Smith is state coach

Monbulk College’s head volleyball coach Craig Smith, centre, with some of his students, from left Jacqui Hocking, Lucy

By Tania Martin
MONBULK Secondary College’s head volleyball coach Craig Smith has jumped back into competitive volleyball coaching after more than six years.
Smith has been named as the Victorian Under 16s coach for the National Championship in August.
But he is no stranger to coaching state teams as he has worked with both the Victorian Institute and Australian Institutes of sport.
Smith started his career as a coach more than 20 years ago at Monbulk Secondary College.
“As a player and also a young PE teacher at the school I saw the potential for the sport to grow and introduced it to the kids at Monbulk,” he said.
“It has just grown from there – I took a few teams to the state championships and I just got the bug for coaching.”
After initiating the volleyball program at Monbulk, Smith decided to drop teaching to become a full-time coach.
He then turned his attention to both the Victorian and Australian Institutes of sport.
Smith says one of his coaching highlights was to see his former student, David Beard captain the Australian team at the Sydney Olympics.
He said after the 2000 Olympics he decided to get back into teaching and returned to Monbulk College where he took up the head coaching position.
As the head coach, Smith helps more than 100 students a year to refine and develop their ball skills.
Smith said as the 20th year of the state championships approaches he felt the need to get back into coaching a state side.
“Victoria have never won a gold medal at the championship and I thought it was time to put my hat back into the ring again – it would be nice if we could bring home the gold,” he said.
But Smith says that winning is not everything but would be the icing on the cake for him.
“It’s not easy winning a volleyball championship – one wrong move or injury or poorly played point could mean the difference in winning or losing.”