After finishing up with San Jose State’s most successful indoor volleyball season in over 10 years, Alex Luna heads into his second beach season as the assistant coach.
On the beach side, Luna manages most aspects of the team and is responsible for the fall and spring training of the student-athletes as well as scheduling and recruiting. During the 2017 season, he helped lead the Spartans through a tough schedule facing multiple top-10 nationally ranked teams as well as a win over California which earned the team votes to break into the top-20 poll.
On the indoor side, the 2017 Spartans finished the season with a 17-12 overall record and notable wins over Pepperdine, Santa Clara, and #21 Colorado State. Luna worked primarily with the setters and middles, including two-time All-Mountain West middle blocker honoree Nandyala Gama, and All-Mountain West setter Breann Robinson, both of whom competed on the 2017 Mountain West All-Star Team. Luna acted as an offensive coordinator and was in charge of developing weekly and in-game offensive strategies while working with the pin hitters as well. Aside from training, Luna also holds recruiting and scheduling responsibilities.
Luna has an extensive volleyball coaching background. He has been involved with both Indoor and Beach USA High Performance National Team Selection Camps and Tryouts, as well a number of camps during the summer including serving as a court coach at TCU, Beach and Indoor camps in Texas, Florida, Wisconsin, and California. He also worked at John Paul II High School in Richardson, Texas, as a varsity assistant and junior varsity coach. Luna stays very involved in coaching education and has gone through his second Beach Coaching Accreditation Program (BCAP II).
Luna began his coaching career in club volleyball with Club Max in the North Texas Region where he was the 15s National assistant coach. He coached for Texas Volleyball Training on the beach side and qualified multiple pairs for the beach nationals.
Later, he left Club Max to help create Arete Athletics where he served as the 16s National head coach. The team recorded two third-place finishes and seven top-10 finishes while achieving a top-20 ranking over 140 clubs. Off the court, Luna also served as the marketing assistant for the club. He also continued to coach beach with the Texas Volleyball Training and The Beach at Craig Ranch.
In 2014, Luna served as an undergraduate assistant coach at the University of Texas at Dallas. That season, the team went 22-11 overall and 12-4 in conference play. Luna helped run practices and traveled with the team to do statistics and manage film.
During his playing career, he was an outside hitter at UT Dallas for the men’s club team. Luna also saw time at setter and libero. The club finished fourth at the SIVA Championships his senior year. He also worked as a club official in the North Texas Region and took an active role in growing the men’s game in the South.