On December 21, 2021, Jesse Tupac was named the 14th head coach of the North Dakota volleyball program. He enters his fourth season at the helm in 2025.
In 2024, Tupac led the Fighting Hawks to nine wins, including a four-game winning streak from Sept. 8 - Sept. 19. The winning streak began with a come-from-behind victory over West Virginia on Sept. 8, which was the Fighting Hawks first win over a Power 4 opponent since August 25, 2017. Tupac coached Vanessa Imoh, who earned Summit League All-Freshman honors, and helped the duo of Katy Riviere and Lauren Perugini place on the Summit League All-Academic Team.
In year two in Grand Forks, Tupac's Fighting Hawks won seven matches including a five-set victory over North Dakota State in the season finale; the program's first home win over the Bison since 2018. With Tupac's guidance, Marissa Stockman concluded her career with an All-Summit League first-team honor after leading the league in conference-only hitting percentage (.438) in addition to registering 129 kills and 56 blocks in 15 conference matches. Additionally, Elizabeth Norris was one of only eight players in the country to register four or more triple doubles.
During his first season in charge of the Fighting Hawks, he took the team from one win the previous season to 12 wins, including a .500 finish in Summit League play. He also got the team back to the Summit League Tournament for the first time since 2018. Under his direction, Elizabeth Norris was named Honorable Mention All-Conference and Paige Barber earned a spot on the All-Freshman team.
Prior to joining North Dakota, he served as the top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at New Mexico for two seasons. With the Lobos, Tupac helped coach four All-Mountain West honorees and 11 Mountain West Conference weekly award winners, including a historic eight player of the week awards in 2021, a mark that led the MWC and the most in UNM history. His final season was punctuated with the sixth 20-win campaign since 1995 for the program, good for fifth in the league standings. The Lobo offense posted its third-best mark in the program's modern era and became only the second team in school history to start the season 8-0. Recruiting a group that was composed of seven-different countries, the Lobos earned AVCA All-Academic Honor Roll selections, sitting inside the top-40 among Division I programs for the first time.
Before his time at UNM, Tupac spent three years at Denver as an assistant coach, where he oversaw the offense as well as assisted with recruiting. He helped carry the Pioneers to new heights, advancing to the NCAA Tournament and capturing the Summit League regular season crown in each of his three seasons. In his final campaign at DU, Tupac guided the offense to a trio of top-20 national rankings. The Pioneers led the NCAA in aces per set (1.99), were 15th in hitting percentage (.269) and 19th in kills per set (14.11). At the conference-level, Denver ranked first in assists per set (13.05), hitting percentage and kills per set, and was second in total team kills with 1552 on the season. Nine times that season, DU hit over .300 in a match and twice surpassed a hitting efficiency of .400. Overall, the Pios led the Summit in hitting percentage, assists per set and kills per set in all three years under Tupac.
Prior to working at Denver, he served as the director of volleyball operations at Penn State, where the Nittany Lions made a Sweet Sixteen appearance and finished with a 28-6 record during Tupac’s time in State College.
Tupac also brings to Grand Forks international experience, working with USA Volleyball in various positions, as well as with the Australian national team.
He served as an assistant coach for the Australian women’s national team at the World Grand Prix where the Aussies beat Trinidad and Tobago in straight sets for the first World Grand Prix victory in Australia’s history and their first FIVB win since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
In addition, he served as an assistant coach for the USA Volleyball women’s indoor national team at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, where the US won gold for the first time since 1965. In 2014, Tupac worked with both the US junior and senior teams at the NORECECA World Championship Qualifiers. He served as the technical coordinator for the women’s volleyball indoor youth national squad and worked for the gold medal-winning women’s indoor national team.
Tupac received national recognition, earning the distinction of being a recipient of the 2015 AVCA 30 Under 30 Award, as an up-and-coming volleyball coach under the age of 30.
Other stops for Tupac include a graduate assistant position at Iowa State and a volunteer assistant position at Loyola Marymount. At LMU, Tupac assisted with training, video coordinating, data analysis and the compilation of scouting reports during the 2013 season.
Tupac played collegiately at UCLA for coach Al Scates and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in creative writing.
