5/14/2007

SANTA BARBARA ATHLETIC ROUND TABLE HALL OF FAME COACHES OF THE YEAR: Donnelly sculpts big teams from a little school

DENNIS BATEMAN, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

A decade-long chase ended this year for Laguna Blanca volleyball coach Jason Donnelly, as his Owls girls team brought the school's first CIF title back to Hope Ranch.

Donnelly, a prominent figure in the local volleyball community, led the way as the primary architect of that success. Selected as the 2007 Coach of the Year, he points to many great examples that have guided him to where he is now.

"There are a lot of great coaches in this town who helped me, and it's a tribute to the kids that I have gotten to work with," said Donnelly, who has been coaching the Owls girls volleyball team for 10 years, and the boys for 11.

Playing volleyball began early for Donnelly, who found himself suddenly recruited by one of his future mentors, Jon Lee.

"I still have a vivid memory of him as an eighth-grader peeking into the gym while I was doing a girls volleyball practice. I needed another body to do practice sets, and he's been on the courts ever since," said the longtime San Marcos head coach.

Donnelly was a four-sport athlete at San Marcos High, playing football, basketball, soccer and volleyball. He said that he was surrounded by top-notch coaches, including Lee, current athletic director Abe Jahadhmy and former football coach Satini Puailoa.

"He was one of those players who always came in focused and prepared. I figured he would eventually become a very good coach," said Jahadhmy, who coached Donnelly in soccer.

In 1991, he played on the Royals' CIF Champion volleyball squad that included the likes of current AVP beach volleyball stars Todd Rogers and Dax Holdren.

After graduating that year, Donnelly played at the University of the Pacific, where he graduated with a degree in psychology. He then came back to the county and started his coaching career as an assistant for Lee at San Marcos. A year later in 1996, Donnelly and Rogers were hired as co-coaches for the Laguna Blanca boys team.

After that first season, Rogers left to pursue his career on the beach while Donnelly remained as head coach. In the fall of 1997, he also took charge of the Owls' girls volleyball program and he has been coaching both ever since.

Since taking over, Donnelly's teams have won a combined 12 Condor League titles (seven boys, five girls) and have qualified for the CIF playoffs for nearly every season. The girls program has reached a CIF-SS Division final four times, including the Division 4-A Championship last season.

For Donnelly, the work of building a championship program begins as the athletic director for Laguna Blanca's middle school.

Donnelly also coaches for the Santa Barbara Volleyball Club, and for the past nine years has headed up the 18-1's team, which consists of many of the top high school players in the county. Among those he has coached was former San Marcos and UCSB star Erica Menzel Downing, who he credited with playing a big role with last year's championship run.

Always looking to improve his ability to teach, Donnelly said he regularly consults his coaching peers, including UCSB's Ken Preston and Larry Milliken. He continues to draw on the challenge of molding top volleyball players of the future, by embracing the strong lessons of the past and the present.

"It's nice to be able to share this award with a lot of people," Donnelly said. "In coaching and athletics, you're never satisfied. I really enjoy the job and the challenge, and I love to compete."