Cory Sackett enters his first year as club men's volleyball head coach in 2018 and fourth year on the Pride women's volleyball coaching staff as the lead assistant coach for the 2018 season.
During the first season as assistant women's volleyball coach of the Pride, Sackett played an integral role in the success of the Pride. PNW finished with an 18-16 record and a 10-9 record in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference.
Sackett helped with the development of a pair of players who received multiple awards during the season. Junior Gabrielle Martin received AVCA All-Region, NAIA-Scholar Athlete and CCAC First Team honors while Brooke Ahrens received CCAC Freshman of the Year accolades.
During his second season assisting the Purdue women's squad, the Black and Gold won 11 games, making that the most wins for the program since the reinstatement in 2015. Sackett also helped the program break multiple school records, including service aces per set (2.04), which ranked them 12th in the NAIA, and total service aces (235), which put them 16th in the NAIA.
In his first year on staff, the women's team set a new school-record for wins (10), doubling the win total from the previous year. In the process, the squad shattered 17 other program records, including kills (1,130), kills per set (10.00), attack percentage (.130), assists per set (9.27), service aces (180), block assists (231), digs (1,614), total blocks (141.5), and points per set (12.85).
In addition to his duties at Purdue Northwest, Sackett has coached competitive club volleyball for the last eight years for Club 1 Volleyball Club in Plainfield, Ill. In the summer of 2016 Sackett’s teams found great success. His Boys 17 Elite team won an AAU National Championship as well as the Bronze Championship at Boy’s Junior National Championships fishing as the #12 ranked team in the Country and #1 ranked team in the Midwest Region. He had 3 players deemed AAU All-Americans, 1 player name the AAU-All American Tournament MVP, and 1 player deemed an AAU Academic All American. Cory’s girls 16 Elite team placed 5th at the AAU National Championship’s. He had 1 player named to the AAU All-American team and 2 honored with an AAU Academic-All American award. At Club 1, Cory currently serves as the lead coach for boy’s program and the head coach of the Boys 18 Elite team, and a head coach for a 17/18 year old girls team. He also assists the Club 1 program as the recruiting coordinator, giving the current club players the resources and guidance necessary in the process of playing collegiate volleyball.
Sackett recently had six players from his club teams make the USA high performance team. The USA High Performance program works to advance volleyball talent and build a broader and stronger pipeline of athletes and coaches for the USA Olympic Teams. The High Performance Program bridges the gap between the USA National Teams and youth volleyball programs across the country.
Cory is additionally a part of the Positive Coaching Alliance. Positive Coaching Alliance is a national non-profit organization with the mission to transform the culture of youth sports so that youth athletes can have a positive, character-building experience. He also is IMPACT certified. IMPACT, an acronym for Increased Mastery and Professional Application of Coaching Theory, is a certification from the USA Volleyball committee. It has Emphasis on drill development, principals of learning skills, resources, and sport ethics. Through the IMPACT certification coaches are also SafeSport trained which is the US Olympic community's initiative to recognize, reduce and respond to misconduct in sport of volleyball.
Sackett spent time as an Assistant coach at Dominican University in the 2013-2014 season prior to his appointment at Purdue. The stars had a successful inaugural season as they claimed a spot in the CVC post-season tournament with an all freshmen roster. The stars starting setter was named to the CVC All Conference team being the first all-conference player in program history.
A player first, Sackett spent 10 years competing in the sport of volleyball. He was a member of The Lewis University Club Team and played at Naperville Volleyball Club and Flyer’s Volleyball Club. At Lewis, Sackett played at the setter, libero and outside hitter positions.
While attending Neuqua Valley High School, he played defensive specialist and setter positions. In his career there, he led the Wildcats to back-to-back conference titles and back-to-back-to-back regional championships before graduating in 2006. His prep career honors included the Naperville Sun naming him Neuqua's Preseason Pivotal Player, was named a three-time captain, and deemed the 2006 comeback player of the year, after he returned from an ankle injury and lead the wildcats to post season success in his senior campaign.
Sackett graduated from Lewis University in December of 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal and social justice. He now resides in Shorewood, Illinois with his wife Rachel.
