How Derryk Williams became the youngest associate head coach in the ACC

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Syracuse volleyball won only three out of its five games last spring, and head coach Leonid Yelin needed to make a change. So he promoted then-assistant coach Derryk Williams to associate head coach. The move made 27-year-old Williams the youngest associate head coach currently in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Yelin called the promotion an easy decision, and said Williams’ commitment is what makes him stand out.

“I’ve had a lot of young coaches, and sometimes they don’t know exactly who they want to be or what they want to do,” Yelin said. “He’s demonstrated how much he wants to be a coach, and eventually a head coach.”

But Williams didn’t originally want to pursue a coaching career. As a television-radio major at Ithaca College, he covered six U.S. Opens and several U.S. Rugby Qualifiers in London. But he found his passion for coaching while working as an assistant coach at Ithaca’s Volleyball team after graduating.

Following a successful season with the Bombers, Colgate head coach Ryan Baker hired Williams to be an assistant on his staff in 2016. Not long after, Williams gave up his television career to focus on coaching full time. Williams worked at Colgate for one season and then coached at Hamilton College and Colgate simultaneously for a year.

In 2018, Yelin was looking for an assistant at Syracuse, and Baker recommended Williams for the job. The Orange earned their first-ever invite to the NCAA tournament in Williams’ first season as an assistant.

Now in his fourth season, Williams said being an associate head coach at a Division I program is not what he expected at this point in his career. Although his promotion didn’t change a lot of his day-to-day routine — he said his film, scouting and gameday responsibilities are the same — Williams said the expectations he’s set for himself have changed.

“I put a lot more pressure on myself,” Williams said. “I’ve always been someone to put pressure on myself as it is, but now with the actual title and promotion, it’s extremely important to me that every facet of our program is as best as we can make it.”

One thing players notice about Williams is how he shifts players’ mindset on the court. When middle blocker Abby Casiano was thrown into a starting role as freshman, she said Williams helped her feel comfortable adjusting to the collegiate game.

Casiano said Williams prepared her with a baseline of skills and a game plan that put her at ease for her first few games. This included pointing out the opposing team’s hitting tendencies, such as which players hit hard or where they would place the ball, giving her a preview of what to expect on each point.

Casiano and outside hitter Naomi Franco agreed Williams is the “energy leader” of the coaching staff. Franco even said Williams’ intensity has rubbed off on her.

“He helped me out with being more vocal on the court and being part of the team on the court verbally,” Franco said.

Baker, who Williams still talks to regularly, said that passion and energy is imperative when moving up the ranks. This promotion is a step in the right direction for Williams’ coaching journey, Baker said.

“To an athletic director, it shows that the current university and head coach feel that he has the makings to be a head coach,” Baker said. “It’s definitely gonna help his resume and it’s gonna help him stand out among a lot of candidates that want to be head coaches.”

Yelin said he believes the associate title will help him pursue a head coaching job, which is part of the reason he wanted to promote Williams. He wants to develop his assistants into head coach candidates, Yelin said, just like how he wants to develop his freshmen players into stars. He even said he hopes his assistants end up more successful than him.

But for Williams, it’s not just about career goals. What keeps him working hard everyday is seeing his players improve on and off the court.

“That’s the stuff that keeps me coming back for more,” Williams said.