Josh Rohlfing, who has made the Southern Oregon University volleyball team a postseason fixture during a long career in the Rogue Valley, begins his 18th season as the Raiders' head coach in 2024 with a 357-131 record. He also serves as the athletic department's compliance officer.
Rohlfing became the sixth head coach in program history on April 2, 2007, after a highly-successful run at Ashland High. Since then, he's led the Raiders to nine national tournaments and six Cascade Conference titles, earning CCC Coach of the Year honors five times. Among active NAIA coaches with 300-plus wins, he ranks seventh in terms of winning percentage (.732).
Most recently, his Raiders won back-to-back CCC regular season and conference championships in 2018 and '19, finishing top-10 in the NAIA rankings both years. In 2022, they made their return to the national tournament after being picked to finish eighth in the conference. And in 2023, they returned to the final site of the NAIA Championships final site for the fourth time in five seasons after finishing at No. 12 in the Top 25.
Rohlfing's teams have historically been even stronger in the classroom than on the floor. They toted the department's highest grade-point average in both 2014-15 and 2015-16, combining for a 3.58 during the latter year for NAIA Scholar Team honors. They've earned the same recognition every year through 2023.
The 2018 Raiders touted the highest NAIA postseason ranking in program history at No. 8 after making their first-ever appearance in the national quarterfinal round. They finished 30-4, and their 14-0 start included a pivotal road trip that included back-to-back five-set wins at Eastern Oregon and College of Idaho – making them the first CCC team to sweep the trip since 2005. They went on to share the regular-season title with EOU but knocked off the Mountaineers for the CCC Tournament title with their third consecutive head-to-head win in the rivalry. After getting out of pool play at the NAIA Tournament, they knocked off No. 9 Rocky Mountain (Mont.) to secure their spot among the last eight teams standing. With a .278 attacking average, the team was the most efficient offensively in 20 years at SOU and in a decade within the conference. It produced a pair of second-team All-Americans in Makayla Hoyt and Taylor Ristvedt, and Ristvedt was voted the CCC Player of the Year.
In 2019, Rohlfing was named the CCC and NAIA West Region Coach of the Year after the Raiders repeated as CCC regular season and tournament champions. They went 31-5 overall, advanced to the NAIA Championship elimination bracket for the third time in team history, and finished at No. 9 in the NAIA Top 25 after ending the season in the Round of 16. It marked the first time in team ever that the Raiders turned in two straight top-10 finishes, and they did so after being knocked out by the eventual national champion for the second year in a row. Ristvedt was named the CCC Player of the Year again, and then became the second SOU women’s athlete in department history to collect the Oregon Sports Awards' Ad Rutschman Small College Female Athlete of the Year award.
Rohlfing's 2015 SOU team was the fifth he'd led to the national tournament, ranking 13th in the final NAIA poll. On Aug. 28 at UC Merced, he led SOU to its 1,000th win, making it the 10th NAIA program to reach that milestone.
The 2014 Raiders, after being picked to finish fourth in the CCC preseason poll, went 24-7 overall and 16-2 in circuit play to become co-champions. They won two NAIA Championship matches, coming one win short of advancing to the final 12-team bracket for the second time in school history, and were No. 13 in the final NAIA rankings.
In 2011 Rohlfing led the Raiders to a 16-2 conference record, 23-6 overall, and a 17-match win streak that included a run to the CCC Tournament championship. Southern Oregon opened the season with a 3-1 upset victory over No. 1 and four-time defending NAIA champion Fresno Pacific, and the Raiders advanced to the NAIA Tournament's final 12 single-elimination bracket for the first time in program history.
Prior to SOU, Rohlfing served as the head volleyball coach for Ashland High School for ten years (1997-2006). There he built a powerhouse program, finishing with a 236-70 (.771) overall record and a 122-24 (.835) Southern Oregon Conference record. Rohlfing also led his teams to ten consecutive state playoff appearances, including numerous top-five placings, as well as a state championship in 2005. In his final six years at Ashland High, the Grizzlies never placed lower than ninth at the state tournament. He led his team to undefeated conference championships in 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2006, and his teams earned the Sportsmanship Trophy in 1999, 2002 and 2005.
Rohlfing was twice named the Oregon 4A Coach of the Year and earned Southern Oregon Conference Coach of the Year four times. He was named the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association State Coach of the Year in 2005.
At Ashland High, Rohlfing's program included one Oregon State Player of the Year, five Southern Oregon Conference Players of the Year, 18 All-State Athletes and over 57 All-Conference players. Pushing his team to perform well on and off the court, Rohlfing’s team earned the State Academic Championship in the Fall of 2006 with its non-weighted team GPA of 3.87. Because of his excellent coaching, Rohlfing was selected to coach the state All-Star team from the 1999 season through 2003.
No stranger to SOU women’s volleyball, Rohlfing served as an assistant coach to former head coach Paul Elliott during the 1994 season.
He is married to the former Kristin Ferris, a former second team All-American and conference/regional MVP volleyball player for SOU, and the couple have one daughter, Chamberlyn. Ferris was the first Raider to compile over 400 kills, 400 digs, and 50 aces in a season. Rohlfing’s sister, Debbie, was a member of the SOU volleyball team from 1993-95 and still holds the season per-game and career per-game averages in digs with 6.17 and 5.19, respectively. Debbie also was the digs leader for SOU prior to the introduction of the libero position.
