Paco Labrador

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - Wittenberg University has selected former Miami University Assistant Women's Volleyball Coach Paco Labrador as its new Head Women's Volleyball Coach. He replaces Connie Surowicz, the most successful coach in Tiger volleyball history, who accepted the same position at Ashland University in January.

"I am thrilled to be coming to Wittenberg University and getting the opportunity to work with such a high caliber group of student-athletes," Labrador said. "I have been impressed with the commitment level of the players in the program and with the quality of the university."

Labrador graduated from Hiram College, a member of the North Coast Athletic Conference along with Wittenberg, in 1995 with degrees in psychology and exercise and sport science, and he also holds a master of science from Miami in sport studies, which he earned in 1997. He comes to Wittenberg after four years as an assistant coach at Miami, where he was active in all phases of the program, including scouting and game preparation, recruiting, skill development, summer camps, game day operations and donor relations.

Labrador's coaching experience is extensive, including three years as a student assistant at Hiram. He worked with USA Junior Olympic Volleyball from 1995-2000 while serving as an assistant coach at Miami for two years, the University of Maryland for two years and Miami again for four years. In addition to his new responsibilities at Wittenberg, Labrador was recently selected to coach the Ohio Valley Region Girls High Performance Camp Team in 2003. The team will be competing in the 2003 VolleyClassic in St. George, Utah in July. It is comprised of some of the top U-16 players from the region that includes Ohio and part of Pennsylvania.

He takes over a program loaded with talent, led by returning All-Americans Sarah Yuskewich and Monica McDonald, both of whom will be juniors in the fall. Surowicz had a nine-year record of 253-94 (.729) at Wittenberg and led the Tigers to the NCAA Division III tournament the last seven years. In 2002, Wittenberg reached the national quarterfinals before losing to eventual national champion Wisconsin-Whitewater. The Tigers have won six straight NCAC championships and ended 2002 riding a 61-match win streak against NCAC opponents, including 18 straight in winning the last six conference tournament titles.