Marlon Sano is entering his first season as Head Volleyball Coach at Texas A&M International University. Most recently Coach Sano served as Head Coach at the University of La Verne in California, but his impressive background includes experience from all levels of play including international and Division-I collegiate coaching experience.
In his first season alongside Coach Givens, Coach Sano helped lay the framework for what is sure to become one of the most successful programs in the Heartland Conference. After compiling eleven wins in their previous three seasons, the Dustdevils finished with an overall record of 14-18, qualifying for the Heartland Conference Tournament for the first time since 2007. In the opening round of tournament play, the Dustdevils nearly pulled off the upset of the year pushing the host team St. Edward’s to the brink of elimination, but ultimately falling in five sets. The Dustdevils wrapped up the season with a conference record of 8-6 and were nearly perfect at home in conference games throughout the season, losing only to St. Edward’s in their final home game of the year.
Coach Sano played a key role in developing freshman
Alex Ciszek, who was named the Heartland Conference Co-freshman of the year. In her freshman campaign Ciszek was brilliant for the Dustdevils recording the second most kills on the team, finishing with 285 trailing only teammate
Andrea Marshall. Ciszek also finished with a team high 42 aces, second best in the Heartland conference.
Coach Sano began his coaching career in 1980, working with club teams out of Portland, Oregon and Orange County, California. His list of career accomplishments on the club level include 1 National Championship, seven top ten national rankings, 14 Volleyball Monthly "Fab 50" selections, nine High School All-Americans and 91 of his players went on to receive full-ride scholarships.
In 1981 he was named the apprentice coach for the U.S. Women’s National team and was elevated to second assistant in 1982. His tenure with the national team extended into the 1984 Olympic Games, where he helped guide the team to a silver medal, losing to China in the gold medal game. The team also took first place in the Pan-American Games and third place in the World Championships.
Following a brief return to the club level, Coach Sano took his first collegiate job as an assistant coach at Southern California College. After two years, he made the leap into Division-I level, taking the assistant coaching position at Cal State Fullerton. He received his first collegiate head coaching job in 1989, taking the reins at Utah State University where he tripled the win total from the previous season. In 1991 he moved on to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where he served as an Associate Head Coach for ten years. During his tenure with Cal Poly, the Mustangs had only one losing season, qualified for three NCAA tournaments, were one set away from reaching the sweet 16, had one National Freshman of the Year selection and one All-American. He then spent one season as an assistant coach at UNLV, before taking the head coaching position at the University of La Verne. In two seasons with Leopards, Coach Sano helped the team qualify for one NCAA tournament, finishing in the Sweet 16 and coached one All-American selection.
Throughout his career, Coach Sano has helped to train three Conference Freshman of the Year, 10 All-Freshman Team Conference selections, 24 All-Conference selections, three AVCA All-Region Team, one AVCA All-American, two Volleyball Magazine All-Americans, one Volleyball Magazine Freshman of the Year selection, 22 All-Academic Team selections, four Scholar-Athlete selections and eight GTE/Verizon/Co-SIDA Academic All-American district 8 honorees
