{"id":16637,"date":"2026-04-02T15:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/?p=16637"},"modified":"2026-04-06T18:42:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:42:50","slug":"a-new-era-in-lvc-sports-andrew-diaz-de-padilla-named-lvcs-mens-volleyball-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/2026\/04\/02\/a-new-era-in-lvc-sports-andrew-diaz-de-padilla-named-lvcs-mens-volleyball-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"A new era in LVC sports, Andrew Diaz de Padilla named LVC’s men’s volleyball coach\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Ella Weidenhammer \u201827 staff writer <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LVC\u2019s athletic director\u00a0Pat Ratke had announced a new name to the athletic\u00a0staff–that name was Andrew Diaz de Padilla.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0now in charge of forming by the spring of 2028 is\u00a0the college\u2019s\u00a0new men\u2019s volleyball program.\u00a0Diaz de Padilla is no stranger to being a part of a developing volleyball team. In his senior year of high school, he committed to play Division III volleyball at Hiram College, where he was a part of the second-ever recruiting class of the program, later winning an AMCC title and earning an NCAA Tournament berth in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With his extra years of eligibility, Diaz de Padilla earned his master’s degree at Wittenberg University, where he played another two seasons as a setter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecruiting is going to be everything for the next year and a half,\u201d Diaz de Padilla said. \u201cNot only (recruiting) for guys who are going to help me win the MAC\u00a0but\u00a0also finding guys who care about the right things.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to finding his new home at the Valley, he spent two seasons as the assistant coach for the women’s volleyball team at Division I Jacksonville University. During the 2025 season, the Dolphins had their best season in over a decade, winning 20 games for the first time since 2014 and earning a conference tournament victory for the first time in 10 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Division III men\u2019s volleyball, every team is beating ranked teams right now,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is exciting.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One point that\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0thrilled to talk about was the small, yet rich sights of campus, as well as how competitive men\u2019s volleyball is in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese facilities are insane,\u201d he said. \u201cI think there are so many things on LVC\u2019s campus that mimic a Division I experience.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diaz de Padilla mentioned the new\u00a0Jeanne and Edward H. Arnold Health Professions Pavilion\u00a0as well as how LVC\u00a0is able to\u00a0staff full-time strength coaches, athletic\u00a0trainers\u00a0and assistant coaches which\u00a0is hard to find at other\u00a0Division III\u00a0schools.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team culture is important to Diaz de Padilla; in fact, he hopes to leave a lasting impact on his future players.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you can be the best team on the court but do not have an elite culture, you can win a conference, but you are not going to win a national championship,\u201d he said. \u201cI want my players to be able to mentally prepare for what is to come next at practice. I want them to be intentional and give all-out effort.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diaz de Padilla is focused on the recruitment phase.  He said that success will not be measured by losses in year one or two.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to be on the court successfully by year four,\u00a0that’s my goal,\u201d\u00a0he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another goal for Diaz de Padilla is to create a challenging schedule. The idea behind this is to help his players develop their skills and confidence before reaching conference play. The MAC is considered middle tier as far as competition, and he can\u2019t wait to get started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you want to work hard and be pushed but also have a connection and a culture that really cares about you and each other that feels like a family, while having the experience of Division I level facilities, then this is the place for that.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ella Weidenhammer \u201827 staff writer  LVC\u2019s athletic director\u00a0Pat Ratke had announced a new name to the athletic\u00a0staff–that name was Andrew Diaz de Padilla.\u00a0\u00a0 The team\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0now in charge of forming by the spring of 2028 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16637"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16647,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16637\/revisions\/16647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}