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Arizona volleyball alum Charita Stubbs was named Arizona's fourth head volleyball coach in January of 2023. Stubbs played at Arizona for Dave Rubio from 1992 to 1994 and spent 19 total years (1997 to 2005, 2013 to 2022) on Rubio's coaching staff at Arizona.
Overall, Stubbs has been on staff for 21 seasons; she coached at Arizona from 1997-2005 following an all-conference career at Arizona from 1990-94. Arizona has made the NCAA Tournament in 14 of Stubbs' 20 years on staff.
In 2024, Stubbs led Arizona to one of the biggest turnarounds in program history and guided the Wildcats to the NIVC Championship. Arizona finished the 2024 season with a 24-9 record, a 16-win improvement from 2023. In the Wildcats’ first season in the Big 12, Arizona finished seventh in the conference with a 9-9 Big 12 record. En route to a seventh-place finish in the Big 12, Stubbs coached Arizona to two top 20 wins. The first was a five-set win over then-No. 20 BYU and just over a month later, Arizona beat then-No. 8 Kansas in five sets. Additionally, Stubbs guided the Wildcats to two 11-match win streaks in the 2024 season. The Wildcats started the season 11-0 in non-conference, the first time since 2009 that Arizona went undefeated in non-conference play. Arizona closed out the season 11-0 beginning with the Cats’ upset over Kansas. In the NIVC, Arizona went 4-0 to win the first championship in program history.
Stubbs helped three players earned AVCA All-Region honors, highlighted by Avery Scoggins’ Pacific Region Freshman of the Year award, and coached four players to All-Big 12 recognition. During the regular season, Stubbs led Scoggins to four Big 12 Rookie of the Week honors.
In her first season as head coach, Stubbs finished with an 8-23 record. Three Wildcats – Jaelyn Hodge, Sofia Maldonado Diaz, and Jordan Wilson – totaled 300 or more kills during the season under Stubbs’ guidance. Arizona’s defense averaged 1.77 blocks/set led by Nicole Briggs with 0.77 blocks/set and Alayna Johnson with 0.69 blocks/set.
In 2022, Stubbs coached one of the top defenses in the nation, led by middle blockers Zyonna Fellows and Alayna Johnson. Fellows, a fifth-year senior, scattered her name throughout the Arizona blocking records and led the Pac-12 and ranked ninth in the NCAA in total blocks (171). The Wildcats’ defense led the conference and ranked 20th in the NCAA in total blocks (304.5) and held opponents to a .205 hitting percentage to rank fifth in the Pac-12.
In 2021, Stubbs helped coach seniors Merle Weidt and Zyonna Fellows to finish the season in the top of the Pac-12 rankings in hitting percentage and blocks. Weidt posted a .381 hitting percentage, third in the conference. She also recorded 11 block solos, 69 block assists, and 80 total blocks. Fellows had an outstanding season at the net, ranking seventh in the Pac-12 in block solos (16), eighth in block assists (97) and total blocks (113), and ninth in blocks/set (1.05).
In 2018, Stubbs, who works primarily with UA's middle blockers, helped guide Devyn Cross to an honorable mention All-American season, UA's first middle blocker to receive All-America honors since 1985, when she became the fifth Wildcat in school history to post a season with 2.00 kills/set (2.06) and 1.00 block/set (1.03) while hitting better than .350 (.361) and first since 2004. The team returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2018 with the biggest turnaround in UA's DI program history (11 wins in 2017 to 22 wins in 2018.
In 2016, UA, led by third-team All-Americans Penina Snuka and Kalei Mau, navigated the nation's sixth-hardest schedule in 2016, winning eight matches vs. ranked opponents, including a victory over ninth-seeded Michigan State in East Lansing to earn a trip to the team's eighth Sweet 16 and first since 2005.
In 2015, the Wildcats were tasked with replacing their top three scorers from 2014 and relied heavily on freshmen and transfers. The Cats finished 19-14 on the year and earned a berth to their third straight NCAA Tournament.
In 2014, fueled by All-America seasons from Madi Kingdon and Penina Snuka, the Arizona volleyball team turned in one of the best seasons in program history. After being selected ninth in the preseason Pac-12 poll, the Wildcats went 12-8 in league play and finished third in a conference that sent a record 10 teams to the NCAA Tournament.
Overall, the team went 24-10 and earned the No. 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament, good for a host of the first two rounds. The Wildcats fell to BYU, the eventual national runners up. Arizona finished the season ranked 16th in the AVCA Division I Coaches Poll, its highest finish since 2005.
In 2013, the Wildcats finished a strong 16-3 at home, which included a sweep of No. 1-ranked USC. Madi Kingdon earned AVCA honorable mention All-America honors, AVCA All-West Region, First-Team All-Pac-12 and twice earned Pac-12 Player of the Week honors. Meanwhile, setter Penina Snuka was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team and was honorable mention all-region, while twice earned Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors.
In addition, Stubbs has twice served as an assistant coach of the Pac-12 All-Star Team, which competed in China in 2014 and 2016.
Stubbs returned to Tucson after serving as the founder and Executive Director of Club Red Volleyball Inc. in Raleigh, N.C. in addition to being Athletic Director and head volleyball coach at Grace Christian School in Raleigh. Prior to her time with Club Red and at Grace Christian, she served a four-year stint as the head volleyball coach at NC State.
Prior to landing her first collegiate head coaching position in February 2006, Stubbs was a member of Rubio’s staff for nine seasons as an assistant coach and associate head coach at Arizona. Helping the Wildcats reach the NCAA Tournament all nine years and finish in the top 25 in all but one of those seasons, Stubbs became the seventh head coach in the Wolfpack's 31st year of volleyball and the first African-American female to be named a head coach at NC State.
Involved in all coaching aspects at Arizona, Stubbs coached at least one middle blocker to all-conference honors every year in her last eight seasons in Tucson during her first stint with the Wildcats. Promoted from assistant coach to associate head coach in 2000, Stubbs helped bring in the nation's top-ranked recruiting class in 2002. Highly involved in youth club volleyball, Stubbs served as head coach for the Zona Volleyball Club for four years and worked as an assistant volleyball coach at the renowned High Performance Camp in Salt Lake City two summers. Stubbs also served as an assistant coach for the U.S. Junior National team that qualified for the 2001 World Championships in Mexico.
The first player in Arizona history to record 300 kills, 300 digs and 100 blocks in one season, the former Charita Johnson led the Wildcats to back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances at the 1993 and 1994 NCAA Tournaments. A four-year starting middle blocker from 1990-94, she earned All-Pac-10 and All-West Region honors as a senior and still holds school records for career (117) and single match (8) solo blocks.
A member of the 1993 and 1994 United States Olympic Festival volleyball, Stubbs played professionally in France in 1995. Stubbs earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of Arizona in 1994 and received her master's in language, reading and culture from Arizona in 1995.
A CAP II certified coach, Stubbs is also a graduate of the Women’s Coaches Academy (WCA). She graduated from Emory in 2005, and followed up with WCA Dimension II Inverness in 2007.
Stubbs also serves as the head coach for the AZ High Performance Youth team.
A lifetime member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Stubbs is also very involved with her church, Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene. She hails from Cleveland, Ohio and is married to Melvin Stubbs. They are the proud parents of son, Melvin Jr. and daughter, Bethaina.
