AWARDS & ACCOLADES
-USA South Coach of the Year (2022)
-AVCA Region VI Coach of the Year (2022)

Salem College’s Interim Director of Athletics Chelsey Stewart named Barry Rymer as the program’s head volleyball coach on Monday, July 12, 2021 in a formal announcement.

Salem marks Rymer’s second coaching stint at a collegiate level, after serving as an assistant coach at Catawba on two occasions under Ginger Hamric. He coached at Catawba from 1999-2003 and later from 2006-2009, helping the Indians capture 189 wins along the way to a pair of South Atlantic Conference (SAC) Championships in 2000 and 2002.

With Rymer’s assistance, Catawba also won the 2001 SAC Tournament crown and appeared in the NCAA Tournament Regionals on three occasions (2001, 2008, 2009) and a Sweet 16 appearance in 2008. Catawba had 12 SAC First Team honorees, nine SAC Second Team players and three All-Freshmen Team members during Rymer’s time. In 2008 he worked with the SAC Player of the Year (Melissa Powers) and followed that up by tutoring the 2009 SAC Freshman of the Year (Kaitlyn Whitmer).

In 2022, Rymer became the first individual in Salem volleyball history to earn USA South Conference Coach of the Year honors and joined Dana Wall as the second coach to earn the distinction for the program. Wall received Coach of the Year honors following both the 2013 and 2014 seasons when the Spirits were part of the Great South Athletic Conference.

Rymer built on the successes in 2022 by leading the team to a 23-10 mark in 2023, becoming the first coach in program history to lead the Spirits to back-to-back 20-win seasons. Salem defended its home turf by posting an 11-2 mark at Varsity Gym, establishing the single-season mark for home wins in a season. The Spirits also came through with 11 USA South Conference victories, second-most in program history. 

Rymer's 2023 unit went to five sets on five occasions and was successful in every five-set match. Three of those victories came in the final stages of the season as Salem downed Bob Jones, Southern Virginia and William Peace in succession. The triumph over Southern Virginia marked the second win of the season over the Knights, while the five-set win at William Peace moved Salem to the USA South Conference Tournament Semifinal Round. 

Rymer, who finished 1-23 in the 2021 campaign, piloted the Salem volleyball team to the best turnaround in program and USA South Conference history by finishing 21-10 in 2022. After being picked to finish ninth in the preseason polls, Rymer’s unit finished 12-6 in league action—which resulted in the most conference wins in program history—and established the single-season mark for the best turnaround in league history along the way.

With 20 more overall wins than the previous season, Salem bested the 2010 Greensboro volleyball team's mark of 16 wins, for the best turnaround in league history. Salem is one of 12 programs in USA South Conference since 2001 to improve its win total by at least 10 wins. The 21-10 mark also resulted in the best win percentage (.677) for the Spirits in volleyball history.

Rymer, the sixth coach in Salem volleyball history, was faced with the task of building a program that had just 10 rostered players entering the 2021 campaign. The Salem program, which missed all of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, had two experienced upperclassmen Brianna Cherry, Brooklyn Snow, Valeria Rosa Lopez and Dania Shoaf along with six first-year players.

His unit battled throughout the course of 2021 season, taking four matches to five sets, and prevailed with a season-ending win against Mary Baldwin (22-25, 26-24, 23-25, 25-23, 15-11). Snow was one of two Salem hitters in double figure kills in the match, finishing with 10, while Lopez posted a team-high 19. Both were efficient throughout versus Mary Baldwin with Lopez posting a .277 attack percentage and Snow posting a .207 attack percentage. Brianna Moore (25 assists) and Shoaf (17 assists) were the catalyst to an offense that finished with 52 kills and a .195 attack percentage.

Lopez was also active on defense with 14 digs, resulting in her 13th double-double of the slate. Meanwhile the trio of Snow, Shoaf and Macy Nelson had nine digs apiece. Laken Edwards and Brianna Cherry had two assisted blocks each for the Spirits, who finished 1-23 on the season and 1-17 in USA South Conference action.

Rymer came to Salem after spending seven years at South Rowan High School where he served as the varsity assistant and jayvee head coach since 2015 and as the head coach of the beach volleyball program since 2018.

He closed out his career at South Rowan with 93 wins and five straight appearances in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association State Playoffs from 2015 to 2019. South Rowan captured the conference regular season and tournament crown in 2019 with a 28-2 mark one year after winning the first league regular season in school history with a 22-6 record in 2018. He worked directly with three All-Conference players, four All-County selections and helped two players to earn a spot on the East/West North Carolina State All-Star team.

In addition to the responsibilities at the high school level, Rymer was also the head coach of the China Grove Middle School team, a title he held since 2017, and the director/head coach of the Rowan County Volleyball Club, also since 2017. Through his Volleyball Club, Rymer guided three teams to the final round of 12 tournaments in 2018 and had a pair of regional qualifiers for the East/West State Championship. Meanwhile, the China Grove Middle School program won the conference crown in 2018 with a 15-2 mark, earning the first championship in school history.

The head coach and director of the volleyball program at the South Rowan YMCA, between 2014-17, Rymer becomes the sixth coach in Salem’s NCAA Division III history. He follows Bouaketh Chanthavisouk, who finished 14-14 overall and 10-6 in USA South Conference play in her only season at the helm of the Spirits.

Rymer is familiar with the Triad, earning his bachelor of science degree from UNC Greensboro in 1993 after graduating Cum Laude with a 3.53 GPA. He added an AIG Graduate Certificate from UNC Charlotte in 2014, earning a 4.0 GPA in the process. He began his coaching career at the Greensboro Volleyball Club as the Tournament Director from 1995 through 2009.