East Texas A&M University Women's Volleyball

East Texas A&M announced the hiring of Joe Morales as the next coach of the Lion Volleyball program on January 19, 2023. In his second season at East Texas A&M, Morales guided the Lions to a second straight eighth place finish in the Southland Conference, despite two teams being added to the conference. The program reached the postseason for the 13th year in a row and started the season with a 2-1 record overall and 3-0 start to conference play. Kitana Tuufuli was named to second team all-conference, the first all-conference honoree for the program in the Division I era.  Morales' Lion tenure began in emphatic fashion as it did not take him long to pick up first career head coaching win, beating Texas Southern on August 25 in San Antonio. The Lions also picked up a non-conference thrilling five-set win at Abilene Christian, but the biggest moment of the season came on September 8 in Birmingham, Alabama, as the Lions stunned Alabama in five sets. The win over the Crimson Tide, marked the first win over a Power-Five conference opponent and a SEC opponent in school history, the Lions followed it up with a four-set win over UAB the next day to go 2-1 at the Blazer Classic, the first time they had a winning record at a tournament in the Division I era.  In conference play, the Lions recorded back-to-back five-set wins over Lamar and Northwestern State as well as a road win at New Orleans and clinched the program's berth into the postseason for the 12th season in a row, which is the longest active streak among any sport at East Texas A&M.  Morales came to East Texas A&M with 14 years of collegiate coaching experience at the Division I and Division II levels. He has spent last year at McNeese as an assistant coach where the team went 13-5 in the Southland Conference and 18-16 overall. Morales, a native San Antonio native, spent the 2021 season as an assistant at UTSA. He spent the 2012-21 seasons at Texas A&M-Kingsville, where he primarily worked with the setters and served as the recruiting coordinator. During his time in Kingsville, the program had a school-record seven consecutive winning seasons in the Lone Star Conference. Prior to Texas A&M-Kingsville, Morales served as a volunteer assistant coach at Texas State during the 2011 season. With the Bobcats, Morales helped the team to a 15-1 conference record, capturing both the Southland Conference regular season and tournament titles and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. Morales started his collegiate career at Iowa Central Community College as the assistant coach in 2009. Morales graduated from Texas State with a bachelor's degree in Communications where he was a member of the men's volleyball club and received a master's in Sports and Athletic Administration from Gonzaga.

Rich Rosales was appointed as the Lion Volleyball program's graduate assistant in June 2024.  Rosales has spent the past seven years at the Incarnate Word Academy in Corpus Christi, holding many roles, including being the high school’s head volleyball coach since 2021. In the 2023 season, the team made the longest run in the state playoffs in school history, falling short in the regional round, a win away from making the state tournament.   The volleyball program also had its first all-state honoree in the 2023 season. Rosales has also worked as a softball assistant coach for three years, having won district championships twice, while also advancing to the state semifinals once.   Over the past nine years, Rosales has also worked with the Corpus Christi Force Volleyball Club as an assistant director of the club and director of training and recruiting as well. With the CC Force, he also served as head coach for teams between the ages of 15-18.   Rosales began his career in collegiate volleyball at his alma mater and fellow Southland Conference program, A&M-Corpus Christi. With the Islanders, he was a practice player and volunteer assistant coach for the indoor and beach volleyball programs. He was also heavily involved with the Rec Center.   A native of Granbury, Rosales received his bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in history from A&M-Corpus Christi and is pursuing a Master’s of Kinesiology with a Sport Coaching emphasis from East Texas A&M.