One of the many things, and maybe the most important thing, a new head coach must do when taking a job is assemble a staff. On June 18, coach Charita Stubbs, who became head volleyball coach in February, finished that job when Eduardo Fiallos was hired as an assistant volleyball coach.
Fiallos, like Stubbs and fellow assistant coach Keisha Demps, is a graduate of the University of Arizona. But while Stubbs and Demps starred on the women’s varsity team, Fiallos did not have that opportunity because Arizona does not offer varsity men’s volleyball.
So he did what other high school men’s volleyball players do — he played club volleyball.
“There’s only about 30 men’s Division I volleyball programs out there,” Fiallos said. “So a lot of men end up playing club ball, and that’s what I did.”
But he wasn’t just another player; after being elected president of the club, Fiallos became a pioneer in creating one of the more successful club volleyball programs in the country.
From 1999 to 2003, shortly after Fiallos’ playing days were over, Arizona won four out of five National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association collegiate club volleyball championships.
“The club at Arizona became nationally prominent while I was there,” Fiallos said. “So it was really cool for me to be part of the building of that success. We laid down a lot of stuff that allowed the team to be that successful after I was gone.”
As his playing career was coming to an end, Fiallos stumbled upon his first coaching job and what would become his new career.
“I was just playing open gym with some friends a few years into college and there was this guy there who coached for a local club,” Fiallos said. “He said the club was looking for coaches, so I checked it out and I got started from there.”
After the club job, he became a volunteer assistant coach for the women’s varsity team at Arizona and, according to Fiallos, realized this was something he could have a future doing.
“I recognized and said ‘I’m good at this,'” Fiallos said. “And it’s fun, I enjoy doing it, so let’s make a career out of it.”
Eventually Fiallos would climb the coaching ladder and take college jobs at Cal State-Dominguez Hills and the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, but along the path to those opportunities is when he set his sights on bigger goals.
“A few years into coaching I started to think about how I can get good at this, then where does that lead me,” Fiallos said. “Coaching in college is an indication that you are a good coach. So coaching in college became very enticing to me, and I started to think in the back of my mind, ‘I can do that, I know I’m good enough to do that.’ Then you have to put yourself in position and wait for the right opportunity.”
The right opportunity came for Fiallos this summer through his continued relationship with Stubbs, which began when they were students in Arizona. They continued to cross paths at camps where he was coaching and she was recruiting, and finally Stubbs approached Fiallos about the job.
“She talked to me about N.C. State,” Fiallos said. “And asked if I was interested, and I said, ‘Of course I’m interested.'”
Now, along with Stubbs and Demps, Fiallos has the challenge of turning around a program which has had virtually no success in the ACC. In 2005 the Wolfpack won one conference match — their first ACC win since a victory over Maryland in 2001.
“It’s not like we’re like going to go out and contend for the ACC championship right away,” Fiallos said. “But don’t get me wrong, we’re going to work hard, and we’re going to be better. I believe that. But it’s not going to happen all at once, it’s going to be a process.”
