Fresno State leads MW in volleyball spending. New coach wants payoff in standings

Fresno State introduced Jonathan Winder as its new women’s volleyball coach on Friday afternoon, and the athletic department no doubt is hoping that the former NCAA player of the year and assistant coach at one of the top programs in the Pac-12 can do something with its substantial investment in the sport.

Fresno State has spent more on its women’s volleyball program than any school in the Mountain West and yet has not had a winning conference record the past four seasons, finishing 10th, eighth and the past two seasons tied for eighth.

That support is no guarantee, obviously. But it is a very good starting point and was a draw for Winder, the son-in-law of Clovis West High boys basketball coach Vance Walberg.

“I wanted to go to a place that supported volleyball, that wanted volleyball to win,” Winder said. “The only standard that I’ve known is to compete for a conference championship, so I needed to go to a place and wanted to go to a place that is going to give the coaches and the players an opportunity to succeed and Fresno State does that.”

According to federal research, Fresno State volleyball expenses in 2016 were $293,093.

Boise State, which won the Mountain West championship in 2016, the most recent federal numbers available, spent $149,422.

Colorado State, which won the conference this past season, spent $183,397.

“This place checked all the boxes,” Winder said. “It’s the support. It’s the family. It’s the good culture that’s in place already. There are strong academic opportunities for student-athletes.

“There is a ton of support, certainly within the administration, but in the community, as well. They have the Side Out Club and some great people that support the program both internally and externally. That was a big factor for me.”

Fresno State didn’t do much with that under former coach Lauren Netherby-Sewell, who was fired Nov. 28. Netherby-Sewell was 132-165 in 10 seasons, 42-66 in Mountain West matches. The Bulldogs over the past four seasons also had only two conference player of the week selections – libero Maggie Eppright, both times, both in 2016.

“When we looked at this search process, we believe our program should be competing for championships and we wanted to find that right fit, that individual that could develop our student-athletes academically, athletically, recruit at a high level, recruit in the state of California and someone who had a great connection to the Valley and Fresno and would be able to build our program to one of the best not just in the state but within the Mountain West,” interim athletics director Steve Robertello said.

Winder comes to Fresno State from Washington, where for the past three years he was an assistant for the Huskies’ indoor program and head coach of its beach program.

Washington in those three years was 105-21 with back-to-back Pac-12 championships and NCAA Tournament Elite Eight appearances in 2015 and ’16.

On the beach, Winder last season led the Huskies to a third-place finish at the Pac-12 championships. Washington in its third season fielding a beach program was 11-7 and ranked No. 16 in the nation.

Looking forward with Fresno State, he said, “I think we’re starting from a good place because we have a good group of girls that are currently here – 11 returners and so there’s a great group of young women who are hard-working, that want to be good.

“They want to improve this program. They want to improve on the success they had last year and when you get out there, success tends to breed more success and it becomes easier to recruit when you’re winning a lot of games.”

This story was originally published January 26, 2018 at 2:03 PM with the headline "Fresno State leads MW in volleyball spending. New coach wants payoff in standings."