Ljungqvist joins Ah Mow-Santos’ staff, Hall full-time beach
Awesome hire IMHO for Ah Mow-Santos. Hall happy to be just the beach coach Much better situation for him, a single dad with two young daughters.
Ljungqvist is going with the traditional Swedish spelling of her last name now. Expected to be in Hawaii next week.
Two of the most decorated players in Hawaii women’s volleyball history will be reunited this coming season when Angelica Ljungqvist, the 1996 AVCA national player of the year, joins Robyn Ah Mow-Santos’ inaugural staff.
Today’s announcement was one of made today by Hawaii athletic director David Matlin. The other is that current head beach and indoor associative head coach Jeff Hall will move solely to the beach program as the new full-time coach.
In addition, current indoor assistant Kaleo Baxter will remain with the program.
Middle blocker Ljungquist and setter Ah Mow-Santos were part of the last Rainbow Wahine team to reach the NCAA tournament championship match, losing to Stanford in 1996. In their final two seasons, the pair helped Hawaii to a 66-4 record.
“I am beyond excited that Angelica is returning to Hawaii as a member of my first staff!,” Ah Mow-Santos said in a statement. “She knows what it means to play for and represent the state of Hawaii, and what it feels like to put on a Rainbow Wahine jersey and play in front of our amazing fans.
“Ultimately Angelica will be a great role model for all our players.”
UH’s first four-time All-American, Ljungqvist — now using the traditional spelling of her Swedish surname — was inducted into the UH Sports Circle of Honor in 2005 along with Ah Mow-Santos. She also was Volleyball magazine’s national player of the year in 1996, recipient of the Honda Award as the country’s top female volleyball player, and received the top student-athlete awards from the Western Athletic Conference (Stan Bates Award) and Hawaii (Jack Bonham Award).
Hall is currently in Gulf Shores, Alabama, where the fifth-seeded SandBows are preparing for the NCAA national championship that begins Friday. Hawaii won its second consecutive Big West Conference tournament championship last Saturday.
“Jeff and his staff have done a outstanding job with our beach volleyball program,” Matlin said in a release. “We are excited that he will be able to dedicate 100 percent of his efforts to this nationally competitive team.”
Good, hopefully she’ll have contacts in Europe for recruiting.
I think the Wahine need to be more like the men’s team and bring in international recruits since it’s becoming harder to bring in top California and other mainland players.
I like the hire in terms of technical ability, and potential for international/European recruiting. Thought Angelica was going to become a barrister, but maybe this is more interesting for her. Big question, how well will she do in recruiting? Both ladies aren’t established recruiters, but I am going to give them both a 3 years to prove themselves.
Again, congrats to Hall, the beach volleyball program is going in the right direction.
Cool, she was and is till this day the best all around middle I have ever seen play the women’s game… Now she needs to get working on trying to get one of my all time favorites Annie Mitchem back for one more year… She did miss combined almost an entire year of play due to injury.
WOW!
Time for me to eat crow….this announcement definitely made me excited. Hope others feel the same!
From UH website
Im excited
http://hawaiiathletics.com/news/2017/5/3/ljungqvist-joins-womens-volleyball-staff-baxter-retained.aspx
For the past six years, Ljungqvist coached with the Vallentuna Volleyball Club while completing her law degree from Stockholm University. The club participated in the second highest division in Sweden and captured the title in consecutive years from 2012-13 and ’13-14. The junior girls took first place in a pair of major tournaments in Sweden – 2012 Youth Grand Prix and 2014 Swedish Nationals.
3. Mitchem is done. She played too many matches to be eligible for a medical redshirt, plus she used a redshirt year at IVC. Time to move on and look to the future.
Alright. Welcome back Angelica!
Perhaps the greatest setter/hitter combo ever at UH is now leading the program. I like it. The two have the resume that should keep the top recruits interested at least. Hope Angelica is in it for the long run, and not just a temporary move.
Not worried about either’s coaching ability. They’ve played through Dave’s system and at the highest level of volleyball for years. Not worried about their love for the state, the fans, UH and this program.
My only concern is recruiting. BUT, I will say that we’ve been in dire need of international recruits and Angelica will begin that pipeline again (I hope).
Glad Baxter was retained, he’s another great local connection and has extensive experience in SoCal. At least a year or two to evaluate.
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Absolutely excited for Hall. Give this guy so much credit on overseeing TWO teams. Can you imagine how much practice, recruiting, and overall administrative/coaching duties he’s put in the last few years. This year especially with Shoji out.
He deserves that full-time head coaching position and Beach Volleyball for UH is WELL WORTH the financial investment. Men’s indoor and Women’s Beach should always be Top 5 IMO.
Great time to be a UH Volleyball fan!
