Gabrielle Houston Neville - 18 Gold Head Coach

Gabrielle is currently the women's head volleyball  coach for Cabrillo College in Aptos, CA.  In her first year as head coach for Cabrillo, she led the Seahawks to a Coast Conference Championship as well as placing in the top 8 in Norcals. Prior to Cabrillo, Gabrielle coached at Mt. Madonna High School for 4 years. During this time her team went from last place in the SCCAL to 2 CCS Championships and a  California State Championship.  This will be her 9th season with Main Beach Volleyball Club. Gabrielle had a very successful 2010 year with a GOLD MEDAL finish in the National Division at the 2010 Jr. National Championships. Additionally she has taken every 16s and 17s teams that she has coached to the Junior Nationals.  Gabrielle received her B.A. from U.C. Santa Barbara and her Master's  Degree from Arizona State University in Exercise Science.  She was also a volleyball instructor for 2 years at Arizona State. With over 17 years as a junior's coach, Gabrielle's experience also includes Bethany College, Santa Cruz High School, Santa Cruz Volleyball Club, Monterey Bay and Pacific Coast Volleyball Clubs, and Aptos and Mission Hill Jr. High Schools. As well as a volleyball coach Gabrielle has been a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Certified Personal Trainer for 15 years. She is a certified Sports Performance coach through the USA Weightlifting Federation. When she is not in the gym teaching volleyball, she is in the weight room helping athlete's to prepare physically for their upcoming seasons. Although Gabrielle works with many athletes, she enjoys training people of all ages to excel in life and sport. Born and raised in Santa Cruz, teaching and coaching volleyball is her passion and with growing up on the beach, the sport has always been an integral part of her life.

Ralph Smith - 17 Gold Head Coach

Ralph Smith is in his 4th year at Main Beach.  In his first season with the Club, he helped take the 18’s team to a Gold Medal finish at the 2008 Junior Nationals. In 2009 his18s team qualified for the Junior Nationals and took a fifth place finish in the National Division.  After being an All-American setter with Long Beach State, Ralph set for the Men’s USA National Team for 4 years.  He then continued  to play professional volleyball in Europe.  As a National player, Ralph received 15 All American awards. After playing 2 years of professional indoor volleyball, Ralph returned to the U.S. to play and coach for the Outrigger Canoe Club Men’s Team in Hawaii.  Ralph took those teams to 13 Championship Finals and 6 National Titles.  Ralph has over 20 years of coaching experience.  He coached the UCSC Men’s Team and the Soquel High Boy’s Varsity where he led his team to two CCS Championship Finals. Ralph has coached multiple athletes that have become Olympians and received full-ride scholarships to Stanford, Cal-Berkeley and the University of Hawaii.  Ralph and his wife Joy are happy to be in Santa Cruz, but when not in the gym or running their business, you may find them under the palms soaking up that special Aloha that you can only find in the Islands. 

Gillian McGraw - 17 Gold Asst. Coach

Gillian McGraw is in her 3rd year with Main Beach.  In her first year with the Club she took her 15s Gold team to a 5th place finish at Junior Nationals.  This past year her 15 Gold team won the Spokane Invitational giving them a bid to the Junior Nationals for the second year in a row. Originally from Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles Gillian earned two First Team All-City awards and MVP of her league as a high school player and played 5 years of club volleyball. Gillian continued her volleyball career by playing for UC Santa Cruz for four years as a starting outside hitter and opposite. Gillian has 2 years of experience as a boy’s JV head coach and 2 years as girls' 18's club coach. She has also coached for the summer Nike volleyball camps for the past 6 years. Gillian graduated from UCSC in 2007 with a B.S.  in Biology and is currently working for a successful Biotech company in Santa Cruz. When not working or coaching, you will find Gillian on the beach where she recently earned her AA rating with partner and fellow coach Amy Knight.

