004 and was honored on the Dean’s List.

Rocha is a 2006 graduate of Park University and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in international business. He received a Master of Business Administration from National University (San Diego, Calif.) in 2009. Originally from Goiania, Brazil, Rocha is fluent in English and Portuguese; and is proficient in conversational Spanish.