John Hawks has his sights set on bringing the Ramblers back to the center stage of collegiate men’s volleyball. The 2023 MIVA Coach of the Year enters his third season at the helm of Loyola Chicago after being named head coach in May of 2022.
Loyola Chicago had an impressive 2024 season, finishing with a 19-10 overall record and a 12-4 record in league play. The season started with a dramatic five-set win at No. 3 Hawai'i, followed by a home match against No. 1 UCLA in front of a record-setting crowd of 3,334 fans at Gentile Arena. Despite losing to the eventual national champions, the Ramblers' match against UCLA was one of 19 games they played against AVCA Top-25 teams, and they managed to maintain a winning record of 9-8 in those matchups.
Loyola also ended the season with the third-highest hitting percentage in the country (.350), swept 12 teams, and enjoyed a seven-match winning streak from Feb. 24 to March 21 as they prepared for the MIVA Tournament. With their strong regular season performance, the Ramblers secured the No. 2 seed in the tournament and hosted the quarterfinals, where they defeated No. 7 McKendree in straight sets.
Several Loyola players received individual honors for their performances in 2024. Parker Van Buren was named the MIVA Player of the Year and a AVCA First Team All-American. He also received All-MIVA First Team honors for the third consecutive year. Daniel Fabikovic was named Newcomer of the Year by both the MIVA and the AVCA, and earned All-MIVA First Team and All-America Second Team selections. Nicodemus Meyer was included in the All-MIVA Second Team and received an All-America Honorable Mention. Dan Mangun also made the All-MIVA Second Team.
This was the first time since 2013 that Loyola Chicago had both the MIVA Player and Newcomer of the Year, previously awarded to Thomas Jaeschke and Joe Smalzer. Fabikovic was only the second Rambler to receive the Newcomer of the Year title from the AVCA, with Jeff Jendryk being the first in 2015. Additionally, Van Buren's placement as an AVCA First Team All-American was the first for a Rambler since Jendryk in 2018, highlighting Hawks’ commitment to developing top-tier student-athletes.
Hawks, the first Loyola coach to win the MIVA plaudit in their first season at the helm of the program, directed LUC to a 21-7 (11-3 MIVA) record in 2023 and a share of the MIVA regular season title, its first since 2018. His inaugural campaign with the team was a stellar season for Loyola as a league-leading six Ramblers were named to All-MIVA teams. Loyola had three players selected First Team with another three tabbed to the Second Team, the only program in the conference to have three or more players named on either team.
Van Buren picked up his second All-MIVA First Team honor in as many seasons after ranking second in the conference and fifth nationally with 4.12 kills per set. Cole Schlothauer became a four-time All-MIVA First Team honoree following a standout redshirt senior season. Schlothauer etched his name into the Loyola record books on April 1 when he notched his 1,000th career kill in a win over Quincy. Mangun picked up his first career All-MIVA honor with First Team recognition. He ranked fourth nationally and led the league with 10.34 assists per set while also ranking third on the team with .745 blocks per set. Loyola's two middle blockers and starting libero were all named All-MIVA Second Team, with Meyer, Jimmy Meinhart and Matt Oakley all being selected.
Not only recognized at the conference level, three of Hawks’ student-athletes brought home All-American accolades. Van Buren was tabbed as a Second Team All-American while Schlothauer and Mangun earned Honorable Mention honors from the AVCA.
With an emphasis on hard work in the classroom as well, Hawks piloted a total of 18 student-athletes to earning Academic All-MIVA honors in while the team as a whole finished the 2023 season with a combined team GPA of 3.49 and earned their sixth United States Marine Corps and AVCA Team Academic Award.
Prior to joining the Ramblers, Hawks spent seven seasons (2015-2022) as an assistant coach at UCLA, leading the Bruins' offensive and recruiting efforts. In 2022, Hawks was a driving force behind a powerful Bruins unit that led the nation with a .374 team hitting percentage, while also helping the team claim the top spot in the AVCA Division I-II Coaches' Poll for nine weeks straight. As a results, he was named the 2022 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division I-II Assistant Coach of the Year.
During his tenure at UCLA, in which the Bruins posted a 134-54 (.713) overall record, Hawks recruited and helped develop five AVCA All-America selections and a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Player of the Year. On the recruiting side, Hawks has brought in the top recruiting class each of the last four years as the Bruins maintained their status as one of the premier programs in one of the toughest conferences in the nation.
Along with helping UCLA to three NCAA tournament appearances, Hawks served as the head coach for the U.S. National Men's Volleyball Team in the summer of 2019 as his team finished second in the NORCECA Continental Championships. Hawks was also on the coaching staff for two gold medals at the Pan American Cups and a bronze medal at the World University Games. He also helped numerous teams through USA Volleyball receive international recognition.
Hawks has also served as an assistant coach at Long Beach State, USC and UC Irvine, helping the Anteaters to a Final Four appearance in 2006. He also served as the Director of Volleyball at the SPIRE Institute in Ohio. In addition to his coaching success at the collegiate, international and club levels, Hawks was an accomplished high school coach, earning Orange County Register and California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Coach of the Year recognition in 2001.
Hawks received a Bachelor of Science in Management from the University of Phoenix, an associate's degree from Grossmont College in 1994 and he also attended San Diego State.
He and his wife Julianne have two daughters, Giavanna and Gabriella.
