Coaches Bios

2018-2019 Coaching Staff

John Child - Technical Director & Coach 18U Girls

John is a 3-time Olympian and Bronze Medalist in Beach Volleyball. In addition to playing 15 years of professional beach volleyball, John has played many years of indoor volleyball too. John has coached for many years at various levels from aspiring Olympians to young beginners, including being the head coach of the Havergal College Volleyball program and their 5 teams.
John will be the head coach of the Leaside 18U girls team this year.

Heather Bansley

This will be Heather's fifth year assisting with Leaside Volleyball Club, and she is excited to continue her development as a coach.

Heather is a current member of the Canadian Beach Volleyball National. She first represented Canada internationally in 2008, and after graduating from university in 2010 Heather started competing full-time on the Senior FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. In 2012 Heather earned Canada a birth to the London Olympic Games, but narrowly missed out on qualifying after losing in the Canadian trials. In 2016 Heather represented Canada at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where her and her partner finished in 5th place. Heather was awarded FIVB World Tour Best Defensive Player in 2015 and 2016. At the beginning of 2017, Heather teamed up with Brandie Wilkerson, and together are targeting Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Heather graduated from the University of Toronto in 2010 with a degree in English and Linguistics, where she was a member of the Varsity Women’s Volleyball Program. During her CIS indoor career, Heather was a five-time OUA All-Star, a two-time CIS All-Canadian, OUA Player of the year, and led the country in kills, aces and points-per-set.

Melvin Lowe

Melvin is excited to be coaching with Leaside again this season. He started his coaching career with boys and girls volleyball at Sir Oliver Mowat Collegiate Institute, where he has developed and led the volleyball program to 7 city championships in just 5 years. In addition he has spent the last 5 years coaching at the OVA club level. He has led these various teams to numerous medals at the Tier One level. In the past year, Melvin has worked with the ADP (Athlete Development Program) with the OVA that identifies and trains the top level athletes of their various age groups. He was an Assistant Coach with the Region 5 program when they won a Gold medal at the Ontario Summer Games held in Sudbury during the summer of 2010.

Emily McCullogh
This is Emily’s first year coaching with Leaside VC. This past summer she coached the Region 5 U16 Girls Beach team for the Ontario Summer Games where one of her teams won Gold and another finishing fourth. She coached at George Brown College for two years as an assistant to the men’s varsity program and has been the head coach for 18U, 17U, 16U and 14U girls club teams with the Markham Stingers VC. Emily is currently starting the third year of her PhD in Kinesiology and Health Science at York University and is studying how care and caring are understood and experienced in youth competitive sport.

Salvatore Taccone - Coach 16U Boys
Salvatore (Sal) Taccone, a Level 2 certified coach, is excited to be starting with a new group after finishing a successful 3 year stint with the 16U, 17U and 18U Leaside boys. Some of the accomplishments during those 3 years include: 17U
4th place Provincial finish, 17U 4 th place National finish, 18U Humber College Pre-Season Gold, 18U McMaster Invitational Gold, 18U Florida Boys Bid Tournament, Bronze and 18U Tier 3 National Gold place finish. Sal has been involved in the
game of volleyball for over 20 years as a player, OVA Provincial Official, and as a coach ranging from high school level up to Adult Women’s Division. Sal was alsoactively involved in the ADP summer program. Some of Sal’s other accomplishments include: 2 Gold and 2 Bronze National finish, Regional Summer Games Championships, Provincial Championships, and High School
Championship. Sal is excited to begin the 2017-2018 season with 15U Leaside Boys.
“Results are the outcome of our efforts”.

Luke Slater

Luke is new to the Leaside Club this year and is excited to join the 18U Boys Team as Assistant Coach. Luke fell in love with volleyball in the early 90's playing high school and club while also attending Madawaska. After playing varsity at McMaster from 1995-99 as a setter, he had success coaching high school men's teams in Kingston and Keswick. After a number of years away from the sport, Luke is excited to start enjoying volleyball again, both as a coach and player, and is looking forward to helping the 18U Boys achieve their goals this year!

