Western Nebraska Community College volleyball coach Giovana Melo received a special honor from the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
The AVCA announced its Thirty under 30 awards and Melo was one of 30 assistant or head coaches from high school to NCAA Division I to be selected. In fact, Melo is just one of two junior college head coaches to make the “Thirty under 30” special recognition. The other junior college head coach is Caitlin Faulk of Broward College in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Melo never thought she would receive this kind of recognition this early in her coaching career.
“It is an honor to be receiving this award. I am proud to be representing our program and school,” Melo said. “It is pretty exciting but the recognition should not be just mine. I would have not done it without my assistant Nicole [Gonzalez] and my players, who worked really hard to have a successful season, which allowed me to even get nominated for this award.”
Melo was dominated for the award my former Missouri State-West Plains coach Trish Knight. Knight is now in the NJCAA Hall of Fame and just recently accepted the head coaching position at Texas Tech.
“It is special to be nominated by a Hall of Fame coach for the honor,” she said. “She is an excellent coach and has had an extremely successful program at West Plains in many years. I remember when I played she was already their coach and always got them to the final four at Nationals. That is probably a big reason why now she is moving on to be a D-I coach. It is an honor to be nominated by someone like her.”
Melo just completed her first season as the head coach for the Cougars, guiding them to a 59-4 record and a third place finish at the national tournament. WNCC finished third with a thrilling five-game win over Iowa Western Community College.
Melo started her collegiate volleyball career has a setter for the Cougars under former coach Chris Green back in 2001 and 2002, earning second team NJCAA All-American honors her freshman year and first team All-American honors her sophomore year. She helped guide the Cougars to an 104-14 record in two seasons, including a third place finish at nationals in 2001
“I knew she [Trish Knight] remembered me from when I played because she came and talked to me on our first tournament at Iowa Western,” she said. “After that, we have talked in tournaments, meetings, etc. We are not that close, we just have a normal coach's relationship. I have always had a lot of respect for her and her team.”
After WNCC, Melo went on to play for Arizona State University, where she played two seasons, before tearing her ACL in her senior season for the Sun Devils and had to use a red-shirt season. She earned PAC-10 All-Academic honors in 2005.
Melo came to WNCC in April after two years as a graduate assistant and assistant coach at Arizona State.
In the February/March issue of the AVCA magazine “Coaching Volleyball,” Melo said she is taking it slow up the coaching ladder. Melo is just 27 years old.
“I don’t have long-term goals for my career in the sport because I want to take it slow,” she said. “I am just starting as a head coach this year and I still have so much to learn. It is such a huge change to go from a player to a coach. I never thought I would be a head coach as soon, and here I am enjoying every minute of it.”
Melo is currently recruiting for next year’s team and she has some holes to fill since she loses three sophomores – Fatima Balza, who committed to Penn State, Nayka Benitez, who committed to Creighton, and Paloma Alvarez, who will make her college decision in the next month.
So far Melo has signed two players for next season in Emily Hoehn of Kearney Catholic, a 5-foot-6 libero, and Ariel Austin, rightside hitter from Woodland Park, Colo.
The complete list of the AVCA Thirty over 30 listing includes, Lindi Brankowski, assistant coach at Austin Peay State (NCAA DI); Brittany Baum, assistant coach at Wittenberg University (NCAA DIII); Ben Boldt, assistant coach at University of Alabama (NCAA Di); Ryan Campbell, assistant coach at Cornerstone University (NAIA); Caitlin Faulk, head coach at Broward College (JUCO); Becky Fletcher, head men’s and women’s coach at Sunytt (NCAA DIII); Kyle Gamble, assistant coach at Iowa Western Community College (JUCO); Todd Garvey, head coach at Mercy Academy (high school); Chris Gaskill, assistant coach at University of Iowa (NCAA DI); Kelly Greapentrog, head coach at St. John Fisher College (NCAA DIII); Emily Hawthorne, head coach at Zionville High School (high school); Kristina Hernandez, head coach at Hofstra University (NCAA DI); Michael Johnson, assistant head coach at Cal Poly (NCAA DI); GTretchen Killebrew, assistant coach at Seattle University (NCAA D!); Matt Martin, assistant men’s coach at Loyola University-Chicago (NCAA DI and DII); Giovana Melo, head coach Western Nebraska Community College (JUCO); Stephanie Moreno, assistant coach at University of San Diego (NCAA DI); Kelly Morrisroe, assistant coach at Eckerd College (NCAA DII); George Mulry, head coach at Longmeadeo High (high school); Vince Muscat, head coach at Allen Park Inter-City Baptist (high school); Coley Pawlikowski, head coach at North Park University (NCAA DIII); Jessy Roy, assistant coach at Lynn Unviversity (NCAA DII); Lauren Sauer, assistant coach at University of Kentucky (NCAA DI); Jamie Skadeland, head coach at Colorado School of Mines (NCAA DII); Eric Snyder, head coach at Stonehill College (NCAA DII); Holly Strauss-O’Brien, head coach at University of Connecticut (NCAA DI); John Titus, head coach at Parsippany High (high school); Christy Utnage, assistant coach at Xavier University (NCAA DI); J.T. Wenger, assistant coach for UCLA men (DI); Lettie Wilkes head coach of Belmont Abbey College (NCAA DII), and in memoriam David Hildebrandt, head men’s and women’s coach at Elms College (NCAA DIII), who died in a camping accident this summer.
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