Mark Smith

Mark helped to found the club with Coach Featherstone and former UCLA great Dave Olbright in 1989.  He assisted Coach Featherstone with the 1990, 18-1 Black team that won the Silver Medal (2nd overall) at the Junior Olympics in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In 1991, Mark led the Seaside 16-1 team to a 3rd place finish at the SoCal Classic.  In ’92, Mark assisted Mike Baykal with the Seaside 18 Black team that won the club’s first National Championship at the Junior Olympics as the competition returned to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In 1993, Mark coached the 16’s again and then followed up this effort with a solid 12th place finish, overall, coaching the Seaside 18 Black team at the Junior Olympics in Austin, Texas in 1994.  This was the summer of the infamous “OJ Trial.”

In 1995, in Orlando, Florida, Mark assisted Mike Baykal again with the Seaside 18 Black team.  The team missed medaling by one spot by finishing 4th overall at the Nationals.

Mark left Seaside in ’96 to form his own club – Shorebreak – out of Escondido – where he remained until 2002.  Mark returned to Seaside from 2004 to 2008 coaching with various teams, helping Coach Featherstone break in new coaches, and as a camp coach.

Mark had head coaching stints at five different San Diego High Schools : Monte Vista, La Jolla, University, Serra, and Tri-City Christian.  In addition, Mark was the men’s assistant coach at both San Diego City College from 2009 to 2012; and from 1993 to ’95 at UCSD.

Coach Featherstone on Mark Smith :  “ Great guy and a great gym coach. . .tremendous enthusiasm that rubbed off on his players. . .he understood what I wanted to accomplish and we shared the same approach at training the players – fast-paced with no one standing around. . .Mark had the ability to coach different levels, was demanding, but fair, and saw the game as a setter would see it as this was his position as a player. . . Mark was the setter at Palomar College in the mid- seventies when I was substitute teaching at Palomar from time to time and he shared my passion for volleyball. . .In ’89, two years after I and Dave Olbright started boy’s club ball in San Diego with the San Diego Volleyball Club, I contacted Mark about starting our own boy’s club. . .Olbright left to become an assistant at UC Irvine so Mark and I began to lay the foundation and high goals that we shared for the San Diego high school players. . . Collectively, we both knew the timing was right to build a high-powered boy’s club. . .We spent many hours sending out fliers to high school coaches and many hours on the phone lining up gyms to train in. . . Together, Mark and I were ready to pull all the available talent together and begin serious training for Seaside in fall ‘89. . .In our inaugural year, I coached the 18 team and Mark coached the 16 team. . .Two teams; that was it. . .There were no 17, 15, or 14 teams in the SoCal competition at the time. . .Toward the end of the ’90 season, I asked Mark to join me to train our  talented 18 Black team at the Junior Olympics.  . . I had coached most of these boys from the time they were sophomores in the SDVBC and they were ready to make a statement for Seaside and San Diego. . . We headed to New Mexico where we almost pulled off winning the National Championship finishing 2nd to a strong Torrance VBC out of the South Bay. . .Since that summer, Mark and I have always enjoyed working in the gym together. . . He became pivotal to our success early on and remained with Seaside on and off until 2008 and he will always be welcome to work our camps in the future.”