As most of the volleyball community would be aware, Volleyball Australia has been in search of a new Men’s Head Coach following the resignation of Russ Borgeaud in January. This process was delayed as we waited for the High Performance Review to be completed. Now that this has been released and we have conducted a thorough search for a new Men’s Head Coach, I am pleased to announce that Volleyball Australia has appointed Jon Uriarte.
Many people would be familiar with Jon as he has previously been Men’s Head Coach in Australia between 2001-2004 and during this time lead Australia to it first outright Olympic qualification to Athens. After his time in Australia Jon went on to coach Argentina to be the South American Vice Champions in 2007 as well as coaching Argentina in World League and World Cup in that same period. Since then, Jon has been coaching Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia in the Italian A1 league.
The focus for the Australian Men’s team will be on producing a top result at the 16th Asian Senior Men’s Volleyball Championships, in Tehran Iran from the 19th to the 29th of September 2011 and after an extensive search we believe that Jon is the person with the best chances of achieving this outcome. We are aiming for Jon to arrive in Australia at the end of May and be here to greet the National Team players as they come into camp at the AIS from 1 June. Their first test will be at the China Men’s Volleyball Challenge between 11-20 July where Australia will meet China, Kazakhstan and Iran in a series of matches to be held in China.
Volleyball Australia and new Head Coach Jon Uriarte are both excited about this opportunity and the potential of the Australian Men’s Team.
source: avf.org.au