Shaughn McDonald joined the Sun Devil Volleyball staff in March 2024.
The 2024 season was one for the record books as Arizona State won its first conference championship in team history in the first season in the Big 12. McDonald helped Arizona State finish the season with a 30-3 record, going 17-1 in Big 12 play. The Sun Devils, who earned a No. 3 seed and hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, advanced to the second round, the second-straight year doing so. The 30 wins on the year are the most this century and one from the most all-time (31 in 1982). The winning percentage of .909 is the best in team history. The Sun Devils went undefeated at home in the regular season for the first time since becoming an NCAA sport. Before falling in the final match, Arizona State had an 18-match winning streak, the second-longest in program history. With winning comes awards and the Sun Devils bought in many honors in 2024. In addition to their monumental win total, they went 5-2 against ranked opponents, including a top-10 win over then-No. 8 Kansas. Arizona State never lost a match to an unranked team during the regular season. There were four AVCA All-Americans, four AVCA All-Region players, two major coaching honors, five Big 12 honorees, and five Big 12 Player of the Week nods. Four is the most All-Americans in a single season in program history for ASU.
His most recent stop before ASU was at Houston where he joined staff as the Director of Operations and Technical Coordinator in the spring of 2023 and was with the Cougars for the 2024 season, one year of experience in the Big 12 under his belt already. Last season, Houston advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and had one All-American, three all-region and three all-Big 12 players.
Prior to Houston, McDonald was the Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at his alma mater Saint Francis, where he started late 2020 and was there until the spring of 2022. While at Saint Francis, he helped lead the Red Flash to their first postseason appearance in seven years. McDonald coached four of All-Conference honorees, including NEC Player of the Year, Madi Tyus and NEC Rookie of the Year Maggie Hogan. McDonald returned to his hometown and joined the University of Pittsburgh as the Director of Volleyball Operations in 2020, where he worked closely with the women's volleyball team with their day-to-day operations. He was previously a volunteer assistant at Pitt for the 2018 season when he helped the program to its second consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference Championship in 2018. In 2019, McDonald worked at South Florida as the Director of Volleyball Operations, assisting with the daily operations of the volleyball program, scouting and DataVolley operations.
Over the years McDonald has worked in the club volleyball scene with stints at Pittsburgh Elite Volleyball Association, St. Pete Volleyball Club (Fla.) and Absolute Volleyball Academy of Texas (AVA).
A native of Pittsburgh, McDonald graduated from Saint Francis University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a minor in Sports Management. While in school, he was a member of the men's volleyball program from 2014-2018.