Barry University Athletics

Former Buccaneer coach Leonid Yelin rejoined the team in the spring of 2022, after a lengthy and successful career at the NCAA Division I level. Yelin has mentored some of the best teams in the history of the programs at Louisville, Colorado, and Syracuse and led Barry to its first volleyball national championship in 1995.

In eight seasons as the head women's volleyball coach, he is 177-65, 93-21 in the Sunshine State Conference. He has mentored five AVCA All-Americans, three Academic All-Americans, four SSC Players of the Year, four SSC Freshmen of the Year and 26 all-conference performers.

In his second stint at Barry, Yelin holds a 63-29 record, guiding the Bucs to the NCAA Division II Souh Region title in 2022. He's mentored Diana Akopova to three AVCA All-American nods on top of AVCA National Player of the Year status in 2022 and the Honda Award winner for D-II Volleyball. Akopova was also named Sunshine State Conference player of the year twice. He has developed two SSC Freshmen of the Year (Varvara Osychenko/2023 and Veronika Eremeeva/2024).

Yelin still possesses the best winning percentage in Buccaneer volleyball history (.731), having gone 114-36 in five seasons from 1991-95. The 1995 team was his best, going 34-2 and winning the NCAA Division II national championship. Mickisha Hurley led the nation with a .437 attack percentage and was named an AVCA All-American. She was joined on the All-America team by fellow outside hitter Sonia Gubaidulina and middle hitter Wei Liu. Yelin, for his efforts, was named the AVCA National Coach of the Year.

Yelin was also recognized in 1994 and 1995 as the Sunshine State Conference Coach of the Year, after leading the Bucs to a 28-0 record over the two years. Liu (1993) and Hurley (1995) were named the SSC Players of the Year, while Elvira Vakhidova was the Freshman of the Year in 1994 and Gubaidulina claimed the honor in 1995.

The Bucs were also outstanding in the classroom. Marya Morusiewicz was the Barry Female Scholar-Athlete in 1993-94 and 1994-95, and went on to be the first Buccaneer to be an NCAA Woman of the Year finalist. Morusiewicz (1994, 1995) and Vakhidova (1995) both earned CoSIDA Academic All-America^® status.

During his 10-year tenure at Syracuse University, Yelin posted a record of 144-144. He led the 2018 Orange to Syracuse’s first NCAA tournament berth. The Orange also achieved success in the classroom, posting a perfect Graduation Success Rate in each of Yelin’s 10 seasons. In 2019, Yelin earned his 600th victory as a head coach and the Orange recorded the 900th win in program history. Included in Yelin's 600 wins were 22 from the 2017 campaign when he directed the biggest one-year turnaround in Syracuse history. The Orange finished 22-14 in 2017, after posting a 7-23 record in 2016, and earned the program's first postseason appearance at the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) and advanced to the quarterfinals.

Before his Syracuse tenure, Yelin built the Louisville program into a perennial national power. In 15 seasons, the Cardinals posted a record of 366-112, including 11 years with 20 or more wins, and two seasons with 30 or more victories. Yelin guided Louisville to 14 NCAA Tournaments, including four NCAA Regional semifinals from 1996 through 2010. In 2004, he earned AVCA All-Midwest Region Coach of the Year honors and was named Conference USA Coach of the Decade. Yelin mentored seven All-Americans, including six who played for their respective national teams, and 12 student-athletes who played professionally. He also served as an assistant coach for one season at Colorado.

Prior to his NCAA coaching experience, Yelin was a successful player and coach in Uzbekistan. He played for the Republic of Uzbekistan men's team from 1970-75 and then started his coaching career as the head coach for the Uzbekistan junior (U-18) team. Yelin was named the head coach of the national Uzbekistan women's team in 1977, leading that team to a first-place finish at the 1977 and 1981 U-18 national championship and at the 1978 USSR Women's World Cup. He was the head coach of the Ukraine women's professional team from 1983-87.

Yelin was the head coach of the Uzbekistan men's professional team in 1988 and 1989. Both years, his team won the men's national championships.

Yelin was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and earned his equivalent of a master's diploma in physical education and sport training from the Uzbekistan Government Institute of Physical Culture and Sport in 1975. His wife, Yelena, was a member of the Republic of Uzbekistan's Women's National Team from 1973-86 and was a member of the USSR Olympic team from 1975-78, during which she was a two-time European Champion. The couple has two grown children, Eleanora and Boris.