West Virginia University Athletics

Adriano de Souza enters his third season at West Virginia University after being hired as an assistant coach on March 28, 2019.
 
In his first season, de Souza helped Katelyn Evans and Briana Lynch earn Big 12 postseason awards for the Mountaineers, each landing on the All-Big 12 Second Team for the first time in their careers. Evans also was awarded a spot on the All-Midwest Region Honorable Mention Team by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA); the honor marked the first of her career.
 
The 2020-21 volleyball season was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. WVU, as well as the other eight members of the Big 12 conference played 16 league matches. Each program played eight doubleheaders with competition against the same opponent in consecutive days at the same site.
 
De Souza helped the team to a program-best eight conference matches, ending their fall season with an 8-8 overall mark to finish fourth overall. West Virginia also earned a series split with Oklahoma for the first time since 2017 and defeated the Sooners in Norman for the first time in program history.
 
The teams were not permitted to play any non-conference opponents during the fall season. Fall championships were moved to spring 2021. WVU concluded its spring slate with five nonconference matches with a 2-3 record.
 
WVU earned 12 wins in 2019, including a trio of victories in conference play. The Mountaineers completed their season with a thrilling, 3-2 comeback win over Kansas in the regular-season finale on Nov. 30, at the WVU Coliseum.
 
De Souza joined the Mountaineer staff after spending seven seasons as the head volleyball coach at Louisiana Tech (2012-18), where he helped the program improve its win total in each of his first five seasons to notch 55 career wins at the helm of the Lady Techsters. De Souza coached five All-Louisiana performers and a pair of All-Conference USA award winners during his tenure. He also produced four All-Conference USA Scholar-Athletes and landed the program’s first-ever AVCA Academic Team Award in 2018.
 
The Sao Paulo, Brazil, native has a coaching resume that spans 25 years, boasting stints at the club, high school and collegiate levels, including assistant coaching positions at Illinois State, Miami (Ohio) and Kent State. Responsible for recruiting in multiple roles, de Souza also brings a wealth of international recruiting experience with him to Morgantown.
 
Prior to his seven-year stint at Tech, de Souza spent four years as the assistant coach at Illinois State (2008-12), where he helped rebuild the Redbirds program and led it to back-to-back semifinal appearances at the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Tournament.
 
De Souza also served on Miami’s staff as an assistant from 2005-07, were he was instrumental in revamping the program’s training and scouting systems. With de Souza’s support, the Redhawks reached the 2007 NCAA Tournament after capturing the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Tournament title that same season. Miami posted a 20-win season for the first time since 1998, including a pair of victories over nationally ranked Ohio, the four-time defending conference champion, for its first-ever win over a ranked foe. While at Miami, de Souza assisted in coaching a total of 10 All-MAC selections, including the 2007 MAC Freshman of the Year.
 
De Souza started his Division I career at Kent State, volunteering for the Golden Flashes’ volleyball program for two seasons (2003-05) while completing his master’s degree in sports studies.
 
Before coming to the United States to begin his Division I coaching career, de Souza spent three years (2001-03) as the volleyball coach and co-administrator for two men's teams in the city of Rio Claro, in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. His under-21 men's team was the regional runner-up all three years, while his under-19 men's team was the APV League Champion in 2001 and posted a runner-up finish in 2002. In 1999, de Souza mentored the under-21, under-19 and under-16 women's programs at Club Regatas in Campinas, Brazil.
 
He also served a three-year stint as the head men's volleyball coach at the State University of Campinas (1995-97), where his team won sectional championships in 1996 and 1997, finished second at the Metropolitan Championships in 1995 and 1996 and placed third in 1997.
 
From 2001-07, de Souza also worked alongside Antonio Rizola, the head coach of the Brazilian Junior National Team, in developing methods to improve players' game intelligence in preparation for South American and World Championships. In 2007, he volunteered for the Brazilian Youth National Team when it competed at the World Championship in Mexico.
 
While attending his undergraduate courses in physical education and athletic coaching, de Souza had the chance to be a liaison and interpreter for the U.S. Women's National Team (1994) and Japanese National Junior Team (1993) in their respective visits to world championships in Brazil.
 
Of note, de Souza has co-authored books and articles on sports and coaching. He also has presented at the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGFU) Conference in Vancouver, Canada (2008), Loughborough, England (2012) and Cologne, Germany (2016). 
 
De Souza graduated with his bachelor's degree from Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1997 and completed his master's degree at Kent State in 2006.