Bio

When Chris Gravel was handed the keys to the Hillsdale College volleyball program in the spring of 1996, he wasn’t looking at a lemon, but a vehicle that definitely needed more than just fine-tuning. But more than 600 wins, and several championships later, Gravel takes pride in building one of the Midwest's top volleyball programs.

Going into his 29th season as head coach, Gravel has pushed the Chargers to the top of one of the most competitive volleyball regions in all of Division II. While leading the program to more than 600 wins since his arrival, Gravel and his players have racked up numerous honors, both athletic and academic in nature, including two Elite Eight runs in 2011 and 2021 that took Hillsdale to the pinnacle of the sport in NCAA Division II.

“Anyone who is coaching understands that success gets traced back to the players you have,” Gravel said. “I’ve been extremely fortunate to have great players who are also great people throughout my time here at Hillsdale.”

Under Gravel’s leadership, Hillsdale won an unprecedented three straight GLIAC Tournament championships, and in 2011, he led the program to the NCAA Division II Midwest regional title, a first for any Hillsdale College athletic program.  He was also named the Midwest Region Coach of the Year in back-to-back campaigns in 2010 and 2011.

In 2012, he led a squad with little on-court experience to its second straight appearance in the NCAA Sweet 16. Less than a decade later, after a short rebuild, Gravel brought the Chargers back to the Sweet 16 in 2019, and then broke through once again in 2021 by capturing the program's second Midwest Regional crown and Elite Eight appearance in its history.

Gravel has won nine total conference Coach of the Year honors (four in the GLIAC, five in the G-MAC), and since 2006, has coached a staggering 15 different players who have received a total of 24 All-American honors. His players have been recognized as conference Player of the Year nine times, four in the GLIAC, five in the G-MAC, and he’s taken the Chargers into the NCAA Regional Tournament in 16 of the past 20 seasons. In three of those seasons (2006, 2010, 2011), Hillsdale College acted as the host school and number one seed for the regional tournament. Hillsdale has reached the Midwest Regional Final round of the NCAA tournament four times, most recently in 2021.

As Hillsdale joined the Great Midwest Athletic Conference in 2017, Gravel's program immediately shot to the top of its new league. The Chargers have won six conference regular season and seven consecutive conference tournament championships, and had a 92-match conference regular season and tournament winning streak from 2017 to 2022. He's been named G-MAC Coach of the Year five times in seven seasons, and his players have won five G-MAC Player of the Year awards, with Paige VanderWall winning in 2017 and 2018, Allyssa Van Wienen winning in 2019, Karoline Shelton winning in the spring of 2021 and Alli Wiese winning in 2023.

As much as his team and players have achieved on the court, Gravel’s program has been well-represented with off-the-court accolades. Since 2004, more than half of his players have made the GLIAC All-Academic Team, and 11 of Gravel's teams have earned academic recognition from the AVCA, most recently in 2023. For four years in a row, one of his players received the prestigious GLIAC Commissioners Award, which recognizes not only high athletic achievement, but excellence in the classroom and community. His program has the most number of commissioner’s award winners of any at Hillsdale.

In the Spring of 2016, setter Marissa Owen was named recipient of the GLIAC Post-Graduate Scholarship, becoming the only female student-athlete in the GLIAC to receive the award. It was another first for the program under Gravel's guidance.

“I feel great about the position our program is in today,” Gravel said. “But I want to win a national championship. That’s the long-range goal I have in mind every day when I’m coaching our players. I want their goals to match mine because the kind of effort and dedication I demand from them, combined with what they give, can allow us to achieve our goals.”

In the 2008-09 academic year, Gravel had the title of “Assistant Athletic Director” added to his day-to-day job duties by then-athletic director Don Brubacher.

Prior to taking over the Charger program, Gravel served as an assistant coach at GLIAC programs Grand Valley State and Wayne State. A 1992 graduate of GVSU, Gravel has also coached at the club and high school level throughout the state of Michigan.

Always by his side is his wife of 29 years, Stephanie. They have a 21-year-old daughter Brooklynn, and they reside in Osseo.

COACHING CAREER