Staff Directory

Denise Corlett

Title:
Director of Player Development
Email:

A former U.S. National Team player, a nine-time NCAA champion assistant coach, and one of volleyball’s most respected minds, Denise Corlett was hired to be USC’s first-ever Director of Player Development in an interim role.

Corlett spent 31 years at Stanford as an interim head coach, an associate head coach and an assistant coach. In 2019, she completed her 24th year in the associate head coach role of the indoor team and 31st overall on staff. She is a two-time AVCA National Assistant Coach of the Year (2010, ’12).

The Cardinal was 875-146 (.857) during her association with the program and won an unprecedented nine NCAA championships and 18 Pac-12 crowns. The Cardinal twice won three NCAA titles in a four-year span during her tenure (1994,1996-97, and 2016, 2018-19). The conference titles included six in a row between 1994 and 1999 and 10 in her final 14 years on The Farm. At Stanford, she coached in 14 NCAA championship matches, helped lead the team to 17 national semifinal appearances, and guided 38 players to 93 AVCA All-America awards.

Corlett helped coach U.S. national teams in 1993 as an assistant for the silver medalist squad at the World University Games in Buffalo, N.Y., and in the 1997 World University Games.

Corlett was tabbed an assistant coach for the 2003 Pan American Games bronze medalist U.S. team and was an assistant for the USA A2 Team that went to Montreux, Switzerland, in 2005. She served as the head of delegation for the 2007 Junior World Championship team and served again as the head of delegation for the Junior NORCECA team in 2008. In June of 2008, she was the head of delegation for Team USA at the Pan Am Cup in Mexicali, Mexico.

In the summer of 2009, Corlett served as the head of delegation for the Junior National Team at the World Championships in Mexico and in 2013, she was a team manager for the U.S. Junior National Team.

Prior to arriving at Stanford, Corlett served as an assistant coach at San Jose State during the 1987 and 1988 seasons. With her on staff, the Spartans went 42-24 and reached the NCAA tournament twice. Before her tenure at SJSU, Corlett spent five years at UCLA, her alma mater. There, Corlett served as a graduate assistant for two years and a volunteer assistant for three seasons, helping the Bruins to the 1985 Final Four. She also has experience as the business manager for the U.S. Women's National Team.

From 1990-96, Corlett founded and coached the Griffin Volleyball Club, one of the nation's top club programs. Her 1994 18U team took third at the Junior Olympics. In recognition, USA Volleyball named Corlett the Outstanding Female Junior Olympic Coach for 1994. Corlett also helped start Vision Volleyball Club and Club Yahoo.

Corlett received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from UCLA in 1981. As a collegian, Corlett played three varsity sports and was named the All-University Athlete of the Year in 1979. She won the Broderick Award and was the 1977 the national badminton champion. Corlett was a three-time All-American in volleyball and played on the Bruins' national championship women's basketball team. She led her USVBA team to national championships in both 1978 and 1979, played for the U.S. in the 1979 University Games in Mexico City and was a member of the U.S. National Team in 1982 and 1983.

In 1997, she was selected as one of the top 25 players in UCLA women's volleyball history and, in 1999, was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame for volleyball, basketball, and badminton with a class that included track and field great Gail Devers and football quarterback Troy Aikman. In 2005, Corlett was named to the Cal-Hi Sports Top 100 Female Athletes list. In 2091, she was inducted into the Southern California Indoor Volleyball Hall of Fame.

Corlett's grandfather Bruce Alexander Russell was the editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times for 33 years; and won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartoons in 1946.