Matthew Cheung- Position Specific Technical Coach
Coaching Bio:
Centennial College Women's Assistant Coach
TOPS Volleyball Coach Connex Volleyball Coach (7 NACIVT titles, 4 as a player)
Player Bio:
York University Men's Varsity 2000-2003 (OUA Silver Medalist)
Connex Volleyball 2000-2013
Education:
Master's in Applied Mathematics Teaching math at college level
Currently researching mathematical understanding in lower grades

Bob Armstrong - 15U Girls

Bob is back for his 6th year coaching at Leaside! He's excited to be back to coach the 17U Red team. Coming off a 5th place finish at Provincials and Silver Medal at Nationals, Bob is looking forward to working hard to help the team achieve their goals. He's currently taking his Level 2 coaching certification and hopes to complete it over the season. Bob will also be coaching for a third year at Havergal College. With over 20 years of experience as a beach and indoor player, Bob is constantly striving to be a better coach and to help his athletes push for excellence. You can reach Bob at 416-606-1555 or bob.armstrong22@gmail.com

Adam Billedeau

Strengths: Coaching and being an all around great guy
Weaknesses: Submitting a Bio for the coaches page

Felipe Humana- Paredes

Felipe played at York University from 2008 to 2013. After York, he joined the Full Time Training Centre in Gatineau and the Indoor National B Team in 2014. Felipe has recently decided to switch to the beach side and joined the Beach National Team in 2015. He won the 2015 Canadian Beach Volleyball Championship. Along with assistant coaching at York University, Felipe has experience coaching 13U girls, 13U boys, and 16U girls in past years.

Rob Dyba

Rob Dyba returns to coaching in the OVA after a 3 year hiatus. A libero at York University from 2004-09 he was a member of the OUA championship team of 2005 and was an OUA all-star and the OUA’s libero of the year. He spent the first season after graduation as an assistant with the Seneca College Sting before serving as a graduate-student assistant coach at the University of Alberta for two years while completing graduate school. Upon his return from out west he was an assistant coach with York and eventually assistant coached with the Lions and took over as interim head coach at
York in 2013-2014. Rob has also coached at the club level with the Aurora Storm and the NAVC under-17 and under-18 teams in Alberta. He previously served on the coaching staff with the national beach team program from 2009-2011. Rob has his NCCP level 3 for beach and indoor volleyball, as well as a Masters degree in coaching from the University of Alberta

Thinesa Sri
Thinesa is a former member of our Canadian National Team and trained overseas in Italy. She was also a member and captain of the York University Women's Volleyball Team. Thinesa has a long list of individual accomplishments as a player including making the OUA All rookie team and First Team All-star. As a former coach of the 18U Eclipse Volleyball Club, Thinesa brings a lot of skill and energy to the gym and is excited to coach our 16U girls this year

Stephane Vlachos

Stephane is excited to return to Leaside as a coach for a fourth season, his first with the 17U Girls White team. As a teacher at Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute, Stephane helps coordinate the volleyball program while coaching both boys, girls, and coed teams. Lawrence Park volleyball teams are perennial contenders for South region and City championships in the TDSB, and Stephane hopes to bring this same level of excellence to Leaside again this season. Stephane brings a great deal of knowledge, experience, and energy, which he looks forward to sharing with the 17U Girls White team this season..

Adam Ward - 17U Boys

Adam is now in his 4th full year as a coach with Leaside Volleyball. As an athlete, Adam was a member of the University of Toronto Varsity Blues volleyball team. He holds both a Bachelors degree in Physical Education and a Masters degree in Human Kinetics. Adam is currently finalizing his NCCP Level 2 Certification. Coming off an amazing year coaching the 14U boys, Adam is excited to make the move to 15U and continue to lead the development of some great young athletes!

