Coach Brad Lyans enters his 11th year and ninth season at the helm of the Pirate volleyball team in 2023 after building VC into one of the top programs in Southern California through hist first decade on the sidelines. He has led the Pirates to steady improvement throughout his tenure at Ventura College, becoming the second volleyball coach in school history to total more than 100 career victories.  His tenure includes tthree Western State Conference North Division championships in the past four seasons (2018, 2021, 2022) (the 2018 corwn was the program's first in 13 years) and consecutive appearances in the Southern California Regional Final. VC has made playoff appearances in six of the past eight seasons. Last year, VC had a memorable 23-2 record and earned the No. 1-seed in the SoCal Playoffs as Lyans earned WSC and Southern California Coach of the Year honors. He has been named the conference's top coach five times, in 2014, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022.

In 2022, VC was ranked No. 1 in the region for much of the season after racing out to a 13-0 start to the campaign. The Pirates then rebounded from their lone regular season setback to win their final nine matches earn SoCal's top seed in the playoffs. After a first round sweep, the Pirates had their season come to an end in the Regional Final for the second straight year with a short-handed loss.  Despite the ending, VC had arrived as one of the top programs in the state.

A year ago, the Pirates returned from the Covid-19 pandemic with a memorable season. Ventura went 18-7 overall with an 8-2 conference mark. VC tied with Moorpark and Santa Barbara atop the WSC North standings and entered the SoCal regional Playoffs as the No. 10-seed. After a sweeping victory on the road in the post-season opener, Ventura hosted the Regional Final looking for its first State Elite Eight berth since 2000. A heartbreaking five-set defeat could not dampen the accomplishments of the steadily rising squad.

Lyans directed the program through the Covid-19 pandemic and the cancelled 2020 season.

In 2019, VC followed up a tough non-conference schedule by winning nine of the final 10 matches, ending the year at 12-7 and narrowly missing a playoff berth. In 2018, the Pirates posted their best season under Lyans, going 18-5 and winning the WSC crown with a 7-1 mark. Lyans led Ventura to a tie for third place in the conference with an overall regular season mark of 12-12 in 2017, qualifying for the post-season for the third time in four seasons. His 2015 team posted an 18-8 mark with a third place finish in the Western State Conference North Division behind SoCal's top two playoff seeds.  In 2014 Lyans led VC to its best record in seven seasons, breaking a seven-year playoff drought in the process.

On April 16, 2013, Ventura College announced Lyons' hiring as the new head coach of the Pirates’ women’s volleyball program. The long-time Southern California coach has an extensive coaching resume, coupled with an excellent understanding of the two-year college volleyball community in California.

Coach Lyans is no stranger to success on the junior college stage: he spent multiple years as first assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s volleyball programs at Los Angeles Pierce College, reaching the CCCAA Final Four with the former (2006) and winning three Western State Conference titles (2006-2008) and reaching another CCCAA Final Four with the latter.  He was mentored by two-time American Volleyball Coaches Association National Coach of the Year and Pierce women’s head coach Nabil Mardini. He has also logged two seasons with the NCAA Division I Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball team under the direction of head coach and World Volleyball Hall of Famer Jeff Stork, helping that squad to a pair of third place finishes in the competitive Big West Conference.

As a teacher and trainer at the high school level, Lyans has one of the most impeccable backgrounds one is likely to find. A Gold Medal Squared Certified Coach, he is a fixture on the GMS summer coaching circuit and one of the senior clinicians with the organization. Brad is also Head Clinician and one of the highest ranking coaches for the Los Angeles Volleyball Academy, one of the premier junior club volleyball organizations in the country with ten locations in Southern California and over 150 coaches. His club coaching experience is vast, with nearly a decade on the sidelines as his teams at the 15’s and 18’s levels went on to find great success, including a Volleyball Festival Championship in 2007 and a Junior National Championships appearance in 2012.

Lyans was a two-sport high school athlete for Crescenta Valley High School Class of 1996 in the La Crescenta area of Southern California.  He went on to earn All-Conference honors as a celebrated player for the 1999 CCCAA state runner-up Pierce College men’s volleyball team. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies from the College of Humanities at Cal State University, Northridge.