The Pierce College men’s volleyball team will have an old face as a new addition to their coaching staff this upcoming season.
New assistant coach Lance Walker, 31, was born in Los Angeles and started as a freshman at Pierce in 1997 and played volleyball for the Brahmas until 2000, when he transferred.
Before he went onto Pepperdine University to major in psychology, Walker won the men’s volleyball state championship as a member of the 2000 Pierce College team, year in which he earned the state MVP Award and broke the single game kill record with 68.
“The cool thing about volleyball is that everything is speed and direction, and how you can control force and angles with your arms and hands,” said Walker. “With a fast offense, the less time the other team has to react, speed is crucial.”
After earning a First Team All-American Final Four selection with Pepperdine in 2002, Walker played eight years as a professional volleyball player and competed for the US National Team in three tournaments, earning a bronze medal at the 2003 World University Games celebrated in South Korea.
He played around the world in countries like Belgium, Turkey, Greece, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, and the United States.
Now, after acquiring coaching experience, he came back to Pierce as a men’s volleyball assistant coach to help improve the program.
“Eddie Stanislawski [Pierce men’s volleyball head coach] asked me to come,” said Walker. “Hopefully bring little more fire, give some stuff that I have learned from my playing career to these guys.”
New players are excited for Walker’s addition into this year’s coaching staff.
“We have some really amazing coaches this season,” said MB Evan Bender. “They are going to get us prepared for this coming season very well.”
Besides coaching, Walker started a sports apparel company called “Brahma Sports” five years ago with one former Pierce College volleyball player.
“We figured out it was suit to call the company Brahma, because we are from the Brahmas,” said Walker. “We are so excited about building that company in the Pierce name.”
http://info.piercecollege.edu/departments/athletics/mnvolley.html