April Bliss - 16 Gold Head Coach

April Bliss is in her 2nd year with Main Beach.  April played volleyball at Aptos High School.  After high school, April earned her AA degree in Liberal studies at Cabrillo College and played volleyball for the Cabrillo Seahawks. In  two years she led her team, as a setter, to an undefeated sophomore season and into the State Championships. April earned All-Conference honors in 2000 and set California Community College State records for assists.  April then transferred to California State University, Fullerton where she earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Kinesiology.  While at Fullerton, April played in the Big West Conference, as a libero. After earning a spot on the team, April became one of the team’s key role players in 2002 and was offered a full athletic scholarship for the duration of her collegiate career.  During her last year at Fullerton, she worked as an undergraduate assistant coach for the Titans gaining insight into coaching recruiting and running a program at the Division 1 level.  April’s 10 years of coaching experience include Bay club, Scotts Valley High School and St. Francis Catholic High School where she helped take the sharks to the CIF State Tournament twice. The team became the Northern California runner-up in 2006 and 2008; as well as winning the CCS championship in 2008.  April also helped co-found and coach for the Pacific Performance Volleyball Club, a non-profit organization based out of Watsonville. April she is now the executive director at Sawyer Chiropractic Group. When she is not coaching or working, she enjoys spending time with her close friends and family especially her new niece! She loves to snowboard, go on long runs and road trips and continues to play volleyball in the NCVA women’s league. 

Lucas Bol - 16 Gold Asst. Coach 

Bill Ashen - 16 Asst. Coach  

Bill Ashen is currently the Head Coach of the Girl’s Varsity team at North Salinas High School where he has been coaching since 1992.  This will be his third year with Main  Beach Volleyball Club.   Originally from Southern California, Bill coached for Laguna Beach High School and Nautilus Volleyball Club. His boys’ team at Nautilus won a National Championship and while at Laguna High, Bill won 3 CIF Championships, 3 years in a row. During this time, his team had a 69 match winning streak, the longest in State history. After his successes in Laguna, Bill became the men’s volleyball coach at UC Irvine where he stayed for 5 years. Now in Northern California Bill has coached with Salinas Valley Volleyball Club for 10 years and Palma High School for 4 years. As well as coaching high school volleyball, Bill is also involved with Pepperdine University in the summer where he is a coach for their indoor junior camps.  As a middle blocker and setter for King Mountain Fog Men’s Team, Bill has been a 4-time All American and a 3 time National Champion. Married to Jean Ashen for 20 years, he has 2 daughters and loves to surf, fly kites, play tennis and spend time with his family. 

Bill Cotton - 15 Gold Head Coach, Blenders Program Director 

Bill will enter his 3rd season with Main Beach.  The last two consecutive seasons Bill has helped take the 15 Gold team in 2009 and the 16 Gold team in 2010 to the Junior Nationals. The 16 Gold won the GOLD medal in the National Division with a perfect record of 11-0.  Prior to this club season, Bill was the assistant volleyball coach at Salinas High School where he was instrumental in taking the girls to a 2nd place finish in the 2009 CIF Division I State Championships.  Before coming to Main Beach Bill spent 4 seasons with the Salinas Valley Volleyball Club and 4 years with Salinas High School Girl's and Boy's teams. His coaching resume also includes collegiate experience at Cuesta College in San Luis Opispo and youth training with San Benancio Middle School.  Bill is USAV CAP1 certified, Gold Medal Squared, a member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association and a member of the Positive Coaching Alliance.  Originally from Los Gatos, he now resides in Aptos with his wife and their three daughters.  When not working or coaching, Bill likes to hang out with his family and friends, surf with his daughters, run trais and sleep in! 

