Former Arizona middle blocker Cursty Le Roux making her mark in coaching with

As Cursty Jackson, Texas assistant coach Cursty Le Roux made her mark as a middle blocker for Arizona volleyball during the transition from the Pac-10 to the Pac-12. The UNLV transfer helped the Wildcats to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances while getting all-conference recognition both years in Tucson. Now, just a few years into her coaching career, she’s experienced what it means to win a national title as an assistant coach for the Longhorns.

Even in her playing days, Le Roux showed signs that she could be a good coach. After her college career, she went on to play eight seasons overseas and with USA Volleyball. She was able to use skills she always had on the court when it came time to take the next step in her life.

“It was such a flawless and an easy transition for me,” Le Roux said. “I felt like even as a player, I was always coaching. I would always take the youngest player on my team and mentor them, and I think mentorship is just such a passion of mine. So, as I came to the end of my career, it just seemed like this was what my path would be. And so it was pretty easy.”

Former Arizona head coach Dave Rubio had a hand in making it happen for her, something Le Roux said she is extremely grateful for. He saw the signs of a good coach. He just didn’t know if she would want all of the trappings that come with being in NCAA volleyball.

Le Roux is married to Kevin Le Roux, who played in the Olympics for the French men’s team, and they have a son. Rubio knows that the time commitment of NCAA coaching isn’t for everyone, especially when it comes to family and sacrifice.

“There are a few players that I coached that I felt would easily make the transition into the coaching ranks,” Rubio said. “Cursty being one of them, Rita [Stubbs] being another one, and about a handful of others that I thought would really make that transition pretty smoothly and have the personality and the work ethic and all the kinds of the characteristics that I felt were important to become an outstanding collegiate coach. And Cursty I felt like really had all those characteristics in spades. I mean, she was energetic, had a really outgoing personality, had natural leadership skills, a hard worker, driven, very single-minded about getting things done. So I knew that she certainly had those types of things that I thought necessary to become a really good coach. The question was whether she really wanted to go into the coaching profession, given the fact that it requires so much sacrifice.”

Rubio also felt that Le Roux needed to be someplace where the head coach would value her input and allow her to do things her way. After spending a year coaching at UNLV on the staff that eliminated Arizona from the NIVC in 2021 and a year at Long Beach State, the Texas job came open.

“Dave helped me get into it because, after I finished playing,…