GCU Mens Volleyball D-1 program hopes to make big strides in the next few years

GCU Mens Volleyball team is undergoing its third season as a NCAA sport. Its the only team in Arizona that competes against NCAA division one team programs. GCU hired Jeremy Price as the head coach for the Lopes. He is currently in his 2nd year as the programs head coach and comes from a promising volleyball background. Before coming to Grand Canyon, Price coached Juniata College for four years. He led his team to two Molten Division III national championships and his teams finished in the top four of the final AVCA Division III Mens Volleyball poll all four seasons, including two first-place finishes. Price earned numerous awards for his teams accomplishments and was named AVCA Division III Coach of the Year and the 2009 EIVA Division III Coach of the Year. Before their 5 day road trip, the Region Office took a timeout with Jeremy Price to learn more about his team and the season thus far.

RO: Hows the season going?

JP: Weve already won more matches. Were exactly at the half way point. Were 11-5 now. Last year we were 8-24 so its a lot better. Our second half of our schedule is pretty tough.

RO: What conference match are you looking forward to the most?

JP: Theres no easy team. Quincy was 12-2 coming in and we have the defending national champions Ohio state in our conference. Lewis is in the top half of the country and those are our last 4 conference games.

RO: What kind of defense do you run?

JP: We play lets-get-the-ball-up defense [smiles] no, were blessed to have 3 really good liberos so that makes the defense in our practice gym really good. I thought last year we spent a lot of time learning how to play defense and the effort thats required to play defense; its starting paying off this year. Its pretty much the same defense every mens team has. We won all the long rallies against Quincy and even when we didnt it was frustrating to them [liberos]. We rely on our libero to make plays but we expect everybody in our gym, even our middles, to give maximum play.

RO: Where do you see the program going next year and in the future?

JP: Were going to be much better next year. We have 3 red-shirting that we expect to start paying dividends for hopefully next year, if not the following year. Recruiting is going really well we got 3 commits already and I expect were probably going to get 2 or 3 more. The really nice thing is that our recruits that are committed come from Maryland Chicago, Las Vegas and San Diego. We have a big geographic spread. Were recruiting nationally. We have good relationships with the west coast because were [GCU] so close to LA and San Diego and I have a lot of connections in the east so were tapping into every possible region to get the best players here.

RO: How do you sell GCU to recruits:

JP: They get on campus and they see new dorms, a brand new arena, new weight room, the new SRC (student recreation center) and the new class rooms and they want to be a part of it.

Do you have plans for the youth in AZ:

We had 19 middle school kids come in to the arena and played before we did. It was a nice event and every single one of them stayed and watched the match. For a lot of them it was their first time seeing a mens collegiate match. Were hoping in 5 or 6 years that they are on the same floor as us when they get to college.