Ryan Nicanor Is Dedicated to Turn Boys Volleyball into Winning Program
Ryan Nicanor started playing volleyball 13 years ago as a sophomore at James Logan High School. He continued to play at UC San Diego, and now plays ranked adult leagues.
Before coming to Piedmont, Nicanor spent five years coaching Lakas Volleyball Club in Hayward before coaching at Red Rock Volleyball club. At Red Rock, Nicanor said he met Piedmont girls volleyball head coach Maria Cardenas.
Nicanor said Cardenas was the one that brought him into Piedmont, first helping with the girls freshman team this fall and now transitioning over to head coach of the boys this season.
“I’ve always wanted to coach high school, it’s more consistent and you are able to build a community,” Nicanor said.
Nicanor said he was nervous to make the transition, but that he has been pleasantly surprised.
“[The players] are just a really great group of guys, they obviously love the sport and they work hard,” he said.
Nicanor said he tries to teach his players the value of hard work and the importance of a growth mindset.
“Without effort and belief in yourself, there’s really no success that will come, that’s my main philosophy as a coach,” he said.
Nicanor said his primary goal in the short term is to establish a clear culture that will carry on for future teams.
“The culture starts with the players, everyone has to buy in and understand. This means we have to tailor the culture to the team,” Nicanor said.
Varsity volleyball player junior Drew Kobal said that Nicanor has been clear about boundaries and focused on culture.
“Early on in the year we went to a Stanford Volleyball game as a team. It’s been clear he wants us to bond and work together in all ways,” Kobal said, “He’s set clear boundaries and expectations and is very open in his communication, which is important.”
Kobal said his experience with Nicanor has been very positive and he can tell how much he cares about the sport and the team.
“I’m really excited to see where he can take us,” he said.
Nicanor said his eventual goal beyond establishing culture is to win an NCS championship, something he thinks can happen soon.
“The program is in a really good spot to grow. We’re experiencing challenges through the transition, growing pains, but I see a lot of sparks of good play,” Nicanor said “It’s only a matter of time until this program sees real success.”
Marvin Vitatoe Creates Fun Environment for Boys Golf
Marvin Vitatoe is the new head coach of both girls and boys golf teams.
“I picked up my first [golf] club when I was just old enough to walk and I’ve never put the game down,” Vitatoe said.
Vitatoe said he played golf in high school and was recruited to play in college but wasn’t able to. In 2019, Vitatoe said he moved to Texas where he worked at two golf courses, taught lessons, and ran a junior program. He has since moved back to the Bay Area and works at the Claremont Country Club as an assistant golf professional.
“I do a bit of everything at the Claremont, including private lessons and running tournaments, sort of a jack of all trades,” he said.
Vitatoe said he started working with Piedmont when the boys golf team needed an assistant coach last spring, and then applied for the full time roles of both boys and girls teams for this fall.
“It’s definitely been a transition, but the sky’s the limit for how good we can be,” he said.
Vitatoe said one of his core tenets of coaching is making sure everyone enjoys themselves.
“I remember being that age, and it shouldn’t be life or death. You need to go out there and have fun. The biggest, most important thing about it is having fun,” Vitatoe said.
Golf player sophomore River Bloemker said Vitatoe brings a new fresh and fun energy to the program.
“He’s more like a friend than a coach to most of us, he always makes things fun,” Bloemker said.
Bloemker said he is excited for more consistent coaching.
“Even our coach last year was new, so the team is definitely used to coaching changes, but I’m excited for [Vitatoe] to coach for a while,” he said.
Vitatoe said he has a few goals for the future of golf, mainly to build up a stronger program,
“The main goal for the long term is to win. I want to see a strong program where kids who have never played golf before are excited to try out the team, and be able to have an impact on kids’ futures,” he said.
PHS Alumni Paul Pappas Brings Youth and Consistency to Developing Boys Lacrosse
PHS graduate from the class of 2020, Paul Pappas is the new head coach of boys lacrosse. Pappas played collegiately at the University of Arizona and now is back in Piedmont. Pappas has coaching experience at Skyline Lacrosse, youth programs in Arizona, and Goalie Smith.
