1/4/2026
“Jimbo Slice” joins legendary Charlie Sullivan’s staff with the program SVU defeated for the 2025 national championship
In one of the most compelling storylines of the Division III volleyball offseason, Jeremy Brown has joined Springfield College as a graduate assistant coach under legendary head coach Charlie Sullivan. The twist? Just eight months ago, Brown helped Southern Virginia University defeat Springfield 3-0 in the 2025 NCAA Division III Men’s Volleyball Championship.
It’s the kind of narrative that only exists in Division III athletics, where respect transcends rivalry and championship battles can evolve into mentorship opportunities. For Brown, affectionately known as “Jimbo Slice” during his playing days, the move represents both a natural career progression and a chance to learn from one of the sport’s all-time great coaches.
The Heart of a Champion
Jeremy Brown wasn’t the stat-stuffing superstar of Southern Virginia’s historic championship run. He wasn’t the National Player of the Year or the setter with record-breaking assists. But ask anyone who watched the Knights’ magical 35-1 season, and they’ll tell you Brown was something more valuable: the soul of the team.
An All-Tournament selection at the 2025 Final Four, Brown recorded 264 kills and 56 aces during his senior campaign while providing the intangible leadership that championship teams require. His energy was infectious. His spirit was contagious. His smile could light up practices and lift teammates when fatigue threatened to creep in.
“We won this game because of momentum,” Brown said after the championship victory. “This is for every individual that puts in work and for the many people that drove here to support us.”
That quote captures everything about Brown’s playing career. Team-first. Grateful. Focused on the collective rather than individual glory. Those are precisely the qualities that make great assistant coaches.
Throughout his Southern Virginia career, Brown served as team captain and president of the SVU men’s chorus, demonstrating leadership that extended well beyond the volleyball court. He understood that building a championship culture required more than athletic ability; it demanded genuine connection, unwavering positivity, and a servant’s heart.
The Championship Match That Started It All
The irony of Brown now coaching at Springfield isn’t lost on anyone who witnessed the 2025 national championship match in Salem, Virginia. In front of 1,202 fans (the vast majority wearing SVU colors), Brown and his teammates swept the five-time national champion Pride 25-20, 25-23, 27-25 to capture the first NCAA championship in Southern Virginia history.
Brown contributed nine kills in that match while helping the Knights race out to a 12-4 first-set lead that set the tone for the evening. He battled at the net against Springfield’s seasoned veterans, competed with the relentless energy that defined his career, and helped SVU avenge their only loss of the season (which came against Springfield in March).
After the final point, Brown cut down a piece of the net to send to his younger brother Jaren, a former SVU teammate who was serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and couldn’t attend the championship.
“That piece of the net I cut down is going straight to him,” Brown said that night.
Now, months later, Brown is learning the game from the perspective of the coach who stood on the opposite sideline during the biggest match of his life.
Learning from a Legend
Charlie Sullivan represents one of the most accomplished coaching careers in college volleyball history. Over 28 years at Springfield, Sullivan has compiled a 543-206 record (.725 winning percentage) and led the Pride to 11 national championships, including five NCAA Division III titles and six Molten Division III Championships.
Sullivan is a five-time AVCA Division III National Coach of the Year, has coached seven National Players of the Year, and mentored more All-Americans than any other Division III program in the country. Beyond his college coaching success, Sullivan served as a scout coach for the USA Men’s National Team that won bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics and currently serves as head coach of the U.S. Men’s Under-19 National Team.
He’s also a professor of sports psychology at Springfield College and co-author of “Winning the Game of Belief: Cultivating the Cultural Grit that Defines America’s Greatest Coaches,” providing him with academic credentials that complement his coaching expertise.
For a young coach like Brown, learning under Sullivan offers an unparalleled education. Sullivan’s Springfield teams are known for championship-level execution, sophisticated systems, and a culture that has produced sustained excellence for nearly three decades. The Pride have reached nine NCAA Division III championship matches and maintain a .912 winning percentage against Division III opponents since 2012.
Sullivan’s ability to identify and develop talent, implement winning systems, and maintain championship standards year after year makes him an ideal mentor for someone beginning their coaching career.
