SAN MARCOS, Texas– Head coach Karen Chisum announced that she will be retiring after 40 years coaching Texas State volleyball on Monday afternoon. The legendary coach has a 919-559-3 career record as the head coach of the Maroon and Gold, making her the third NCAA Division I coach to reach 900 wins, and the fourth all-time to do it at one program.
“It has been an absolute honor to work alongside Coach Chisum,” said Executive Senior Associate Director of Athletics Tracy Shoemake. “She is a Texas State treasure and we are blessed to have her as a lifelong Bobcat.”
“Coach Chisum has built the model at Texas State,” said Director of Athletics Dr. Larry Teis. “She is truly a Bobcat legend. She has represented not only the athletic department, but the entire university with great pride.”
Chisum is just the fifth coach in the program’s history which started competing in 1967. In her years as the head coach, she has garnered eight Coach of the Year honors with seven of them coming from conference offices (Gulf Star, Southland, and Sun Belt) and the other being the 2018 AVCA South-Central Regional Coach of the Year. In her tenure, Chisum has led the Bobcats to nine conference regular-season titles and 11 conference tournament championships. She is also responsible for the Bobcats’ only NCAA Tournament victory to date when they topped Rice 3-1 in the first-round in 2018.
Under Chisum’s guidance, TXST has reached the 20-win plateau 26 times, including six times since joining the Sun Belt in 2013. She has also accomplished that feat in four consecutive seasons. Chisum credits most of that success to her two Associate Head Coaches in Sean Huiet and Tracy Smith who makes up America’s longest tenured coaching staff with a combined 72 years of coaching together at Texas State.
Chisum hangs it up after winning back-to-back Sun Belt Conference regular-season and tournament championships that sent the Bobcats to the NCAA Tournament in consecutive years for the first time since 2004-05.
Chisum, a Texas State Distinguished Alumni honoree, became the first female to be accepted for membership in the “T” Association’s Hall of Honor. During her intercollegiate days at Texas State, Chisum played on the softball and tennis teams. Chisum’s coaching career with the Bobcats began as an assistant coach in 1978 before being named head coach in 1980.
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