Andy Mandon - 15 Gold Asst. Coach 

Andy Mandon is an English teacher and the Head Volleyball Coach at Salinas High School. This will be Andy's second year with Main Beach. This past high school season Andy took his team all the way to the State Finals in the CIF Division I Volleyball Championships, a first for Salinas High School. Andy comes to us from Southern California where he coached for South Bay Volleyball Club for 5 years, where he took his 15’s team to Junior Olympics.  He also coached the boys and girls varsity at Torrance High School for 3 years.  Upon moving to Salinas to teach middle school, Andy took on the head coaching position at Bethany College in Santa Cruz.  While at Bethany, Andy turned the program from a 3-13 start in his first year to 12-4 the next.  He also earned Coach of the Year honors in his third year in the California Pacific Conference.  After leaving Bethany, he coached  for Salinas Valley Volleyball Club, becoming only the second coach to take a team from Salinas Valley to the Junior Nationals. Originally from San Jose, Andy was a four-year varsity volleyball player in high school.  He went on to play at Long Beach City College for two years, followed by a year at Cal State Northridge as a setter.  Andy lives in Salinas with his wife Lori and their three children.  When Andy is not in the classroom or in the gym you can find him working with his church youth group, making breakfast or dinner for a team or spending quality time with his family.

Trevor Krieg - 15 Blue Head Coach

Trevor Krieg is currently the varsity coach for Mount Madonna High School. He is in his 3rd season with Main Beach. In 2009 he helped take the 16 Gold team to Junior Nationals. This past year he worked with our 14 Gold team. Trevor is a junior at UCSC where is majoring in mathematics.  He played for Saugus High School in southern California and was an All-league selection his senior year where he set 2 records for the most digs in a match as a libero. Trevor  played club for Shock Volleyball Club in Thousand Oaks for two years.  In addition to playing volleyball in high school, Trevor coached community league for four years.  After graduating Trevor plans on becoming a high school math teacher and  further his career in coaching.  Trevor is very excited about his first head coaching position at Mt Madonna.

Amy Knight - 14 Gold Head Coach

Amy Knight just graduated from UCSC where she majored in Neuroscience. She was the starting setter and team captain at UCSC and holds the record for the most assists in a season.  Amy played for Anzar High School in San Juan Batista, CA. on varsity for 3 of her 4 years and was All – League selection her senior year.  Amy has been a part of the Main Beach Family for five years. She was a player in our club for two years and has  been an assistant coach for three.  This will be Amy's first year as a head coach for our club.  Amy is one of our beach coaches as well as a coach for the Nike Volleyball Camps in the summer. Amy’s love for volleyball has taken her to the beach so now she can play all year round. If she is not in the gym setting records you will find her on the beach where she is a AA player and looking to earn her AAA soon.

Nicole Thometz - 13 Gold Head Coach

Nicole will begin her 2nd year with Main Beach after playing division I volleyball for the University of Portland from 2004-2008. As a 4 year starting outside hitter for the Portland Pilots Nicole led the West Coast Conference in service aces in 2006 and was also voted onto the All-WCC Academic Team. She received All-Tournament honors at the Wildcat Classic at Davidson College in 2006 and at the Molten Volleyball Invitational in Reno, Nevada, in 2006. Nicole was also voted onto the 2006 CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine All Academic All District Volleyball Third Team. While in Portland Nicole coached for Athena Volleyball Club and spent her summers coaching college, high school, and beach volleyball camps in both Portland and Southern California. Nicole grew up in Mission Viejo, CA, and played for Saddleback Valley Volleyball Club where she places second at nationals her 16s year. She also played for Capistrano Valley High School where she led her team to 2 undefeated league seasons as a junior and senior. Nicole earned her AAA beach volleyball rating her sophomore year of college and continues to play beach volleyball since moving to Santa Cruz. Currently, Nicole is in her third year of graduate school at UCSC where she is studying to get her PhD in marine biology. 

Katie English - 13 Gold Asst. Coach

Katie English is a mighty senior at UCSC where she is majoring in psychology with a minor in education. She is currently a starting outside hitter for UCSC and she has tied two of UCSC’s school records and hopes to help her team make it to the NCAA division three regional championships this year for the school’s first time. She played for St. Lucy’s High School in Glendora, California and helped in leading her team to two league titles and got to the semi- finals for CIF in 2005. She also played 6 years of club volleyball for Rancho Valley Volleyball Club in Southern California. This is her third year of coaching at Main Beach . After graduating she hopes get her teaching credential so she can become an elementary school teacher and continue to coach.  We hope she gets a job in Santa Cruz!