Volleyball - 2026

Few in the sport of volleyball have matched Dane Selznick’s extraordinary career as a player and Olympic Gold Medal winning coach. A high school All-American and All-City player at Palisades, he led the Dolphins to the 1973 LA City Title and the High School National Championship. While in high school he won a bronze medal at the 1973 Maccabi Games playing for his dad, Gene Selznick, an inaugural inductee into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. He was a two-time NJCAA All-American at San Bernardino Valley College, and in 1975 he was named the United States Volleyball Rookie of the Year.

Dane then focused on professional beach volleyball with great success, winning 15 pro tour titles, including 7 major open wins, culminating in winning the 1980 World Championship of Beach Volleyball. He remarkably was a finalist 42 times and finished in the top four 78 times with 12 different partners. Selznick was honored as one of the “Legends of the Beach” at the 1997 SWATCH-FIVB World Championships, and Volleyball Magazine listed Selznick as one of the top ten defensive players of all time.

Dane then became one of the world’s best beach coaches, serving as a United States Olympic coach a record three times. Besides coaching the team of Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor to the 2004 Gold Medal in Athens, he coached American Olympic tandems of Barbra Fontana/Linda Hanley (Atlanta 1996) and Rob Heidger/Kevin Wong (Sydney 2000). Dane was honored as the 2004 USA Volleyball Coach of the Year. He is a member of the California Beach Volleyball Association Hall of Fame and the California State Junior College Hall of Fame. Dane and his father Gene are the first father-son athlete inductees into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.