Before taking over the program, Brian Imperiale worked alongside longtime UT head coach Chris Catanach, helping recruit players, scout opponents and guide the Spartans to three national championships. [ Courtesy of Sean Gallagher, University of Tampa Athletics ]
This article was first published in the Tampa Bay Times on October 13th.
By Hannah Walls
Brian Imperiale did not need to learn the culture of the University of Tampa volleyball when he was named head coach. He had already spent more than a decade helping create it.
For years, Imperiale worked alongside longtime head coach Chris Catanach, helping recruit players, scout opponents and guide the Spartans to three national championships. When Catanach stepped away after 41 seasons, Imperiale suddenly was responsible for maintaining the success he had spent years upholding.
He entered the 2025 season as interim head coach. By the end, Tampa had gone 32-1, completed the first undefeated regular season in program history and reached the national semifinals.
Before the wins piled up, Imperiale entered the season without knowing whether the job would be permanently his.
With the university in the middle of an athletic director transition, Imperiale understood why a permanent decision had not been made.
“When you’re not sure if you’re going to have a job, that leaves not only your livelihood up in the air, but where your kids go to school,” Imperiale said.
Instead of focusing on what could happen after the season, Imperiale and his wife Margeaux decided he would make the most of the opportunity in front of him.
“I’ve got an opportunity, whether it’s the exact framing of the opportunity that I wanted, but I’m just gonna go after it,” he said.
Margeaux saw the uncertainty surrounding the interim position from another perspective.
“That was a pretty hard position to be in as a family because we were so invested in the program,” she said.
Still, she said her husband approached the opportunity with confidence after he had spent years preparing for the possibility of becoming head coach.
“He was so confident in his abilities that he was just so excited,” Margeaux said. “There was not even a thought of what if. It was just, like, ‘We’re gonna kill it.’”
After Tampa went through its nonconference schedule undefeated, a road match against Barry became one of the moments Imperiale realized what his team might be capable of. Tampa trailed 2-1 before coming back to win.
“If we can beat Barry at their house, we are definitely capable of anyone, anywhere,” he said.
As the wins continued, Imperiale said the Spartans did not always play their best volleyball, but what stood out was their ability to win anyway.
“I just remember coming into the huddle after the game all the time and being like, ‘Guys, I don’t know how you did it, but we won again.’”
Volunteer assistant coach Cody Liner said the team maintained a “1-0 mentality,” focusing on each match rather than the growing undefeated record.
Liner also credited Imperiale’s approach for keeping the focus away from himself during his first season in charge.
“It wasn’t about him,” Liner said. “It was about the team, and everyone knew that.”
The uncertainty surrounding Imperiale’s future did not last through the entire season.
Around the midway point, Tampa was 14-0 and ranked No. 1 nationally when Dr. E.J. Brophy, the newly hired athletic director, made the decision official, but Imperiale did not find out in an office or through a formal announcement.
During alumni weekend, the program was also honoring Catanach. After a match, nearly 100 alumni, players and family members gathered for an event when Brophy was asked to speak.
Imperiale had no idea what was coming.
“He named me the official head coach in front of that entire room,” Imperiale said. “That was a really special moment.”
His family was there. As well as current and former Spartans, many of whom had returned to celebrate the coach Imperiale was now replacing.
“The players are crying their eyes out,” Imperiale said. “For all that I had gone through to that point, that was really cool of him to turn that into a moment.”
For Imperiale, becoming the permanent head coach brought something the undefeated record could not: peace of mind.
“I don’t need to stress out about, like, am I gonna have to pick my family up and move them out of all their schools,” Imperiale said. “Now we can just completely focus on the insane amount of work that it takes to build a championship team.”
Imperiale has not tried to reinvent a program that has produced decades of success.
“I think I would be an idiot to try and change what has worked for so long,” Imperiale said. “The vast majority of the things we do in the program are exactly the same.”
The biggest difference for Imperiale has been moving from the assistant players could turn to, into the person responsible for making the final decisions.
“The players used to come cry in my office, and now they come to (the assistants) just to cry,” Imperiale joked.
He said being head coach has forced him to accept that not every decision is going to make every player happy.
“I’m still very much a player’s coach, but when you’re making the decisions, people are gonna be unhappy with some of those decisions, and that’s OK,” said Imperiale.
Now in his first full season as Tampa’s permanent head coach, Imperiale has the Spartans off to another strong start. UT is 16-1, including a 8-0 record in conference play and a 15-match winning streak, entering this week. They are ranked third nationally and averaging 13.57 kills per set while holding opponents to a .153 hitting percentage.
For the Imperiales, Tampa volleyball extends well beyond Brian’s role as head coach.
Margeaux played for Tampa and was part of the program’s first national championship team in 2006. Brian helped coach the Spartans to national titles in 2014, 2018, and 2021.
“I was part of the first national championship team, and then Brian actually has been a part of all three of them since,” Margeaux said. “We’re very proud that we have all four rings in our family.”
Margeaux remains involved with the program through community outreach and alumni engagement, including helping create the Junior Spartans Kids Club to connect young fans with the program, while the couple’s four children grow up around the gym.
“It’s a huge cornerstone in our lives,” Margeaux said. “We’re just really grateful to be able to continue to build on the tradition that Chris built.”
That connection has helped Imperiale maintain the program’s history while beginning to shape what he wants his own tenure to look like.
That legacy cannot be measured by wins, losses or championships.
“The lessons we’re trying to teach are life lessons,” Imperiale said. “Being part of not just a team, but a high-achieving, competitive team, you have to learn to work with other people. You have to learn to deal with some major challenges.”
Imperiale still understands the expectations that come with leading UT volleyball. Championships remain the goal, but he hopes the impact of the program lasts much longer than a season.
“Nothing will make me happier than to see kids come back when they have kids and families, and if they can say, ‘This thing that we did, or this thing that you taught me, that has nothing to do with volleyball, has been something that I’ve remembered,’” Imperiale said.
For a program built on championships, Imperiale wants his chapter to be remembered for more than the banners hanging in the gym.