HUNTSVILLE — Sam Houston Director of Athletics Bobby Williams has announced Beach Volleyball will join the Bearkats' sport lineup in the spring of 2025.  
 
The Athletic Department plans to hire a coach in 2024 and begin play as a member of Conference USA in the spring of 2025. The addition of Beach Volleyball will give SHSU a total of 18 Division I teams.  
 
"Similar to how we approached bowling and soccer, we wanted to give plenty of lead time to hire a coach, build the budget, establish a competitive facility and allow them to build the program the right way," Williams said this earlier this week on BSN Xtra. "It is important for us as well to have a facility to compete and make sure that is a positive experience as well."
 
The Bearkats' home competition site for Beach Volleyball is to be determined.
 
Conference USA recently added Tulane as an affiliate member in Beach Volleyball ahead of the 2023 season, increasing current league membership to five schools for the 2022-23 season, as the Green Wave join FIU, Florida Atlantic, UAB and UTEP as members. 
 
Jacksonville State - who is joining C-USA in 2023 along with the Bearkats, Liberty and NM State - also plans to add Beach Volleyball when it joins the league.
 
C-USA, which added Beach Volleyball as a sponsored sport last fall, was one of eight inaugural leagues to earn automatic qualification to the 2022 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championships and will retain its automatic qualifier status for the upcoming year.
 
The Beach Volleyball season begins in late February and continues through April. The average team is composed of around 15 student-athletes with a total of six scholarships available.
 
"With the addition of Beach Volleyball as our 18th NCAA sponsored sport, I am excited for the additional opportunities our volleyball program will be able to offer our student-athletes," said Senior Associated Athletic Director Chris Thompson, who serves as the department's Senior Women's Administrator and Title IX liaison. 
 
"The dynamics of teamwork will reflect a player's speed and ball control in fast-paced match settings. With the success of the Sam Houston Volleyball program, the transition will be quick as we look to compete moving forward into C-USA."
 
The format of competition is two teams competing against one another through a series of pairings. Each pairing plays a best-of-three format with the winner decided in a best-of-five result.  
 
The NCAA conducted its first Beach Volleyball national championship in 2016, and the field was expanded to 16 teams in 2022. The sport has seen rapid growth over the past five years with 86 programs across the country currently competing in Division I.