Patrick Hiltz was named head volleyball coach at ULM in Jan. 2013.
In his second year, Hiltz lifted ULM to its highest win total (9) since 2011 while coaching record-setting Marcela Araya to a second team All-LSWA honor after averaging 5.6 digs per set in her final season, good for eighth in the nation. During a match against Cal State Bakersfield on Aug. 30 of her senior campaign, Araya surpassed Cathy Trsar as the program’s all-time career digs leader, capping off her final season with 1,916 digs.
During his first season in 2013, Hiltz brought the Warhawks back to Fant-Ewing Coliseum and made it the home of the volleyball team for the first time since 2000. He coached every Warhawk on the roster to at least one career-high and guided Marcela Araya to the school’s single-season digs record of 549.
Hiltz was previously an assistant coach with the Warhawks in 2012. He returned to ULM after one season as the head coach at Nicholls State.
As Hiltz rejoined the ranks of the Warhawks, he felt as though he had never left and like he was coming home.
In Spring 2013 and 2014, Hiltz worked with head sand volleyball coach David Fischer. The coaching tandem led ULM to back-to-back appearances in the AVCA National Championship. The Warhawks had duos take points from top-tier sand volleyball programs such as USC and Georgia State. Individual ULM tandems beat duos from Florida State and UCLA and earned All-American accolades in consecutive years.
The 2002 UNLV graduate guided the Colonels to the 2012 Southland Conference Tournament as the league’s number seven seed. Under Hiltz’s tuteledge, outside hitter Jennifer Brandt earned Southland Conference second team accolades and outside hitter Kathryn Stock was named to the Southland Conference’s All-Academic second team, becoming the first player since 2009 to earn SLC All-Academic honors.
In 2011, Hiltz arrived at ULM as an assistant coach under Ernest Vasquez. That season, ULM snapped an 40-plus losing streak and ended an 0-83 Sun Belt match skid en route to the Warhawks’ first 10-win season since 2005.
Prior to his first appearance with the Warhawks, Hiltz served as an assistant at Phoenix College in Arizona, where with the Bears he aided the team to a runner-up finish in the 2010 NJCAA Division II regional championships and a third-place finish the year before.
The California native’s high school coaching experience began when he was a varsity player, becoming an assistant coach for the freshman team at San Marcos HS in Santa Barbara. From that point he has worked at high schools in Nevada and Arizona, along with coaching the Northern Arizona University club team.