University of Arizona Athletics

Steve Walker has built Arizona Beach Volleyball into a program of national success and prominence since the program’s creation in 2013. A Pac-12 Beach Volleyball Coach of the Year recipient, Walker has grown the program into a regular in the national rankings. Walker enters his 12th season as the Arizona beach volleyball coach in 2025.

Walker, the 2016 Pac-12 Beach Volleyball Coach of the Year, has coached four first-team All-Americans as well as 13 all-Pac-12 honorees since the conference adopted the sport when it became an NCAA-sanctioned sport in 2016. Walker led the Wildcats to the initial NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship in 2016 and the Wildcats have finished in the top 20 in the final AVCA Poll in every season.

The Wildcats ended the 2023 Beach Volleyball season 21-12, with Alex Parkhurst and Sarah Blacker being named second team All Pac-12.

Wildcats finished the 2022 Beach Volleyball season 19-12, staying ranked inside the top 20 at No. 18 in the NCAA. The Sand Cats managed to stay ranked in the AVCA polls all season. Arizona hosted the Pac-12 Tournament at Bear Down Beach where they advanced into the second round and fell to the eventual conference champions USC. Alex Parkhurst, junior, earned high honors joining the Pac-12 All Conference second team. 

In 2021 the Wildcats saw their one of their winningest program to date. Going 22-6 the 2021 Wildcats earned one of the highest winning percentages to date (.786) and earned the second most wins, only three behind 2019. The Cats went 9-2 against conference opponents and saw program history wins against Pepperdine and Hawaii. Arizona spent the entirety of the season in the top 20 nationally and finished in the top 10 nationally. Four Wildcats saw All-Pac-12 honors and two pairs earned AVCA Top Flight awards. 

The 2020 season saw a shortened schedule due to the Corona Virus Pandemic. The Cats went 10-2 with a program best seven match win streak. the season was cancelled after just 12 matches.
 
The 2019 season saw the program set a UA record for wins with a record of 25-6, which included an impressive 15-match win streak to end the regular season. Arizona finished the season ranked in the top 12 nationally. Mia Mason and Olivia Hallaran earned All-Pac-12 Second Team honors while six other Wildcats earned Top Flight awards from the AVCA. With an athletics department high 3.824 team GPA, the Wildcat quartet of Jonny Baham, Natalie Anselmo, Brooke Burling and Mia Mason were all selected to Pac-12 All-Academic teams.

In 2018, the Wildcats went 20-12 and finished the season ranked 14th in the AVCA Top 25.

In 2017, led by first-team all-conference seniors Madison and McKenna Witt, the Wildcats went 17-10 and ended the season ranked No. 13 in the final poll.

In the sport's first season as an NCAA-sanctioned sport, Walker led Arizona to the first ever NCAA Beach Volleyball Championships in 2016. The Wildcats finished tied for fifth at the inaugural eight-team championship in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Madison and McKenna Witt were named All-Americans while Walker was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year for his masterful leadership of the Wildcats, who also finished the season as the Pac-12 runner up at the first conference tournament.

The foundation for Arizona's immense success at the NCAA level was built during the program's first two seasons. After winning eight matches in year 1, the Wildcats burst onto the national scene in 2015, posting an 18-3 record and sent two pairs to the AVCA Sand Pairs Championship, concluding with a final-four appearance and eventual AVCA All-America honors for Kaitlyn Leary and Madi Kingdon. Arizona finished the season ranked No. 10 in 2015, Walker's second season. 

Walker was named the head coach of the program in January of 2013 when the sport's addition was announced. Prior to becoming Arizona's first beach volleyball coach, Walker served as UA's indoor volleyball associate head coach. He served as an assistant coach with the Wildcats for three seasons from 2003-05, helping to lead the program to three NCAA Tournament appearances, including a trip to the Elite Eight in 2005. He left Arizona after the 2005 season to become the women's volleyball head coach at UC Davis, where he has coached for two seasons before returning to Arizona in 2007.

At UC Davis, Walker became the Aggies' eighth head volleyball coach, guiding the program through its final year of reclassification to NCAA Division I status in 2006, and during its first year of membership in the Big West Conference. During his tenure at UC Davis, Walker was selected to coach the Northern California Volleyball Association Youth Division team at the Global Challenge in Maribor, Slovenia, during July of 2006. In 2010, he was invited back to coach the NCVA Youth team at the USA Volleyball High Performance Championship in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Walker also served as a volunteer assistant coach during Arizona's 2000 Pac-10 title season.

In between his previous two stops in Tucson, Walker spent two years as an assistant coach at the University of Alabama during the 2001-02 seasons.

Walker received his "AAA" rating, the highest level pro/am rating as a player in the California Beach Volleyball Association series from 1997-99, and multiple times he was an Arizona Beach Volleyball Association tournament winner from 2003-06.

A collegiate volleyball player at Long Beach State, Walker finished his career as the school's all-time leader in assists per game. The starting setter for two seasons, he was named AVCA All-America and All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in 1995, after leading the NCAA in assists and assists per game.

Walker was selected to play for the U.S. at the World University Games in 1995 and was the team captain for Arizona's back-to-back NIRSA club national championship teams in 1999 and 2000. He was named the MVP at the 2000 championship event. Walker is also a four-time bronze medalist at the U.S. Volleyball Open Adult Championships.

Walker began his coaching career in 1997 as the boy's and girl's head varsity coach at Westminster High School in Westminster, Calif. He also served as a volunteer coach at Golden West College.

From 1995-98, Walker was the head boy's and girl's coach for the Surf City Volleyball Club in Huntington Beach, Calif. Under his guidance, the boy's 18 and under team was ranked second in Southern California, placed second at the regional championships and was third at junior nationals. A total of nine of his club players went on to play at NCAA Division I schools.

A native of Newport Beach, Calif., Walker graduated from Long Beach State with a degree in Kinesiology in 1996 and received his M.A. in teaching and teacher education from Arizona in 2000.