Hector Gutierrez is entering his 6th season as the TCU Beach Volleyball coach. Since his arrival is 2016, he has produced the Frogs first time national ranking coming in at #13 in the AVCA coaches poll on April 24, 2017. Since then, Coach Hector and his Horned Frogs have never looked back, climbing the national ranking each season. the 2021 season marked the birth of the NCAA Championships for the Frogs in Gulf Shores, AL, there they finished 8th.
Prior to coming to Fort Worth, Gutierrez was an assistant coach for the beach volleyball program at Florida State where he helped lead the team to the No. 1 overall seed in the first-ever NCAA Championship, while also helping guide the team to a runner-up finish in the tournament. During the 2015-16 season, the Seminoles won the CCSA Championship, produced two AVCA All-Americans, garnered four CCSA All-Conference selections and the CCSA Pair of the Year.
Gutierrez comes to TCU with a wealth of international experience both as an indoor and beach volleyball coach. Prior to his position at Florida State, Gutierrez spent 10 months as a head coach on the USA beach volleyball national team. Before joining USA beach volleyball, Gutierrez served as head coach on the Slovakia (2014) Beach Volleyball national women’s team and an assistant coach on the German Beach Volleyball national team from 2012 to 2013. He also worked with the Swiss Beach Volleyball national team for one year (2011-12).
With the U.S. squad, Gutierrez led the team of Brittany Hochevar and Heather McGuire to a ninth place showing at the Prague Open in the Czech Republic. He then led Hochevar and teammate Jennifer Fopma to a ninth place finish at the Long Beach Grand Slam in California.
As coach of the Slovakian Beach Volleyball team, Gutierrez led Dominika Nestracova and Natalia Dubovcova to a season-best third place finish at the Stavanger Grand Slam in Norway. The duo went on to post four top 10 finishes in 2014 en route to a final Federation Internationale De Volleyball (FIVB) ranking of 13th.
During his stint as an assistant with the German National Team, Gutierrez helped the women’s team of Karla Borger and Britta Buthe to a second place finish at the 2012 World Championships in Stare Jablonki, Poland. That squad finished the 2012-13 season ranked 11th in the FIVB world rankings.
Gutierrez also spent time as a second assistant coach for women’s indoor teams in Turkey (Diyarbakir V.C. – 2011) and Azerbaijan (Baki BAKU V.C. – 2012) and an assistant coach with MTV Stuttgart of the Women’s Bundesliga I in Germany. He also served as head coach of the Volero Zurich men’s team of the NLB League for one season.
His coaching background also includes stints with the Sunshine Volleyball Club in Santa Monica, Calif., and as an assistant coach at Brentwood High School in Los Angeles.
Gutierrez began his professional playing career at the age of 17 playing all throughout Spain. He was a member of C.V Orotava that finished second in the FEV Spanish Volleyball League “Pro 1” in 2004. He also played in the European League, CEV CUP, with C.V Arona in Tenerife, Spain, helping the team to a fifth place finish in the league “Pro 1.”
Born in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Gutierrez moved to Tenerife with his family when he was eight years old. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Pedagogy from the University of La Laguna, Tenerife. Gutierrez is married to Katie Carter, an All-American volleyball player at UCLA and current professional indoor player.