Nice, all around.
I always am happy when alum come back to coach. Josh Walker has done a great job for men. Angelica was so much a team player like Robyn. They think alike, both are very intense with a cool exterior. I also think that Baxter will be an effective recruiter here and in California. It should be easy to sell this coaching staff to a kid who wants to learn from the best. It would be nice if Angelica knew of any Swedish and/or other European players who would like to play here.
My biggest question for this staff is can they recruit? I wonder how much recruiting Robyn and Kaleo have done in the past while they were on staff. I agree that hopefully the European connection with Angelica can help re spark that pipeline. Adding some international talent could really help the program.
3. as Mav said, Mitchem is done.
Other good news, Mol cleared to practice. did a one-arm block of Solbrig and is jump serving. Welcome back. he’s still working with the second team.
we’ll see about the recruiting. Not like Ah Mow-Santos has been out of it. She was helping Shoji recruit up until a year ago. she’s dialed into the club scene. don’t understand the problem.
10. one thing. i don’t know if Baxter stays on as an assistant or returns to DOVO. just been told he remains on staff
12. Problem is that recent UH recruiting is replacing top 50/75 talent with those rated 50-200 spots lower, Iosia excepted, and this downward trend is worrying. Big concern about falling farther in the WVB ranks, like LBSU. And while RAMS may be dialed in to the club scene, fans want to see that result in top player commitments, which is a big question mark right now. With Ljungqvist, the potential is there for int’l recruiting (not domestic right now), but the conversion question remains. In essence, fans want the new coaches to “show them the money” by landing recruits that will make UH a top 10 program again. I think the coaches will need 2-3 years to do this, but maybe RAMS and AL will surprise.
12.
It’s not a problem. It’s just an unknown on how well the staff will do in recruiting on their own. While for example you mention Robyn has done recruiting while on staff and is familiar with the vball club scene, one has to wonder how much Shoji had to do with gaining some of those recruits. While he may not have been directly recruiting, he could have had an influence on some just by the fact that he is an icon in the sport. He mentioned frequently that he told recruits not to come here for him and come for the program, but there was also no indication that he was going to retire and suddenly as he did.
I think that coach Shoji might have had a hand in getting Angelica to return to help coach the Wahine with Robyn. What a dynamic duo. With their resume, they should do just fine recruiting top players.
The best part of this announcement is that Robyn gets to choose her staff and Hall gets his dream job focusing on beach (I assume BVB won’t report up to indoor anymore, but Cindy can clarify). If BVB reports to AD, then probably will see greater separation between BVB and indoor as the programs specialize. Won’t be a strict prohibition like at USC, but I think we won’t see as much indoor crossing over to beach as in years past. Just speculating.
15. To add, RAMS wasn’t the lead recruiter for UH. It was Wong and then Hall. Plus a lot of recruits talked of playing for a legend like Shoji. So recruiting will be a question mark until we see who commits.
But to repeat, I like AL’s hiring and the potential she brings to recruiting int’l players.
18.
I like the hire as well. I hope they continue the success of the program.
16. I wouldn’t be so sure about their recruiting prowess just yet. We had Shoji, a true legend of the game, and still landed only one top 25 recruit recently in Iosia, and none committed. Shoji has said in the past that he stopped focusing on top recruits because UH wasn’t even on their radar. Geographic distance from the mainland is still a huge issue, as well as UH not being in a power football conference. And there are only so many top players of Polynesian descent to go around.
I would say give them a chance before trying to pass judgement.
21. That’s what I said too.
Cindy, can you confirm whether BVB will continue to report up to indoor or will report straight to the AD?
As much as we (in Hawaii) see Shoji as an icon, teenage girls may not have seen him as a huge reason to come to Hawaii, as opposed to Hawaii volleyball itself.
I remember him saying that over the past few years, Shoji said he would tell recruits to come to Hawaii for Hawaii and not him.
24. Yes, that is true, but mainly because he couldn’t commit to being at UH for the recruits’ entire 4-year careers. If he was certain he was going to be at UH for the long-term, he wouldn’t have switched the messaging.
Amazing get for Wahine VB. Our Middles (Maglio and Burns) are good but will get better under the tutelage of AL, one of the all time greats at that position.
#14. When was the last time we had a top 10 recruiting class? Every year it gets harder to compete with the Power 5 schools for talent. Women’s volleyball has grown to the point where top players can be found in just about every region in the country as opposed to just the West Coast and Hawaii pre title IX.
It’s not just about the facilities and money when it comes to Power 5 recruiting. These schools offer potential recruits a chance to be a part of a Power 5 athletic program. They can attend SEC, Big 10, Pac 10, ACC and Big 12 football games, basketball games and any other athletic competition the school has to offer. There’s a certain amount of prestige to say you compete for a big name school.
