Hiring Van Winden as volleyball a huge catch for Napa High

You hear the phrase uttered so often about “winning the offseason” or “winning the press conference” or “home run hire.”

I have always found those statements to be a mixture of hyperbole and conjecture because a program can make moves that it believes are good but there’s no guarantee of success. However, all a program can do is put itself in a position that it believes will lead to success. That said, it is my belief that hiring Kelly Van Winden as its new volleyball head coach, Napa High just got better without even playing a match. Van Winden’s hiring was reported in the June 8 edition of the Napa Valley Register.

The name alone brings the program instant credibility. For openers, Van Winden was a two-time All-American at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo who has gone on to develop a tremendous resume as a coach. Van Winden coached at Napa Valley College for 15 seasons before taking the Napa High job, replacing Heather O’Neill, who was the Indians coach the previous three seasons.

Van Winden also served as the director of the Napa Valley Volleyball Club, which was formed in 1987. Van Winden was also an assistant coach at Sonoma State for two years and spent nine more as the head coach. Van Winden earned Northern California Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors three times. She was Bay Valley Conference Coach of the Year seven times at NVC.

The hiring of Van Winden is significant because the Indians volleyball program is like a fallen champion. Though football success will be front and center on people’s mind, Napa has a rich tradition of volleyball headlined by the 1980s and 1990s under former head coach Barbara Franco. In her tenure, the Indians won nine Monticello Empire League titles, three CIF Sac Joaquin Section Div. II championships and a NorCal title (1996). Napa won 64 straight MEL matches.

The problem is, those days were eons ago. After Franco stepped down as head coach, the Indians continued to experience success on some level later under coaches such as Dustin Blank, Scott Kostecka, David Rentz and O’Neill as the Indians continued to be regular postseason participants but not the long postseason runs the program experienced in the Franco era. To be fair, eras like that come along once in a generation.

So how soon can the Indians return to prominence? Since I am out of the newspaper industry as a sports reporter, I’m not as plugged in as I used to be in terms of local sports in the Napa Valley. However, any time a new coach comes into a program, regardless of resume, I always preach the same message, “the new coach needs time with everything from implementing philosophies, developing relationships with student-athletes, etc.” I’m preaching the same message with the Van Winden hire.  

Translation, Jena Mello is not walkin’ through that door, fans. Neither is Alynda Franco.

The Indians have not sniffed the playoffs since 2012 and went 3-18 overall and 3-12 against MEL teams in 2015. Looking at those records, the narrative becomes, “there’s nowhere to go but up.”

Whenever I see a storied program fall on hard times, the narrative I preach is, “You can remember the past but you can’t rely on it. Tradition is all well and good but the past doesn’t win games today. At this point, it’s about today’s players redrawing the lines on the highway that players of the past drew.” That’s the approach the current Indians need to take because they can the group that lead the Indians back to prominence.

The fact that Van Winden has history as a professional volleyball is also a big plus. She played two seasons of indoor volleyball for the San Jose Golddiggers from 1987-1989 as an outside hitter. Van Winden also played three years in the Women’s Professional Volleyball association and seven more in a Bud Light 4-Person Beach League.

The reason that part of her resume is significant? Because she can tell youngsters, “I played at high levels of volleyball, I can show you how to get there if you so desire.” Granted, one out of every 10 high school seniors get a scholarship to play college athletics but it helps that Van Winden knows the in-roads to travel. The point is, her prowess in teaching the game can make a great player excellent, it can make a good player great and a below average one good if the youngsters absorb teaching.

Van Winden spent the better part of the past few seasons watching her daughters (Adlee and Torrey) excel at crosstown rival Vintage. Those Napa/Vintage volleyball matches just became even more compelling. Both are freshmen at their respective colleges, Adlee at Cal Poly San Luis Opispo and Torrey at UCLA.

I only know Van Winden in passing. I’ve interviewed her once and talked to her a few times but I feel confident enough to know this, regardless of what talent Napa has on its roster, Van Winden will extract the most out of it.

Hiring someone with credentials as a professional player, college coach and administrator is by definition, “checking all the boxes.”