The 2008-09 season marked the 39th season for AVCA Hall of Famer Sue Gozansky at UC Riverside. It also marked her last season with the Highlanders as she announced her retirement from UCR shortly after the team's final match of the year. The dean of the Highlander coaching staff, Gozansky had the second longest tenure among volleyball coaches at the Division I level, trailing only UCLA Head Coach Andy Banachowski who led the Bruins for more than 40 seasons.
Gozansky sports a 674-498-16 record dating back to 1970. During that span, UCR won three National Championships (the AIAW Small College Championship in 1977 and the Division II National Championships in 1982 and 1986) and had a streak of 20 straight playoff appearances. She was voted coach of the year in the CCAA five times (1981, 1982, 1988, 1989, 1996). Gozansky also served as head coach for the UCR men’s volleyball team for five years.
In December of 2006, Gozansky was honored by the American Volleyball Coaches’ Association, which inducted her into the Hall of Fame during the Final Four tournament in Omaha, Nebraska. In October 2005, Gozansky was named to the NCAA Division II Women’s Volleyball 25th Anniversary Team by the NCAA.
Her national and international coaching history is impressive. She has coached at the Olympic Sports Festival as well as the USA women’s “B” volleyball team consisting of players being considered for roster spots on the national team and was men’s and women’s coach for the quadrennial Maccabiah Games (Jewish Olympics) in Israel in 1981, 1985, 1989 and 1993.
In 2005 the Highlanders posted a 16-11 record, the best of the Division I era. It was the second consecutive year that the Highlanders had achieved that distinction, posting an 11-18 overall mark in 2004.
Gozansky is a cadre member of the USA Volleyball Coaching Accreditation Program (CAP) and a certified instructor for the Federation International de Volleyball (FIVB). She coached the men’s and women’s national teams of the Kingdom of Tonga in preparation for the Mini South Pacific Games in the summer of 1997, under the auspices of the FIVB. She has given over 100 clinics in more than 35 countries, including Germany, Malaga, Spain, the Island of Dominica, the Dominican Republic, China, and Belize. In 2003 she visited Grenada as part of a program to get volleyball reintroduced into the secondary school curriculum, followed by trips to the islands of St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St. Vincent in 2006 and St. Croix and Antigua in 2007.
In Spring 2000, Gozansky concluded work on her second book, the "Volleyball Coach’s Survival Guide", which is used as the textbook for the USA Volleyball Coaching Accreditation Program Level II Course. Her first work, "Championship Volleyball Complete Book of Techniques and Drills" is a top seller.
Despite attending Ganesha High School in Pomona in an era where there were no organized sports for women, Gozansky became an accomplished student-athlete at Cal Poly Pomona, earning back-to-back athlete of the year honors after lettering in volleyball, basketball, badminton, softball, tennis and track. She also excelled in the classroom, receiving a degree in physical education/social sciences in 1968. In 1970 she played on the USA National Volleyball team, and she continued to compete on the varsity volleyball and basketball teams at UCLA while pursuing her master’s degree in kinesiology, which she earned in 1975. In 1981, Gozansky was honored with the Cal Poly Outstanding Alumnus Award, and in 1986 she was again honored with her induction into the inaugural class of the school’s athletic Hall of Fame.
She joined the UCR staff in 1970 as head tennis and volleyball coach. During the early years of women’s sports, Gozansky served as the primary representative for women’s athletics at UCR and represented the Highlanders at the first Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) delegate assembly in 1971. When women’s sports became a part of the NCAA in 1981, she served on the first women’s volleyball committee. In 1990, she was recognized by the NCAA for 10 years of accomplishments and dedication to Division II volleyball.
Gozansky resides in Claremont, CA and enjoys traveling in her free time.
