In his nine years at Clarkson, Johan Dulfer has transformed the Golden Knights into a regional powerhouse with six consecutive NCAA appearances, including three straight New York Regional Championships from 2012 to 2014 that pushed the Green and Gold to the NCAA Volleyball Championships' Elite 8.
Under the guidance of Dulfer, the Knights have claimed four Liberty League Tournament Championships and three regular-season league titles in the past six seasons and have won 189 matches in that span.
Following his first season at Clarkson, the Golden Knights made a 12-game improvement on their record from 2006 to 2007, which helped Dulfer earn Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year honors in only his second season. From that point, the team has taken off, posting eight consecutive 20-win seasons, and back-to-back-to-back 30-win seasons, since. The Golden Knights have been most impressive in the last six seasons, as the team has reached the NCAA Tournament from 2009-2014, helping Dulfer gain his three more coach of the year honors in the conference, as well as the AVCA New York Region Coach of the Year award in both 2013 and 2014. Clarkson recorded back-to-back 28-victory seasons in 2009-2010, a then school-record tying 29 victories in 2011, and a program-record 31 wins in 2012 en route to the Elite 8. In 2013, Clarkson easily surpassed that mark, recording a 36-7 mark and earning a national-ranking for half of the season, finishing at #18 in the final poll. Finally, this past season the Golden Knights ended the season 14th in the AVCA National Poll.
In 2009, the Golden Knights matched or set numerous marks on the way to their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. With a 28-7 mark, Dulfer gave the Knights their highest winning percentage in a single-season. In 2010, Dulfer led the Knights to their first victory in the NCAA Tournament, beating Hunter College in four sets. In 2011, the Golden Knights hosted the NCAA New York Regional and again posted a victory in the tournament before falling to the top seed. In 2012, again hosting the NCAA New York Regional, Clarkson went a perfect 3-0 to claim the championship. Whereas the 2012 NCAA Regional was a difficult run for the Knights, Clarkson dropped only two narrow sets in 2013 and allowed only 16.27 points per set during its overpowering 2013 run. While Clarkson was dominant in 2012 and 2013, the Knights took their level of play even higher in 2014. Clarkson was ranked nationally throughout 2014, reaching a peak of #11 midway through the season, and went 37-4 overall with three of the losses coming to teams ranked in the top seven in the country and all four coming to teams that participated in the NCAA Tournament. Clarkson had to take to the road for the 2014 NCAA Regionals, but the outcome was the same, with Clarkson losing just two sets en route to its third straight Elite 8. Overall, Dulfer is 240-106 in the his coaching career (.694) and has a .852 winning percentage in the past three seasons (104-18).
Outside of his Clarkson success, Dulfer boasts an impressive resume, which includes working as the first assistant coach at Division I James Madison University over three years. While at James Madison, Dulfer helped guide the program to a winning mark of 45-36 for a .555 winning percentage. Prior to working for the Dukes, Dulfer was a student assistant at the University of Minnesota on two separate occasions and also was the head coach at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in 1998.
A native of the Netherlands, Dulfer has served as one of the assistant coaches and program director of the Iroquois-Empire High Performance Program in New York, and has also coached several touring international club teams. Dulfer received a masters degree in Kinesiology, with an emphasis in Sport Psychology, from the University of Minnesota in 2003, and a masters degree in International Relations & Propaedeuse in Dutch Law from the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) in 1999. In 2013, Dulfer also published his first book, "A Program with Purpose: Thoughts on Building a Successful Volleyball Program."
