Nearly three decades as a volleyball coach and teacher, national coach of the year, multiple national championships, CIF champions, too many times, and now he’s got a new job helping the PAC 12 and their officials; he is Bret Almazan-Cezar.
Show Highlights
- He has spent three decades as an educator and coach, achieved a degree from the University of the Pacific (UOP) starting as a teacher and currently coaches at Granite Bay High School in Sacramento, spent seven years in Lincoln High School in Stockton, and 20 years at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose with 11 state titles, almost 900 wins, and four-time high school volleyball national coach of the year, and is one of the most successful club volleyball coaches in the US
- Why he still works with SynergyForce Volleyball Club, coaching coaches and assisting a couple of teams, and now does referee observations in the Pac-12
- How watching UOP volleyball coaches Liskevych and Dunning shaped his coaching foundation
- How his career started from a mortgage broker in the 90s to being mentored by his now wife and “falling in love” with coaching
- How math teacher Coach Dunning inspired his coaching style with the Socratic method of better understanding by asking questions that empower and improve communication with his team
- How his journey started as an educator at Archbishop Mitty High School but later evolved into the head volleyball coach with the help of Jim Rubiales
- How in seven years at Lincoln High School, he experienced playing for the Northern California championship, going to state, and unexpectedly playing April Ross twice
- Why essential communication skills applied in coaching are having a relationship, culture, and a place of shared responsibilities and respect
- How Pete Carroll, a UOP graduate, inspired him to apply the sacredness of the teaching in relationships to coaching culture in his teams
- How he evolved the identity of obtaining a culture of success through his athletes’ and staffs’ input
- How he maintains success by setting up an environment where athletes belong and creating a family that applies life skills to the sport
- How he became a successful coach through observation; he would gravitate toward success in coaching by watching Netflix’s Cheer and Alex Honnold, who climbed El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, to maintain a great attitude in their sport
- How the monetizations in volleyball have evolved and have to be sustainable, but tactics, coaching systems, and athletic skills have changed and developed
- How the evolution in volleyball is related to economics, “economics makes better coaching available”
- How being in the Pac-12 as a referee allows him to obtain a new perspective on volleyball and may eventually help him on the club level
- When pursuing his Master’s in Coaching and Athletic Administration, he met great people that allowed him to codify his plays, identify philosophies, and determine how to make things better
- Why he wrote Building The Most Successful High School Volleyball Program Imaginable, an essay on how to make the best, better
Tags: Masters in Coaching, Coaching, MCAA Podcast, Volleyball, CIF, communication