Ariel Apolinario was named Lamar University volleyball head coach in January 2024. A coaching veteran with nearly 15 years of coaching experience, Apolinario brings a wealth of knowledge from all levels of the game both at the collegiate and club levels.
One of the young, rising head coaches in the sport, Apolinario makes his way to the Golden Triangle after spending the previous four seasons as head coach at Navarro College where he built the Bulldogs into an NJCAA power.
It was a historic first year at Lamar for Apolinario.
He led the Cardinals to their first winning season since 2009. The program went from two wins in 2023 to a 15-14 overall mark in 2024 that also clinched the Cards a berth in the Southland Conference tournament, the program's first tournament appearance since 2011.
The program had the third largest single-season turnaround in the country in 2024. Maja Malinowska earned All-SLC second team honors after she ranked sixth in the SLC in kills and seventh in points.
Apolinario brings 14 years of experience at the collegiate level with him to Beaumont, including stops in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC), the Mid-American Conference (MAC), Conference USA and the Mountain West.
During his stay in Corsicana, Texas, Apolinario led the Bulldogs to a 99-31 (.762) overall record, two NJCAA National Championship tournaments (2020 tournament was canceled due to COVID), a Final Four appearance and a Region XIV regular season title.
A former Region XIV Coach of the Year selection, Apolinario’s student-athletes reaped the benefits of his guidance. He coached 27 players who would go on to play volleyball at the next level, 21 all-conference selections, four All-Americans, a freshman of the year, a libero of the year, a newcomer of the year and a player of the year selection. In postseason play, he had three players receive either NJCAA All-Tournament honors or Region XIV all-tournament honors.
Navarro’s volleyball team had similar success in the classroom. Eleven student-athletes earned Academic All-Region recognition, while the team as a whole received three USMC/AVCA Team Academic Awards.
Prior to being named head coach at Navarro, Apolinario spent two seasons on staff at UNLV where he served as recruiting coordinator, defensive coordinator and worked directly with the middle blockers and outside hitters. Apolinario made an immediate impact during his first season with the Rebels as UNLV posted the top turnaround in the country (14-win improvement).
During that stretch, the Rebels advanced to two NIVC tournaments – including one Final Four berth, and Apolinario’s 2020 recruiting class was recognized as a PrepVolleyball.com “Honorable Mention” haul ranked among the top 100 nationally.
Apolinario made the move West from Houston, Texas where he spent two seasons with similar results at Rice. He helped lead the Owls to an NIVC tournament appearance – the program’s first since 2009. The Owls’ 2017 signing class was recognized by PrepVolleyball.com as the “Highest Honorable Mention” landing among the nation’s top 55 classes.
He helped coach 10 Owls to all-conference honors, four all-region selections, two AVCA honorable mention All-Americans and a player who was selected to tryout for the U.S. National team.
Apolinario was also an AVCA Thirty Under 30 award winner in 2017. The award honors all up and coming coaching talent all levels of the sport.
Apolinario got his start in college coaching in 2010 at Union University where he assisted Keely Toomey – who would go on to be named Trans-South Conference Coach of the Year as Union won a conference regular-season title. Serving as recruiting coordinator during his time at Union, Apolinario then made the jump to the NCAA Division I level when he was hired as an assistant at Austin Peay. He spent two seasons as APSU before accepting a position at Ohio University.
In his two seasons with the Bobcats, he was part of a staff that built a top 25 program, posted a perfect 16-0 league record on their way to a MAC regular season and tournament title and an NCAA tournament appearance.
In addition to the team honors, the Bobcats had eight all-conference selections, four all-region selections, two AVCA Honorable Mention All-Americans, a conference player of the year, defensive player of the year and league setter of the year.
All told, Apolinario has helped produce 55 all-conference selections, 10 all-region players, seven All-Americans, three conference freshmen of the year, three USA team tryout selections, two conference players of the year and one conference libero, setter and defensive player of the year. In the classroom, Apolinario has worked with 31 academic all-conference selections, 11 academic all-region honorees, 10 AVCA All-Academic teams and one Academic All-American.
In addition to his work on the collegiate level, Apolinario has more than 10 years coaching experience at the club level working with the Northeast Tennessee Volleyball Club, Memphis Juniors Volleyball Association, Willowbrook Volleyball Club and Drive Nation.
A former standout in his own right, Apolinario was an all-conference selection at Newman University where he ranked second in the nation in blocks per game, top 10 in hitting percentage and top 20 in kills per game. He would transfer to King University to close out his collegiate career where was a two-time all-conference selection, ending his career as the school’s all-time leader in kills per set (3.81), points per set (4.94), attack percentage (.401) and aces per set (.45).
