Watts out as UTEP Volleyball head coach

Javier Cortez, The Prospector • November 12, 2018

Holly Watts has been fired as head coach of the UTEP women’s volleyball team.

“While the hard work and dedication is unquestioned, the results on the court did not meet expectations under Holly’s leadership,” said UTEP Athletics Director Jim Senter in a press release. “We thank her for her service to UTEP and wish her well in the future.”

Over the course of her six years at the helm, Watts failed to produce a winning team, finishing with a subpar 48-127 record and the worst winning percentage in program history (.274).

The Miners only double-digit win season under Watts came in her first year in 2013 (14-16), with most the of roster mainstays being holdovers from the previous coaching staff.

Prior to her time at UTEP, Watts was an assistant coach for 17 years, most notably at Florida State from 2008-12, where she helped the Seminoles reach the NCAA National Semifinals in 2011.

Although Watts failed to produce a winning team, her biggest accomplishment came in the academic department. The volleyball team posted one of the best team GPAs in all of UTEP athletics and in 2016 the Miners received the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award, given to collegiate teams who maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 or better.

In 2017, the Miners had a collective GPA of 3.52, with 12 players making the C-USA Commissioner’s Academic Honor Roll, including two who received C-USA Commissioner’s Academic Medals, an even more prestigious award given to students athletes with a cumulative GPA of 3.75 or better.

Watts is the second head coach from UTEP Athletics to be fired in the past month. Kevin Cross was fired after 18 years as head coach of the UTEP soccer team back on Oct. 29.

About the Contributor

Javier Cortez, Staff Reporter

Javier Cortez is a staff reporter for The Prospector. He is a senior multimedia journalism major, with a minor in English Rhetoric. Javier was born and raised in El Paso, TX and before coming to UTEP in the summer of 2012, he graduated from Irvin High School, where he was a four-year varsity tennis player, a member of student council and a class officer for his graduating class. He has also worked for the El Paso Diablos as a sports information intern on their media relations team. In his spare time, Javier loves to write columns for the perspectives section in the school newspaper—whether it is sports, pop culture, religion, and society he loves to write about it. To go along with writing, Javier loves reading anything about sports, religion, and non-fiction.