Pappas will be the team’s third coach in the past three years.
“I’m hoping to give the kids some stability,” Pappas said.
Senior and captain Gus Von Metzsch said Pappas and the coaching staff are focused on the future.
“You can tell that there’s a lot of potential in the team, and I think our coaching staff is doing a great job of bringing that out, of focusing on development, as opposed to just trying to install stuff to win now,” he said.
Von Metzsch said that this focus has changed practice a lot.
“Practices are much more integrated with the younger guys having to step up and get a lot more reps against more experienced players which is definitely great for the team,” he said.
Having coaches that are recent alumni has made it much easier to continue a culture and team focus familiar to the players, Von Metzsch said.
“They are able to continue their culture from not too long ago, so in that sense the continuity of culture has been great,” he said,
Additionally, Von Metzsch said that having younger coaches has made it much easier for communication, and having approachable and open coaches has smoothed the transition to a new coaching staff.
Pappas said he wants to bring a strong tradition of winning league back to lacrosse.
“We’re focusing on league first,” Pappas said. “Stacking our goals, making sure that we can get one place at a time. For the coaches, we as players never lost league. We won league four years in a row. That’s an expectation that we had that we want to bring back into the culture.”
Von Metzsch shared a similar goal.
“It used to be the norm that Piedmont would win WACC every year in lacrosse, and I think to do that this year would be a great way to start doing that again. So I definitely want to win league this year,” he said.
Pappas said there is a lot of work to be done but he has a lot of hope for the team and is excited for the future.
“It’s just awesome to be back in the Piedmont lacrosse space and community,” Pappas said.
Adrien Downey Adds Enthusiasm and Spirit to Swim Team
Adrien Downey is the new head coach of the swim team. Since swimming at Williams College, Downey has been coaching for over ten years; he now takes over for past coach Colby Price who is now an assistant coach. Downey has been a coach on the Piedmont club swim team for almost two years and continues to coach all ages there on top of the high school.
“I had enough confidence and belief and just faith in some of the people involved with the brands, swimmers, administrators [at the high school], it just felt like one of those things, let’s roll the dice and see what happens,” he said.
Downey said his first impressions of the team was that they were ambitious and open minded.
“It’s super exciting to see the team’s energy, because it really speaks to the energy and the passion that I want to share with swimming, about always challenging your limits and not settling,” he said.
Downey said his core principle as a coach revolves around positive reinforcement.
“I try to put my coaching into catching people when they’re doing it right, trying to find those moments where people are really on fire, and giving them their props, and making sure that they believe that they can do that,” he said.
Downey said it has been hard to bring the team together, having different levels of swimmers.
“We’re still trying to find that sweet spot where we’re all in a groove and we’re all in the same rhythm, because out here in California, club season is still pretty major during high school season, and there’s a lot of conflicts and overlaps,” he said.
Junior swimmer Luke McAuliffe agreed with the difficulties but has enjoyed Downey’s focus on the team and culture.
“Swimming is a hard sport to build culture because it isn’t quite as team based as other sports, so he’s done a really good job of bringing us together and getting us thinking about eachother,” he said.
McAuliffe said Downey also brings positivity and enthusiasm to practice.
“I have enjoyed [Downey’s] coaching style a lot. He’s very upbeat and team oriented, and he has brought a new energy to the swim team,” McAuliffe said.
McAuliffe said that keeping Price on the coaching staff has been helpful in the transition.
“Colby [Price] has been great as an assistant coach and has made having a new coach easier, having someone there who knows everyone and can be a familiar face is great,” he said.
Downey said he is hopeful and excited for the future of the team.
“If we just keep it simple and swim hard and swim for each other we can hit the ground running next year,” he said. “With a little more confidence and well founded belief in our abilities, we can start to set our sights a little bit higher and achieve some pretty cool things as a team,”
