Former Olympic Assistant Marlon Sano Named Leopard Volleyball Coach
University of La Verne Interim Director of Athletics Julie Kline has announced the hiring of former U.S. Olympic assistant coach Marlon Sano as Leopard head volleyball coach.
Sano was the second assistant for the 1984 U.S. Olympic silver medal-winning volleyball team and is currently a co-director and head coach for the USA High Performance Development camp series. That series develops and implements the techniques and tactics taught to coaches and players in conjunction with the USA National team.
He becomes only the third head women's volleyball coach at La Verne since 1974. Under the guidance of Jim Paschal (1974-1997) and Don Flora (1998-2008), the Leopard Volleyball Program has produced three national championships, 22 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) titles and a total of 26 All-Americans.
Sano inherits a La Verne squad that reached the NCAA Division III Championship match in 2008. The Leopards finished 27-3 last season, earning the program's ninth consecutive SCIAC crown with an undefeated 14-0 record in conference play.
"We are thrilled to have someone with Marlon's credentials at the University of La Verne," said Kline. "The opportunity to hire an individual with Olympic experience is to say the least extremely rare at our level. His vision for Leopard Volleyball is one that I believe will allow the program to continue the long tradition of excellence."
Sano also has extensive collegiate coaching experience that includes a recent stint as an assistant coach with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He was also a long-time associate head women's volleyball coach at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo from 1995-2005. Most recently Sano served as lead assistant coach at Cal State Los Angeles. He also was the head coach at Utah State from 1991-94, an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton from 1989-91 and a head coach at Southern California College (now Vanguard University) from 1988-89.
During his 18-year collegiate career, his teams reached the NCAA Division I Tournament three times and his players earned two Big West Conference Freshmen of the Year awards, 20 All-Big West Conference honors, two All-America awards and two All-Region awards. His players also received 22 All-Academic awards from the Big West Conference, four scholar-athlete awards from the Big West Conference and eight COSIDA Academic All-America, District VIII honors.
"I am very appreciative of the volleyball program's legacy of excellence that was first created by Jim Paschal and refined by Don Flora," Sano said. "I am honored and look forward to the challenge of enhancing that legacy as the new head volleyball coach at the University of La Verne. Our on-court goal is to strive each season to challenge for an NCAA Championship. As a program we embrace the challenges presented to fulfilling the goals of being an elite program at the Division III level."
Sano also has extensive junior club coaching experience and is the founder and co-director for the Ocean's Elite Juniors Volleyball Club.
He earned his bachelor's degree in speech communications and his teaching credential from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He and his wife Misty have two children, Markus and Madison.
