You might say a good portion of Jorge Urbina's life revolved around volleyball already.
He played through college, helped coach his friends' teams later on and even met his wife through an adult open league.
Now he's taken the next step.
Urbina, a coach with the Capital City Volleyball Club in Carson City, has been named the new coach at Douglas High School.
"I heard about the opening at Douglas and I looked it over very closely and decided I was up to the challenge," Urbina said. "I talked it over with my wife and we decided this would be a good thing.
"My goal is to keep that Douglas High School name in the limelight as a truly great volleyball program."
When practice officially opens in August, Urbina will become the Tigers' eighth head coach in as many years.
That's not to say he will be building from the ground up. The Tigers have been to the regional championship match in seven of the last eight years and have claimed the Sierra League title all six seasons since the league was established in 2000.
"Douglas has always been blessed with some extraordinarily talented female athletes," Douglas athletic director Jeff Evans said. "That has been especially noticeable in volleyball.
"We're extremely excited to get a coach of Jorge's caliber and we're confident he'll continue the strong tradition that has been built here."
Urbina and his wife, Lauren - who played for Whittell from 1993 to 1996 before earning a full-ride scholarship to play for Rhode Island University - moved back into the area in 2004.
"I already know some of the girls through the Capital City Club," Urbina said. "I'm looking forward to meeting the rest of them."
He began playing volleyball as a sophomore in high school and continued on in college. He played on the USA adult level including several trips overseas, and has continued on with it ever since. He met his wife while playing adult league volleyball in Massachusetts.
He served as a volunteer assistant at New York City College for both the men's and women's teams.
"I love the game," he said. "Everything about the sport, I have an appreciation of it. That's why I wanted to give something back to it by coaching.
"My approach is that the game is about 40 percent mental and 60 percent physical. You can be a tremendous physical athlete, but if your mind is not in the right place, you simply are not going to do that well."
Douglas should return starters Bridget Maestretti and Riece Steel and standout reserves Alex Risko, Megan Myers, Allie Hughes and Bonnie Matheson from last season's regional runner-up squad.
Both the junior varsity and freshman squads fielded successful seasons last year as well.
Urbina said he is planning to run open gym workouts on Mondays and Wednesdays in the month of July leading up to the opening of practice.
"We just want the girls to be able to get back into the rhythm of the game before tryouts start," he said. "It'll also be a good way to get to know them better."
Urbina will be starting a new job as a project manager with Syncon Homes soon. He and his wife have a 10-month-old daughter, Alexandra.
n Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