Jake Gallo - Coach 17U Boys

Jake is excited to be joining the Leaside 15U Boys coaching staff this season. Jake is a Health and Physical Education teacher at Northern Secondary School, where he coaches both the Junior Boys and Senior Girls Volleyball teams. Over the last seven years, Jakehas led numerous TDSB high school volleyball programs to successful seasons, including a City Championship and OFSAA appearance in 2013 at C.W. Jeffreys C.I. Jakecurrently coaches the University of Toronto baseball team where he pitched from 2005-2010, and also enjoys running the Multi-Sport program at True North Sport Camps in the summer.

Katie Hutchinson - Coach 16U Girls

Katie is a certified Development Coach entering her eleventh year of coach and her sixth year as a coach for Leaside. Katie began her coaching career in San Francisco where she worked with a high school Junior Varsity and Varsity Volleyball Program. Katie is currently a mentor in the "Changing the Conversation" program through the Ontario Coaches Association working towards supporting and developing women in coaching #shecancoach. Katie was a regional coach at the 14U High Performance Camp with the OVA last summer and is looking forward to bringing the spirit and practice of HP to her team. Katie's coaching philosophy this year is about putting intention into everything you do on and off the court to make you the best volleyball player you can be Interested in playing 16U for Leaside? Contact Katie at coach.katie.hutch@gmail.com.

Maria Krahn - Coach 16U Girls
Maria became immersed in the sport of volleyball at a young age, competing on elite club teams throughout middle school and high school, culminating in a gold medal finish at the 17U Western National Championships with the Jr. Bison’s club team from Manitoba. Maria received a scholarship to Brandon University and competed for the Bobcats in the Canada-West Conference.
In 2008, Maria transferred to the University of Western Ontario to finish her playing career as a Mustang, winning the OUA championship in the 2011-2012 season and completing her Bachelor of Science in Medical Sciences and Biology in 2013. Following her time at Western, Maria returned to Winnipeg to continue to pursue a career in the health care field and took on the role of assistant coach for the 16U Jr. Wesmen girls club volleyball team. Maria is driven by the missions statement “better has no limit” and is excited to be reconnecting with the sport of volleyball as a coach with Leaside Volleyball, helping to mentor the next generation of young female leaders through sport.

Mike Killeen - Coach 16U Boys

Mike is looking forward to helping coach Leaside 15U in 2017-18, after molding young 13U and 14U squads in 2014-2016. Mike has also been an assistant coach with Leaside VC boys teams for 4 prior seasons. Mike has been involved in competitive volleyball for over 25 years, in a wide range of capacities as player, coach, mentor, beach volleyball promoter, and parent. As a young player, he played for perennial powerhouse Saunders S.S. (London, ON) and went on to have a successful five-year career as a setter, captain and all-star with the University of Western Ontario Mustangs (1984-1989). In addition to volleyball, he has coached and taught basketball and tennis over the past 10 years.

Brad Willock - Coach 14U Boys

Brad Willock is a former Olympic, professional, and Canadian University volleyball player. Brad played 5 years for the University of British Columbia (winning the Canadian championship in 1983) and played 7 years for the Canadian National team where he played over 400 matches for Canada and participated in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Brad also played and coached professionally in Spain for 4 years. He retired from playing in 1993 but looks forward to getting back on the court and developing a new generation of players on the 13U boys team. For the past 4 years, Brad has coached baseball in the Leaside community..

Djordje Ljubicic - Coach 15U Boys

Djordje Ljubicic was a tremendous setter for the York men’s volleyball team in the early ’90s. He earned first-team OUAA all-star honours in each of his five seasons with the program (1991-96) and was the OUAA East rookie of the year in 1992. He helped the team win back-to-back conference titles in 1993 and 1994, earning the championship match MVP award in 1994, and he competed at the CIAU championships in each of those seasons. A team captain and a three-time team MVP, Ljubicic went on to compete on the FIVB World Beach Volleyball Tour for 10 years and represent Canada at the 2001 World Championships and the 2003 Pan Am Games. Djordje is a Toronto Firefighter and he still competes in the Masters’ division. He enjoys coaching young athletes in the Leaside Volleyball Club. In 2015, Djordje was inducted into the York University Sport Hall of Fame.

