Crystal Young is in her second season as the assistant coach of the USC Upstate volleyball program. She primarily works with team offense and team defense, as well as takes the lead on recruiting initiatives.
In her first season as the assistant coach of the Spartans, Young coached a pair of Big South all-conference honorees in Emily Russell and Gloria Ikenebu who sat atop the conference rankings in hitting percentage and blocking. Russell and Ikenebu were each also nominated for the Hercules Tires Big South Conference 2010-2019 All-Decade Team after only competing in the Big South for two years.
The Clear Lake, Texas native was named to VolleyballMag.com’s exclusive Under 40 Coaching Hotshots list in January 2020.
Prior to joining Upstate, Young spent a year working as a recruiting coordinator and youth sports director for the Waterview Wolves in Dallas, Texas. Additionally, she holds four years of club coaching experience.
Young began her collegiate playing career at Blinn College in Brenham, Texas where she helped her team to the 2013 NJCAA National Championship and a 39-3 record that season. She finished her career at Blinn with 2,367 assists, second-most in school history. During her time there, Young was a First Team NJCAA All-American and Second Team AVCA All-American while also garnering Region XIV Setter of the Year honors. Her 1,546 assists in 2013 set a single-season school record.
She completed her playing career with two seasons at Colorado State under head coach Tom Hilbert. As a senior in 2015, Young led her team with 634 assists and ranked fourth with 18 service aces while also collecting 187 digs. Her .952 serve percentage that season tied for seventh-best in program history.
Young earned her degree in communication studies from Colorado State in 2016.