The best thing Hawaii has to offer is it’s fan base and the celebrity of being a volleyball player here.
27. Last top 10 was in 2010 (Hartong’s class). See: http://www.sportshawaii.com/sh/viewtopic.php?t=46033
Scroll down to see the list. Iosia’s class was #21 per other sources. Willoughby’s class was #5. So many years ago…
In recruiting, I think connections helps but not always that important. If you get into a recruits home(wherever that is) and the parents and kids see what kind of coach/person you are, that could count for me.
The fact that Robyn is a local girl and Anjelica is from Sweden isn’t necessarily a negative. Just take a look at how Charlie recruits. He has been all over the world and even some places where he doesn’t really have extensive connection. Bularia, England, Norway, the Netherlands, and even far away places like Illinois, Virginia Beach and Pennsylvania(hehe).
The coaches need to identify talent and then go convince them to play for UH. No matter if they never recruited in those area before. They just need to turn the charm on when they meet the prospects and their families.
Since Anjelica was coaching in Sweden, I am expecting a Swedish player or two in the next few years.
I take Isabelle Haak any day of the week.
For many on this blog, RAMS/AL’s success in landing Ogilvie will be critical and a sign of where the program is headed. Local girl, truly a top national recruit, and one that UH must keep home it if wants to remain a top program. Lose her, and there will be more than a few groans from the posters. Land her, and the posters will give the coaches mucho support.
I guess we are all hoping for quality recruits. However, would like to acknowledge and appreciate what we have, ’cause it ain’t too bad. Really like Emily Maglio, as she continues to get better. Also, believe that Kirsten Sibley will be much better next year. So, although we haven’t gotten at top 10 class in a decade or so, we are still able to get the Nikkis and Annies of this world, etc… Believe, Shaney and Sophia are sleepers and will surprise some and in 2018, Trinity C. is a great get. So Hana Hou for continued success by the NEXT ladies up, both players and staff!
Heard another DS NOT returning. Is it true?
29.
That would be awesome. Wasn’t Maja Gustin from Sweden?
Looked at Isabell Haak video and daanngg. She would be another Nikki for the next four years! But is she committed anywhere yet? If so whoever she plays for will be very lucky and is the type that can lead them to being contenders for years to come.
Agree, we need to recruit overseas. Anjelica can be our point recruiter. Hope she can coach and smooze with the recruit parents.
34 – Andrew, Maja was from Slovenia.
Pics from the NCAA Banquet
https://www.facebook.com/pg/HawaiiMensVB/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10155181062027226
liked how Angelica forwarded Karen Lundquist to UH after she was done with her collegiate career. Although Karen was no Angelica im sure Angelica will open up that foreign pipeline as UH cant seem to land a top talent. UH has been fortunate in landing project players that excelled to top talent..IE Emily Hartong…but we havent had a Blue Chip recruit since Croson and Danielson.
It will be exciting and it might take time. I have a good feeling RAMS will get these girls in the type of shape and more enthusiastic. She will help make the setters who are very good, awesome and the back row hustle and dive for balls. AL will be a proven MB and OH coach as NCAA National Player of the Year in 1996 as a MB for Hawaii
I think their attitude and “passion by action” will show. From their past success, it allows them to transfer it to the returnees and new players. Been there, done it, and now time to coach them up as the HC.
RAMS has local recruiting and connection. from her notoriety she has all over the U.S.A
AL has European connections especially coaching top Sweden/European teams
Kaleo Baxter also has California and local ties…..Thanks Dave Shoji in passing the torch to 2 former athletes who knows what it takes to be the winners they are..
38. found the banquet to be lacking when compared to the women’s banquet, which is usually a plated lunch and has really good video presentations.
Felt sorry for the players when it came to the buffet. pretty sparse for them, they actually brought out more food after the awards presentation. salad, chicken breasts, mashed potatoes and roasted veggies. cake pops on the table. self-serve water, ice tea and coffee.
it was Ok for me but i’d say the average size of the players was 6-3 to 6-5. was told there was concerns they’d run out of food after letting the players eat first.
feel they deserved better.
as for Shoji’s finger on this hire. pretty sure it’s all Ah Mow-Santos’ doing. They’ve remained very close over the years.
Re: beach reporting to AD or indoor. I cannot confirm but since the program is now independent of indoor would assume it was to the AD or the SWA or whoever is going to oversee the ‘non revenue sports’ But their offices are right next to each other so would think they’d discuss recruiting players
53. as have stated previously, Smith and Freitas not returning. were you thinking anyone else? Have see the others during early morning workouts.
http://hawaiiwarriorworld.com/?p=43311
new thread up for Thursday