Thiago Lopes enters his second season as Head Coach of the St. Thomas Aquinas College Men's Volleyball team. In his inaugural season (2023-2024), the Spartans captured the first-ever ECC Regular Season and Tournament Championships.

Lopes arrived in Sparkill after spending two seasons as an assistant coach for the Southern New Hampshire University Women's Volleyball program, where he helped to guide the the Penmen back to the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament in 2021, and won the NCAA East Region title for the first time ever in 2022, earning a spot in the NCAA Division II Championship in Seattle, Washington.

"With Coach Lopes at the helm, I am convinced we will be primed to pursue championships both athletically and academically for years to come", said STAC Director of Athletics Nicole Ryan. "Thiago brings forth a fantastic resume built on: recruiting, development, and a deep knowledge of the game. He has a great track record in molding young men into leaders on and off the court. The men's volleyball program is positioned for success with Thiago's leadership." 

Prior to SNHU, Lopes served as an assistant coach at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (2017-2021), where he worked primarily with the team's setters and defensive specialists. He also assisted in recruiting, with his efforts providing an expanded roster in 2020, which included Leigh Maher, who received the Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year that season. Under his tutelage, Taylor Lindberg earned a Sun Belt Conference Setter of the Week award her senior year (2018), before inking a contract to play professionally in Europe.  At Little Rock, he helped recruit the team that made it to the NIVC in 2018.

Additionally, Lopes served as the head coach for the men's club volleyball team at the University of San Francisco (2016-2017), where he helped build the team from the ground up and saw one player earn All-Conference honors, while two others received Honorable Mentions.
 
At the same time, Lopes was an associate coach for Sláinte Volleyball Club and helped coach 16-year-old boys’ and 14-year-old girls’ teams.
 
Lopes was a volunteer assistant coach for San Francisco’s NCAA women’s team for two seasons (2014-2016) and helped with recruiting, scouting, logistics and team camps. He started out as the beach volleyball team’s director of operations in January 2015.
 
Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Lopes was a setter for Fluminense FC, winning multiple local championships. The sports enthusiast has tied his passion for volleyball into his studies. Prior to graduating with a degree in international relations, Lopes focused his thesis on the politics within the Olympic Games through the history. Lopes earned his undergraduate degree from Brazil's Centro Universitário Curitiba - Unicuritiba. In 2009, Lopes coached the Unicuritiba men's squad to a program-best second place finish at the state championships.

However, his biggest accomplishment took place when he was in charge of the Department for International Affairs of World Youth Day Rio 2013, one of the largest events ever held in Brazil. Being responsible for groups of young people from all over the world and dealing frequently with Roman Curia, Lopes had the opportunity to be in touch with multiple cultures and improve his skill set in areas such as negotiation and conflict resolution. The highest point of his work came when he met and shook hands with Pope Francis. Also at San Francisco, Lopes was a campus minister leading social justice immersion trips to West Virginia (2015), Poland (2016) and Brazil (2017), a program he developed himself.
 
Lopes earned his master’s degree in international studies in 2015 from the University of San Francisco with a thesis of migration and adjustment of international student athletes. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in International Relations in 2012. At Little Rock, he pursued a master’s degree in sports management and higher education affairs. Along with his his native language of Portuguese, Lopes speaks English, German and Spanish. He is a Level I Coach certified by the South American Volleyball Confederation.