Girls volleyball: Salladin steps in at Mesa
Barry Faulkner
COSTA MESA - Allison Salladin, who played at Edison High and Azusa
Pacific University, has taken over as Costa Mesa High girls volleyball
coach, Mustangs Girls Athletic Director Pat Leahy said.
Salladin, formerly Allison Webb, takes over for Joe Havens, the
school’s girls tennis coach who had volunteered to also fill the void
created when Darlene Bailey resigned as volleyball coach after one
season. Havens, who said he would happily step aside, should the program
find a qualified coach, put the Mustangs through about a week worth of
workouts, beginning Aug. 21.
Salladin, a 26-year-old walk-on, said she hopes to bring stability to
a program for which she is the sixth coach since 1997.
“The first thing one of the players asked me was, ‘Are you going to be
the coach next year?’ ” Salladin said. “I really hope I will be, because
I think the girls would benefit from some consistency.”
An outside hitter at Edison, where she helped the 1992 Chargers win
the Sunset League title, she started two seasons at setter for APU, which
went to the NAIA Tournament her sophomore season.
She graduated with an accounting degree in 1997 and followed her
husband to New Jersey, where he attended law school.
She coached for the South Jersey Club back east and returned to Orange
County in May. She learned of the Costa Mesa opening from her parents,
who are both high school volleyball officials.
“I’m very excited about this opportunity,” Salladin said. “When I
first thought about coaching this season, it was as a junior varsity
coach or maybe as a varsity assistant. But I thought this was the perfect
job, so I took it. I think we’ll have a good team with a lot of young
talent.”
Salladin, a Buena Park resident who has worked in accounting the last
four years, said she was considering teaching as a future career and
could possibly work as a substitute teacher at Costa Mesa this fall.
The Mustangs are scheduled to open their season Oct. 2 against Pacific
Coast League rival Northwood.
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