Wiser Wallace leads Broncos

Estancia High product, who was an assistant coach at OCC, directs Santa Clara to women’s volleyball Final Four.It wasn’t exactly hitting bottom. When the Santa Clara University women’s volleyball team finished third in the West Coast Conference and was eliminated in the first round of the NCAA championships last season, it wasn’t as if the Broncos had even slipped to mediocrity with their 18-9 record.

But Coach Jon Wallace, who had guided Santa Clara to the postseason in each of his first six years at the school, decided a fix was required, even if the program was not truly broken.

“It’s hard to say what we were doing wasn’t working,” said Wallace, a former star setter at Estancia High, whose coaching career includes stops at Corona del Mar High and Orange Coast College.

“But I was disgusted with myself. I decided to completely refocus our direction, in the way we train, play the game, everything. I studied the top teams in the country to try to found out why they were winning and tried to mirror that, within our own Bronco way. We started a new mission eight months ago to be playing the way we are now.”

That mission, which included an even greater commitment to hard work, helped the Broncos land in the Final Four.

And though the Broncos were defeated by No. 1-ranked Nebraska, 30-24, 30-19, 30-21, in one semifinal Thursday at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, Wallace said prior to Thursday’s match he was savoring the biggest accomplishment of his coaching career.

It was a coaching career that began even before Wallace had retired as a player.

Wallace -- the son of former Orange Coast College Athletic Director Barry Wallace, who also coached several sports at OCC -- first made headlines at Estancia. He went on to become a two-time All-American setter at UC Santa Barbara, helping the Gauchos reach the 1988 NCAA final as a junior.

He played professionally -- indoors in Switzerland and on the beach in 1994 as part of a four-on-four tour.

But though he had coached under UC Irvine women’s coach Charlie Brande at the Newport Beach-based Balboa Bay Volleyball Club, his first job out of college was in the real estate business.

“That was 1989 and 1990, when Orange County real estate took its biggest drop in history,” Wallace, 39, said.

He also dabbled a little in coaching, guiding the Corona del Mar girls’ junior varsity team in 1989.

When he returned from Switzerland two years later, he became an assistant men’s coach at OCC under Bob Wetzel, helping the Pirates win two state titles.

Wallace then became an assistant under Golden West College women’s coach Albert Gasparian. There, he helped the women win a state title in his only season, before becoming the men’s head coach for two seasons.

From there, he spent seven seasons as an assistant with the Pepperdine women’s program before being named head coach at Santa Clara in 1999.

The Broncos have averaged 22 wins per season ever since, and took the big jump to national prominence this season.

“I remember watching an NFL show and they were interviewing people about what made Bill Parcells a great coach,” Wallace said. “About three or four people all said it was attention to detail. I looked at what my team was like and realized I hadn’t been paying attention to detail. We started paying attention to every detail possible and we really got the attention of our players.”

The Broncos’ road to San Antonio included postseason wins over Sacramento State, Stanford and Pepperdine, before knocking off Arizona in a five-game regional final Saturday at Stanford.

Wallace said the win over Arizona (25-6) typified the type of effort his team has put forth this season.

“In any sport, there is always a way to win, no matter how outmatched your players are,” Wallace said. “If you get your players to believe in a concept, you have a scouting report and you execute your game plan, you’re going to have a chance to win. I think we lost just about every statistical category but the main one. We just found a way to win.”

Wallace celebrated the Arizona victory with his parents, who were at the regional final and also made the trip to San Antonio.

“My dad is a huge influence on my life and my coaching,” Wallace said. “We’ve talked for hours upon hours about strategies and just how to deal with people. He usually briefs me after every match until about 1 a.m.”

Wallace also credits Brande and Gasparian as big coaching influences. Both expressed satisfaction and pride over Wallace’s storybook season.

“I’ve known Jon since he was a little, little kid,” Brande said. “He was always a great competitor and he directed his teams well as player. It has been great to see him build Santa Clara to where it is now, through great recruiting and great, great coaching. I’m just very proud of Jon.”

Gasparian was on hand Thursday to watch his former protégé guide the Broncos against the heavily favored Cornhuskers.

“Jon has always been very dedicated,” Gasparian said. “He is a very good technical coach and he has a great rapport with players. People like him and relate well to him. I think he’s a good blend of the whole package.”

Gasparian said taking Santa Clara to the Final Four is an outstanding accomplishment.

“I saw them play UNLV early in the season at UCI and they looked terrible,” said Gasparian, who guided Golden West to 12 straight state titles before stepping down after the 2004 season. “To see how far they’ve come in three months is really amazing.”

Wallace credited his staff for helping the Broncos reach the Final Four, which he called the pinnacle of the sport. That staff includes former Orange Coast star Matt Lyles.

Lyles, who helped lead Long Beach State to the 1991 national championship as a player, played one season at OCC during Wallace’s time as an assistant there. Lyles, who spent three years on the U.S. national team and also played on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals beach tour from 1996 through 2003, is in his third season at Santa Clara.

Wallace, who lives in Los Gatos with his wife Nancy, 1-year-old son Joseph and three-week-old daughter Whitney, said he is not interested in using his breakthrough season as a springboard to another school.