McRoberts Road to 500 Wins

Oct. 28, 2015

By Kim Ling
Ole Miss Associate Athletics Media Relations Director

In 1995, Ole Miss Head Volleyball Coach Steven McRoberts accepted a graduate assistant position in volleyball at Henderson State University under then head coach Rhonda Thigpen, and the rest is history as they say.

Twenty years later, McRoberts is coaching in the premier conference in the country and ranks among the top active coaches in Division I. Earlier this year, McRoberts picked up his 500th career win.

Growing up in North Little Rock, Arkansas, McRoberts played a lot of different sports. At Central Arkansas Christian High School, a small 1A school in North Little Rock, McRoberts played basketball, threw the discus for the track team and played tennis.

It was in high school that McRoberts got bit by the coaching bug.

"The people that influenced me the most included my coaches. I always looked up to them," McRoberts said. The one thing that I consistently saw with them was how much they enjoyed what they were doing. It's always been a goal of mine to enjoy my work, and I saw how much they enjoyed what they did and got to be around people all the time and got to stay active in sports. That was very appealing to me."

After graduating from Central Arkansas Christian, McRoberts headed to Harding University with designs on becoming a basketball coach. He even worked basketball camps during the summer for his old high school coach.

McRoberts' first job upon graduation from Harding was coaching volleyball, eighth and ninth-grade boy's basketball and golf at his high school. He admitted the more he got into the game of volleyball, the more he realized there was a lot more to it than most people realize.

After working a few summer camps at Henderson State, Thigpen offered McRoberts a graduate assistant position with the volleyball team, and he accepted. That launched a career that has spanned four states and four schools as a head coach.

McRoberts first stop landed him in Lubbock, Texas where he posted a 250-81 record in eight seasons at Lubbock Christian University. It's also where he met his wife of 12 years, the former Stacy Akers.

"It was Memorial Day weekend, and I had played in a golf tournament. Some friends invited me over for a cookout. I didn't want to go at first, but then I decided to go. I saw this beautiful lady across the way. We ended up talking and she said she was from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. That's one of the places where I had done multiple basketball camps at Middle Tennessee State. We talked about that for a little bit and she said she would be driving the next weekend from Lubbock to Tennessee, which is about a 16 hour drive. So I said 'I'm going to be at my parents in Little Rock if you need a place to stop, just holler at me. My mom's house has a couple rooms and you can have one of them,' and I gave her my number."

McRoberts didn't think he would hear from Stacy, but she called and ended up staying at his parents' house on her way to Tennessee.

"She didn't have much interest in me beyond being a friend but I was so persistent with her, I think I wore her down. We were married July 4, 2003. We're going on 13 years with three beautiful kids, Jackson (10), Molly (7) and Nate (2).

Since that day, they have moved from Texas, to Arkansas, to Oklahoma and now Mississippi, while McRoberts rose up the ladder of coaching success. After a year off of coaching volleyball in 2004, McRoberts became the head coach at the University of Central Arkansas, where he spent six seasons compiling a record of 146-58 and racking up more conference championships and coach of the year honors.

Tulsa called in 2011, and off they were to Oklahoma, now with two kids in tow. Success followed McRoberts to Tulsa, where he compiled a 78-24 record with two Conference USA regular season titles, a Conference USA Tournament Championship and two appearances in the NCAA Tournament (including a first round victory over the University of Oklahoma in 2011).

In December of 2013, Ole Miss called and ultimately enticed McRoberts and his now family of five, to pick up again and move to Oxford.

"When I was offered the job, Stacy said 'you know if you say yes to this job, this is it, this is where we are finishing,'" McRoberts said. "I told Ross (Bjork) 'you've got me sold, but you're going to have to convince my wife Stacy that this is where she needs to be because if she says yes, we're here.'

"The decision was difficult for Stacy because she still has a lot of good friends and memories in Tulsa. It's not easy being a coach's wife. For me, I get to automatically jump into an athletic department; I have instant friends and relationships. For her, it's uprooting three kids and moving into a new neighborhood where she knows absolutely no one. She's trying to go around and figure out life again, and it's not an easy transition for her. I'm thankful that she loves me enough that she is willing to do that."

Not only has McRoberts enjoyed tremendous support from his family, but he's also benefitted from great assistant coaches, support staff and student-athletes who buy into the program.

"I'm just a small part of all the success," he said. "I've been blessed with some great assistant coaches who truly invest in our players. Angela (Mooney) and Ronaldo (Pacheco) have both played volleyball at a high level and are such a big part of the success of our program. We're fortunate to have the best athletic trainer in Heather (Shirley) and a full-time strength and conditioning coach (Chas Ossenheimer) who travels with us. Everywhere along the way, from a recruiting standpoint, my staff and I have been able to convince players to get on board and have the same vision that we have."

McRoberts is building a program at Ole Miss and things are definitely headed in the right direction. In his first season, the Rebels posted their best record in seven years and set several team and individual records. He hopes this is the last stop.

"Julie Owen in compliance sent a text after I got the 500th win and said 'I'm glad you did it as a Rebel.' I told her 'Me too!' To see how far I've come from Central Arkansas (Christian) High School to now at Ole Miss, I am just very blessed. It's been a fun journey."

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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