Harvard University

Brian Baise enters his 19th season as head coach of the Harvard men's volleyball team in 2026-27. Baise is the longest-tenured head coach in Crimson history will begin the 2027 campaign just four victories shy of becoming the program’s all-time leader in coaching victories.
 
During his time in Cambridge, Baise has led Harvard to double-digit win totals 10 times, top-3 finishes in EIVA play on 10 different occasions and posted nine .500-or-better seasons in conference action. The Crimson has also qualified for the EIVA Tournament 10 times, winning the championship in 2018 and earning the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament – both program firsts.
 
Across 16 competition seasons (2020 and 2021 were canceled due to the global pandemic), Baise has coached six AVCA All-Americans, 17 All-EIVA First-Team selections, 17 All-EIVA Second-Teamers and nine Crimson who were named All-EIVA Honorable Mention.
 
The 2012 EIVA Bob Sweeney Coach of the Year has also led a driven group in the classroom. Harvard has collected the AVCA Team Academic Award an NCAA-best 15 straight seasons and 17 times overall, and been named to the AVCA Honor Roll nine times, including seven consecutive seasons. More recently, the Crimson has been named the AVCA Team Academic Champions in each of the two seasons in which the award has been given (2024-25, 2025-26).
 
Other program milestones under Baise include a first-place EIVA Hay Division finish (2009), its first national ranking (No. 15 in 2012), its first win over Penn State (2013), its highest national ranking (No. 13 in 2014 and 2015), its most EIVA wins (11 in 2014), and a sweep of Penn State in 2025, which ended the Nittany Lions’ 38-match conference winning streak.

Prior to coming to Harvard, Baise spent one year as an assistant head coach and one year as the head coach for the club team at California from 1999-2001, leading the Golden Bears to the quarterfinals of the 2000 NIRSA Championships before moving east with his wife, Laurie, who is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at Tufts.

Baise is a 1995 graduate of Princeton where he earned a degree in English and was a four-year starter for the Tigers. A former two-time Junior Olympic All-American, Baise served as the Tigers' captain and was team MVP as a senior.

Before attending Princeton, Baise was a two-time captain and 1991 California Interscholastic Federation First-Team selection and CIF 3A state champion at Harvard-Westlake High School. He was a member of the U.S. Junior National Team in 1992.