Glenn
Hoag

Following his playing days at the University of Sherbrooke, Glenn played for Team Canada as an outside hitter from 1981-1985, playing for Ken Maeda. Glenn credits Maeda with having greatly influenced his coaching style.  Following his time with Team Canada, Glenn played professionally in Italy and France from 1984-1993.  He was voted the best middle blocker of the Italian A-1 Championship in 1985 and then was selected as the MVP of the French ProA Championship in 1986.

Hoag began his coaching career in 1993 with the University of Sherbrooke. In 1995 and 1998 he was named the CIS Coach of the Year and in 1997 was selected as the Assistant Coach for the Canadian team competing in the World University Games in Italy.  While still at the helm in Sherbrooke, he also began coaching in France, at Paris Volley. His highlight during his tenure in Paris was in 2001, he coached the team to a Triple Crown victory, winning the French Cup, the French Championship and the European Champions Cup.

Glenn was also appointed as assistant coach for Team France from 2001-2004 with the team qualifying for the Olympic Games in Athens, finishing 9th.  In addition, Glenn was hired to coach the ACH Team in Slovenia from 2008-2010 winning the Slovenian Championship, the Slovenian Cup and MEVZA in both 2008 and 2010.  From 2010-2017 Glenn has coached the Arkas Sports Club in the Turkish port city of Izmir winning the Turkish Cup in 2011 and the Turkish Championship in 2011, 2013 and 2015.

In 2006 Glenn was given his biggest coaching challenge when he was handed the reigns of Team Canada. Each year since 2006, Glenn ends a gruelling eight month pro season with a return to Canada to coach the men’s national team.  It has been both a rebuilding project and a labour of love.  Glenn feels that this 10 year process of building a program so that the team could compete with the best in the world to be one of his proudest accomplishments. 

Over the course of a decade, under Glenn’s tutelage, this team would become one of the elite level teams in the world. Highlights included a 5th place finish in the 2013 World League where the team defeated Russia, the defending Olympic Champions, followed by a 7th place finish at the 2014 World Championships in Poland, the best-ever finish for Canada. In 2015, the team won a bronze medal at the Pan American Games in Toronto.  But it was in 2016 that the team really hit its stride finishing in 1st place in Group 2 World League and then qualifying for the Olympic Games through a very tough qualification tournament in Japan in May where they had to win their final two matches against Japan and China to qualify.  In Rio, the team narrowly missed the medals, finishing in 5th place, the best-ever result for Canada in a non-boycotted Games.  All of Canada shared in the pride watching this team compete with the very best in the world. An interesting part of this journey has been the opportunity for Glenn to coach both of his sons, Nick and Christopher who have been proud members of Team Canada.

Over the years Glenn has also been a frequent clinician at numerous seminars, clinics and presentations around the globe.  He was part of the group that created the LTAD model for Volleyball Canada and contributed to the writing of the Level 2 coaching manual for Volleyball Quebec.

In 2016 Glenn was awarded the Geoff Gowan award from the Coaching Association of Canada in recognition of a lifetime contribution to coaching development and this year was named the Merite Estrien Coach of the Year for team sports and the Gala Sport Quebec Coach of the Year.  Today we are honoured to induct Glenn Hoag as a Coach in the Volleyball Canada Hall of Fame in recognition of his outstanding career as an athlete, coach and builder.