University of North Carolina Athletics
Gavin Watt, Paula Giles Complete Volleyball Coaching Staff
July 21, 2017 | Volleyball
CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina head coach Joe Sagula is pleased to announce the addition of Gavin Watt and Paula Giles to the coaching staff for the 2017 season. Watt will serve as the volunteer assistant coach, while Giles will be the new director of volleyball operations.
Watt comes to Chapel Hill after spending the past four seasons as the top assistant at Lehigh University where he led the Mountain Hawks to a 74-49 record from 2013-16. Under his guidance, Lehigh posted back-to-back 20-win campaigns for just the second time in program history and picked up a school-record 14 Patriot League wins in 2014.
"Gavin is a great addition to the staff with his experiences as both a player and coach," said Sagula. "He has played at a high level professionally in Europe and trained players there as well. His experience knowing the US system of college athletics while working at Lehigh the past four years will be a valuable asset."
A native of Edinburgh, Scotland, Watt was the number one setter for the Scottish National Team, with whom he was named Player of the Year, and was selected to the roster for the Great Britain Olympic Team for the 2012 London Olympics. Additionally, Watt spent three years playing in France for Amiens Metropole VBC (2010-11) and AS Cannes Volleyball Club (2011-13).
"He comes with a wealth of knowledge," said Sagula. "He is positive and a good teacher of the game. His skill-set and working with the team's offense will be a great compliment to our staff along with Eve (Rackham) and Tyler (Adams). We are fortunate to have an outstanding staff of hard-working coaches dedicated to all our student-athletes, training them to be their best both on and off the court."
Giles joins the Tar Heel staff after serving as the director of volleyball operations at the University of Houston in 2016. A two-time All-American middle blocker (as Paula Harris) at the University of Central Missouri (2008-11), Giles continued her education at TCU, where she served as a graduate assistant manager in 2012-13 while pursuing a master's degree in liberal arts. After earning her graduate degree, she spent the 2014 season as an assistant coach at Pittsburg State and the 2015 season as a volunteer assistant at Rice.
"Paula also comes with a lot of experiences at different levels and in different positions," said Sagula. "She knows the DOVO position and that is valuable knowledge that she brings to Carolina, as well as from the coaching side at the college and club level. I am eager to have her bring her varied experiences in volleyball as a player, administrator and coach to our position while we continue to grow the volleyball program and our operations position at UNC. We are excited to welcome Paula and her husband Jeff to Chapel Hill and the Carolina Volleyball family."