Bart Arsenault

Bart has been coaching volleyball for over 10 years. He is a NCCP Certified Advanced Development Coach and Trained Performance Coach for Indoor Volleyball. He is also a Development Coach for Beach Volleyball. In addition to his NCCP certification, Bart is a certified High Five Sport coach which encourages the long-term approach to developing young athletes. Bart recently received an OVA Recognition Award for his work in developing young athletes as a coach, OVA Spikes Clinician, community coach and camp director. Prior to joining Leaside Volleyball in 2015, Bart was a coach at the Scarborough Titans Volleyball Club during which time the team won a Tier 1 Bronze in 13U at Provincials in 2013, Tier 1 Gold in 14U at Nationals in 2014. During the past two years at Leaside, the team has finished 7th and 5th at the Ontario Championships in 2016 and 2017, respectively. He and his coaching team will be working hard to improve upon these results while developing all-around volleyball players, athletes and young people.

Leaside 17U Girls Assistant Coach 2016-17 (17U Provincial Gold Medalist, 17U National Silver Medalist)
Leaside 17U Girls Assistant Coach 2017-2018 (17U Provincial Bronze Medalist, 17U National Bronze Medalist)
Player Bio:
York University Women's Varsity 2013-15
Jason Senechal Memorial Award Winner 2014
22U Beach Volleyball National Champion 2015
Adult Beach Volleyball Provincial Bronze Medalist 2017
Trained with Team Canada Beach Volleyball 2015-16, 2018-present
9man - Connex, Outtahand, Toronto Storm (NACIVT Bronze Medalist 2013), Philly CIA (NACIVT Bronze Medalist 2017)
Education:
BSc Specialized Honors in Psychology
MSc Candidate in Kinesiology with a focus on quantitative methods

Lainna Buch - Coach 14U Girls

Lainna is a Certified Development Coach entering into her 5th year coaching with Leaside, with her Advanced Development Coach certification in the works.
Lainna works for the Canadian Olympic Committee, and on the side, she has started a charity called Artists4Athletes, which raises funds for Beach Volleyball athletes and their basic athletic needs.
Lainna was a member of the University of Waterloo Warriors Volleyball Team from 2009-2012. She went on to play for the Humber Hawks Volleyball Team during the 2012/2013 season, winning their 6th consecutive OCAA championship. Lainna also played in Toronto's inaugural ONE Volleyball league in 2017.Lainna is inspired and driven to coach not only players, but young women to be the very best people they can be, and is very excited to continue her journey with the U14 girls team this year!

Nanci Forgeron-Green

This is Nanci’s first year coaching with Leaside VC. Nanci started playing volleyball at the age of 13 and continued all the way through her varsity year at UPEI in the AUAA system. She was part of the Nova Scotia Provincial winning team for her high school, played on a provincial travel team for 2 summers as well as midget and juvenile travel teams throughout high school. Nanci was also rookie of the year at UPEI. Most of Nanci’s career was on the court but she has played a fair amount of beach as well.
Nanci has participated as an assistant at the Train & Play volleyball clinic in Vancouver and had refereed junior and senior school teams.

Marissa Thompson

Marissa moved to Toronto last September and was the assistant coach of the 17U girls Leaside White team. She was previously an assistant coach of the U16 Region 3 Beach volleyball team as well as the assistant coach of the Women’s volleyball team at St. Clair College in Windsor. She is a graduate of Kinesiology from the University of Windsor where she played on both the Women’s Varsity Volleyball and Softball teams. Marissa is currently entering her second year of medical studies to become a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine and is greatly looking forward to co-coaching the 12U girls team this year.