The Pierce College women’s volleyball team hired former Brahmas star Veronika Ban to become their new assistant coach. Ban joins Nabil Mardini’s staff and replaces Angela Hupp who took over the summer took an assistant coaching position at San Francisco State University after being with the Brahmas for the past three years.
Ban brings much needed any energy and intensity to a Brahmas team that was very lackluster from start to finish. After winning three state titles in a row Pierce dropped its first match of the season in 2013 and then got ousted in the first round of the playoffs. Ban knows about winning as she was on Mardini’s first two state championship teams in 2010 and 2011 before moving on to play two years at Central Connecticut State University.
“She is a great addition,” former teammate Danetta Boykin said. “She knows the program very well, she knows the system and she is going to prepare the girls.”
The discussion of Ban becoming the next assistant coach for Pierce actually came up last May just before receiving her bachelor’s degree from CCSU in communication. The opportunity worked out tremendously for both sides after Hupp left: Mardini needed a coach and Ban desparately wanted to get back to being apart of the game she loved in anyway possible.
“I loved the game and I couldn’t stay away,” Ban said. “There is no other job that I wanted other then this one. Now I get to come back, help out and see where this team can go.”
Despite the team having a lot of upside with a new and improved jump serve of sophomore Mika Fabbro and the maturity of second year player Alexandra Bowman, Ban thinks that there are things that the team can improve on in order to get back to being a state championship contender. Ban touched on the team’s mental toughness and why it needs to be stronger.
“Whether it is in practice or in a game you are going to mess up,” Ban said. “The way you over come that is by overcoming the diversity and playing with a positive attitude on and off the court. If we get can get better and get stronger then we are definitely going to win.”
For Mardini having Ban at his disposal gives him the first assistant coach he has worked with that played on one of his state championship winning teams. He feels that having Veronika back is a huge advantage and thinks that she will make a great coach.
“She is a pleasure to be around,” Mardini said. “She is a great person and just one of the many great people around for the championship years. She is one of the best blockers I have ever coached and that is because she brought a lot of effort which surprisingly enough is mostly what blocking is. She comes from a great pedigree and that’s why she will have the girls competing.”
True to form Ban was all business at Tuesday night’s practice sporting nothing then her usual shorts and knee pads like she was as a player and working on the team’s game. At 23 years old she seemingly hasn’t skipped a beat still showing that she has great leaping ability and soft hands that allowed her to be one of the best blockers in the state during her time as a player. With the athleticism and the ability to be both player and coach Mardini thinks the greatest asset with Ban as his new assistant is her experience.
“She went through the process. She has gone through the sister, has played under me and my system and he will do the job of passing that on to the players. That is why I brought her.”