Getting to know Todd Dagenais of UCF Knights – Volleyball news
It is the consecutive fourth season that the University of Central Florida (UCF) women’s volleyball team has achieved excellent results under the leadership of head coach Todd Dagenais.
He joined the team in 2008 and set a new direction for the team. Since then the Knights have performed amazingly well and have held an overall record of 43-51 in the last four seasons.
Dagenais is a 1995 graduate in sports medicine from Central Michigan and also a certified athletic trainer. He started his volleyball career by joining Chippewas' men's club team and remained with the team for four years. At Michigan State, he met the visionary
head coach Chuck Erbe. He worked under Chuck’s supervision and learned the tricks of the trade. Furthermore, he also worked closely with renowned coaches Toshi Yoshida and Mick Haley, who led the U.S. teams in Olympic Games.
Speaking of his mentors, Dagenais said, “Chuck taught me that the discipline of the game is paramount to a student-athlete over-achieving on off the court. Toshi taught me to see the game at the International level, and showed me how a small matter of a
few degrees of excellence means the difference of being in position to be successful or not.”
He further added, “Mick is probably the most amazing people manager I have ever worked with. He is such a creative volleyball thinker, always finding a way to maximize individual members of a team toward a collective goal. I learned so much from his ability
to manage a match in the most critical situations.”
During the sophomore coaching season at UCF, Dagenais helped Erin Campbell (OH) to find a place in the All-Conference USA team. The outside hitter of the Knights followed the amazing plan proposed by the head coach and enjoyed huge limelight.
The same year, Jenny Heppert of Knights emerged as the first player to be named to the ESPN, while Stephanie Serna became the first Black and Gold player to be voted onto an All-Conference-USA Volleyball Team. She also got a mention at the AVCA All-Midwest
Region. Quite similarly, the rest of players received many accolades and it was all because of the new leadership.
Under the leadership of Dagenais, the Knights finished the 2008 season with an overall win/loss record of 15-17, which included 6-10 conference record.
In the next season, Daganais also performed his duties as the member of the staff at the U.S. Women's National Team Open Tryouts, which held at the U.S. Olympic Training Centre in Colorado Springs, Colo. He served as the evaluator at the event. He supervised
the physical drills and various other tests. Additionally, he was also the court coach of the open try-outs.
As the 2009 regular season got underway, Daganais was back with the Knights. The team finished the season with 12 wins and 18 losses. Next year, the coach was assigned the daunting task to improve the statistics and Knights finished with the final record
of 16-16 in 2010. Most recently, the team achieved 20-11 record in 2011 and Daganais played an instrumental role in the overall success of his team.
Daganais has great many plans for the 2012 season and hopefully the team will do even better in the upcoming matches.
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