Iván Contreras started playing volleyball in his hometown, Tampico México at the age of 13 years.

At 17 he was part of the Mexican Junior National Team and that same year he was invited to play for the Mexican Senior Team with which he has played a total of 101 international matches. He went on at the age of 19 to study in the United States at Pennsylvania State University where he graduated with a bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering in 1997 (as an interesting note he did that in just 4 years while most of the students take 5 years to do so).

That same year was the beginning of his professional volleyball career with the team then known as MTV Nafels in Switzerland where he played for 3 seasons wining 3 championships and wining 2 Swiss cups. While his stay in Switzerland he was named Player of the Year twice. He then moved on to play in Belgium in 2000 for Knack Roeselare and he has been playing there since.

In total, Ivan played 8 seasons with one of the best teams in Belgium, Knack Randstad Roeselare.  He won 3 championships and 2 Belgium cups.  During his stay there he became a big part of a rising team in the European rankings when in 2007 the team was considered between the best 6 teams in Europe.  He was also named player of the year 3 times during his time in Belgium and also received twice the honor of being called as the Best Scorer and Best Attacker in the prestigious Champions League competition.

For the 2008-2009 season, Ivan decided to make a change and signed with an ambitious Trukish team based in Ankara, Ziraat Bankasi Sport Club.  Ivan's goal is to help his new team improve like he helped Knack Randstad. 

After one of the best seasons Ziraat had in years and a great experience of playing in a different country and a different society Ivan has decided to go back to Western Europe so that he can once again be together with his family.  He will play once again with Knack Randstad Roeselare where he signed for the 2009-2010 season.

On a personal note, Iván got married in 1998 with Marilupe Villarreal and now they have a 7 year old son, Diego and a 3 year old girl, Maitane.