Alma Mater: NYU '93
Season as Head Coach: 8th
Career Record: 226-77 (.746)
NCAA All-Americans: 9
NCAA Championship Appearances: 5 (2002-06)
ECAC Championship Appearances: 2 (2007, 2008)
ECAC Upstate Championships: 1 (2008)
New York State Championships: 4 (2003-06)
Coach of the Year Honors: AVCA New York Region (3); 2003, 2005, 2006), UAA (1; 2003)
Since becoming head women’s volleyball coach at New York University in 2001, Ed Caesar has firmly established himself as one of the top teachers in the Division III game while helping the Violets establish themselves among the nation’s elite.
Sporting a career record of 226-77 (.746), Caesar is ranked 10th among active Division III coaches in winning percentage. In five of his first seven seasons on the Violets’ sideline, Caesar has piloted the program into the NCAA Division III Women’s Volleyball Championships, including a berth in the Division III championship game in 2003 and a Final Four trip in 2004.
Last season, Caesar piloted a roster full of talented underclassmen to the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Upstate Championship title last fall. NYU went 25-16 and placed Elizabeth Dick and Erin Noonan on the University Athletic Association (UAA) All-Association Honorable Mention squad. Seven of Caesar’s student-athletes garnered UAA Fall Sport All-Academic honors, while captain Stacy Goto collected NYU’s Martin Luther King, Jr., Humanitarian Award.
In addition to his coaching acumen and his penchant for developing talent, Caesar also deserves kudos for the quality of student-athletes he has recruited to NYU. Noonan was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III New York Region Rookie of the Year in 2007. In 2006, Elena Drinka was selected as an AVCA First Team All-American and the New York State Women’s Coaches Athletic Association (NYSWCAA) Player of the Year for the second straight year. Senior Natasha Boysaw and sophomore Caitlin Grundman both garnered AVCA Honorable Mention All-American accolades, while both players joined Drinka on the All-NYSWCAA First Team.
With the trio of Drinka, Boysaw and Grundman leading the way, the Caesar-led Violets went 33-7, captured four in-season tournament titles, won their fourth straight NYSWCAA Championship, and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championships.
Drinka was Caesar’s second three-time All-American, joining Kayta Khmelnitskaya, who earned AVCA Division III First Team All-America honors from 2003-05. NYU went 40-5 and played for the national championship in 2003, followed by a 40-7 mark and a Final Four appearance in 2004, then a 35-8 record and a trip to the Elite Eight in 2005.
For his achievements, Caesar has collected the University Athletic Association (UAA) Coaching Staff of the Year award (2003), and was cited as the American Volleyball Coaches’ Association (AVCA) Division III New York Region Coach of the Year in 2003, 2005 and 2006.
Prior to becoming the women’s head coach, Caesar served as an assistant coach for the NYU’s men’s volleyball team for eight seasons (1995-2002). He assisted head coach Jose Pina in leading the squad to two Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Division III Championships (2000, 2002), and to three EIVA/NCAA Tournament appearances (1999, 2001, 2002).
A 1993 NYU graduate with a bachelor's degree in history, Caesar established himself as one of the Violets' premier volleyball players. A four-year standout (1990-93) at middle blocker, Caesar established several team records, including most solo blocks in a match, most blocking assists in a season, and highest blocking average in a season. His one-season team record of 56 solo blocks, set in 1992, still remains intact.
Prior to his coaching career at NYU, Caesar served as head coach of the boys’ varsity and the girls’ junior varsity volleyball teams at Half Hollow Hills High School on Long Island. During his tenure, Caesar led the boys’ team to the Suffolk County Championship and to the New York State Championship Tournament. In addition, Caesar also coached men’s and women’s Junior Olympic teams in 1993 and 1994.
A native of Dix Hills, NY, Caesar resides in Manhattan.
