FRESNO STATE’S NEW VOLLEYBALL COACH

Earlier this year, Jonathan Winder became the new head coach for the Fresno State women’s volleyball team.

The four-time All-American and 2007 NCAA player of the year at Pepperdine, Winder spent the last few years as the assistant volleyball coach for the University of Washington.

Since his welcome to the Bulldog program, Winder changed a lot about the program: “We’ve changed almost everything, from a system stand point on offense on defense, culturally everything is different, almost everything is different.”

The Bulldogs seemed to respond well to the change in coaching, playing hard in 2018.

Senior Taylor Slover and her teammates were big fans of Winder’s. “He’s very good at being, just keeping us relaxed. He never puts any unneeded pressure on us, or tension thats not needed. He’s very good at just being calm. And like every day we know what to expect, we’re not gonna be ‘Is coach gonna be in a bad mood?'” said Slover.

“I’ve become better in the last six or seven months since he’s been my coach than I have in the past three years.”

Coach Winder’s composure and coaching strategies helped the ‘Dogs excel.

After two big wins, the Fresno State volleyball team was ranked first in the Mountain West Conference in October 2018. The team’s six and one record under Winder was their best conference start since 2012.