Derrick Trent was born in Walnut Creek, California and raised in Bakersfield, California where he began his volleyball career. Having grown up in Bakersfield, boy’s volleyball did not exist and was forced to travel to play. He played club volleyball for 8 years and during that time won 2 Bronze medals at the Junior Olympics and was selected for All-Tournament Team. He also participated in the USA High Performance camps and won a Silver medal with the Youth National A2 Team. In order to keep playing club Derrick was forced to transfer to a different high school to play volleyball where he won a National Championship, CIF Southern Section Division 2 Championship, and voted to the AVCA All-American team. He eventually went on to play for Cal State University of Long Beach where he obtained his Bachelors of Arts in Communication Studies.

Following his time at Long Beach State, Derrick coached for several clubs, a boy’s middle school team and girls high school teams for the past 10 years. His boy’s middle school team had never won a set in 26 years and in his first season led the team to a league title. He also helped guide many athletes on to the next level to play in college.

Most recently he was the Men’s and Women’s Head Coach for Westcliff University, an NAIA school in Irvine. During that time Derrick lead the women’s team to a 3.45 overall team GPA, the highest in the school, and lead the team to a 16-9 record, which was the teams first time above .500.

After leaving Westcliff he pursued his Masters in Coaching and Athletic Administration. Besides coaching he also was a certified official with the SCVA, the Mountain West Conference, and officiated several Women’s National Team matches in Anaheim.