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.