By Khalida Sarwari
Armen Zakarian is in Southern California preparing for an opportunity of a lifetime. The West Valley College volleyball coach was invited to coach in the Pan-American Volleyball Cup in Mexico this month.
Zakarian, who coaches women’s indoor and beach volleyball, was selected as an assistant coach for the USA Volleyball Men’s National Team. The tournament takes place May 21-26 in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. Pre-training is under- way at the USA Volleyball facility in Anaheim.
“The best athletes and coaching minds are gathering in Anaheim training for this tournament, so it’s a tremendous opportunity to be a part of the effort,” said Zakarian. “I’m excited to be learning and improving my skills as a coach, which will help West Valley in the future.”
Zakarian has Ron Larsen to thank for the opportunity to join the Pan-Ameri- can Cup coaching staff. He said he was “humbled, honored, and excited” when Larsen, a head coach and gold medal winner as anassistantcoachinthe 2008 Olympics, invited him to take part in the tournament. Larsen and Zakarian used to work together at UC-Irvine.
The opportunity fell in Zakarian’s lap at the end of his first season as head volleyball coach at West Valley, where his Lady Vikings indoor squad went 11-9 and the beach team made significant improvements in their second year of existence.
Previously, Zakarian was the top assistant coach at UC-Irvine, where he helped coach the team to the NCAA Final Four in 2015. Prior to UC-Irvine, he was the head coach at Santa Barbara City College, where his team earned spots in three consecutive
state playoffs and he was named the 2011 State Conference Coach of the Year. He has served on the USA Volleyball coaching staff as a high performance coach since 2010.
Zakarian said he looks forward to learning as much as he can in Anaheim and Mexico and bringing those lessons back with him.
“This is a great way to represent the college and the country,” Zakarian said.