The Division III Difference
Brown’s path from championship opponent to graduate assistant coach exemplifies what makes Division III athletics special. At the Division I level, such a move would be nearly impossible. Recruiting restrictions, competitive tensions, and the intense professionalization of college sports create barriers to this kind of transition.
But Division III operates differently. The focus on education, personal development, and genuine relationships creates environments where former competitors can become coaching colleagues. Sullivan clearly recognized Brown’s potential as a coach and valued the qualities he displayed during his playing career, including his championship experience, leadership abilities, and team-first mentality.
The graduate assistant role provides Brown with hands-on coaching experience while he pursues his master’s degree at Springfield. He’ll work directly with players on skill development, assist with practice planning, help with video analysis, and learn the administrative and strategic aspects of running a championship program.
Most importantly, he’ll observe how Sullivan builds culture, manages personalities, handles adversity, and maintains standards that produce consistent excellence. Those lessons will prove invaluable regardless of where Brown’s coaching career eventually leads.
Springfield’s 2026 Outlook
Brown joins a Springfield program looking to bounce back from the heartbreaking championship loss to Southern Virginia. The Pride finished the 2025 season 22-4 overall and reached their fourth NCAA championship match in the past decade, demonstrating they remain one of Division III’s elite programs.
Sullivan’s teams don’t rebuild; they reload. Springfield typically attracts high-level talent from across the Northeast, develops players within sophisticated systems, and competes for conference and national championships annually. The Pride play in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC), which will sponsor men’s volleyball as an automatic qualifying sport starting in 2026-27, creating an even more competitive conference environment.
Brown’s role will be helping new players adapt to Springfield’s championship culture while working with returners who experienced the disappointment of the 2025 championship loss. His recent championship experience provides credibility with players and insight into what it takes to win at the highest level.
The Bigger Picture
Brown’s hiring is part of a larger trend of elite Division III players transitioning immediately into coaching roles. Graduate assistant positions provide recent graduates with opportunities to stay involved in the sport while pursuing advanced degrees, developing coaching skills, and deciding whether they want to make coaching a long-term career.
For programs like Springfield, hiring recent players with championship experience brings fresh perspectives, helps with recruiting credibility, and creates connections to the current generation of high school players. Brown can relate to college-aged athletes in ways that veteran coaches sometimes cannot, while also bringing the structured approach and attention to detail that playing for Tom Peterson at Southern Virginia instilled.
The circle will complete itself when Springfield and Southern Virginia potentially meet in future seasons, with Brown now on the opposite bench. Those matchups will carry added significance and demonstrate how Division III volleyball creates storylines that transcend wins and losses.
What’s Next
As Brown settles into his new role at Springfield, he’s entering an environment that demands excellence. Sullivan’s programs don’t accept mediocrity, and the championship loss to Southern Virginia will fuel the Pride’s motivation throughout the 2026 season.
For Brown, the challenge is clear: contribute to Springfield’s return to championship contention while developing the coaching skills that could eventually lead to a head coaching position of his own. He has the playing credentials, the championship experience, and the personal qualities that suggest he could succeed in coaching long-term.
Working under Sullivan provides the perfect foundation. If Brown can absorb even a fraction of what Sullivan has learned over 28 years of championship-level coaching, he’ll be well-positioned for whatever comes next.
A Story Only D3 Could Write
There’s something beautifully poetic about Jeremy Brown’s journey. From Southern Virginia team captain to national champion to All-Tournament selection to graduate assistant coach at the program his team defeated for the championship. It’s the kind of story that reminds us why Division III athletics matter.
Championships are won and lost. Players graduate. Coaches move on. But the relationships built, the respect earned, and the lessons learned endure.
Charlie Sullivan saw something in Jeremy Brown that transcended the championship match result. He saw leadership. He saw character. He saw someone who could help Springfield return to the championship stage while developing into a coach who might someday build championship programs of his own.
Brown gets to learn from a legend while pursuing his graduate degree at one of the premier volleyball programs in Division III history. Springfield gets an assistant coach who knows what championship volleyball requires because he just lived it.
And Division III volleyball gets another reminder that at this level, it’s not just about the final score. It’s about the relationships, the growth, and the journeys that continue long after the nets come down.
Welcome to Springfield, Jimbo Slice. The circle is complete.
For more information on Springfield College volleyball, visit springfieldcollegepride.com. To follow Southern Virginia volleyball, visit knightathletics.com.