Elliot Johnson is in his 12th year of coaching club volleyball. Before joining the Surfside team this year, Elliot spent six seasons as the head coach of the 18-2 program at M1 Volleyball Club in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Before his time at M1, Elliot spent five years with the South Dakota State Volleyball Club as head coach of the 18-1 program and three seasons as a volunteer assistant with the South Dakota State University volleyball program.
When asked where his passion for volleyball started, Elliot shared that it was back in the 6th grade of middle school. “My dad has coached basketball my whole life, and he taught my siblings and me how to play every sport possible,” Johnson said. “Growing up in South Dakota meant I didn’t have a structured opportunity to play volleyball as a sanctioned sport, so I vividly remember making my twin sister pepper with me in our backyard almost every night of the 6th grade…just to make sure she couldn’t get better at a sport than me,” Johnson added.
When he isn’t coaching, Elliot finds time to play in men’s volleyball leagues on Monday and Thursday nights here in the Los Angeles area. During the day, Elliot works for the National Veterinary Associates as their Director of Internal Communications.