Coaches

Varsity Coach

Tom Van Der Wende

Tom has been coaching volleyball since his teaching career began in 1974.  He was coach for a Girls Varsity team in the Bay Area for 7 years before making the move to Oak Ridge in 1982, where he took on coaching the Girls Varsity team until 2004.  The following 2 years Tom was the Women’s Assistant Coach for Solano Junior College. He then took time off to watch his daughter play as the Libero for Sac State.

In 2008, Tom was asked to return to coaching, this time for the Oak Ridge Boys team.  He coached both the JV and Frosh teams.  Tom is again returning for the 2009 season as the Boys Varsity coach, taking over for the previous coach who retired last season.

Email: tvanderwende@eduhsd.k12.ca.us

Varsity Assistant Coach

Katie Van Der Wende

A former Trojan who played volleyball for 4 years, played 3 years on the Varsity team. A two-time all-Sierra Valley League selection during her junior and senior seasons, and accompanied the Trojans to a 38-2 record, a section championship and a league title in 2003. As a senior, she was also named team MVP and Oak Ridge’s Female Athlete of the Year. After graduating in 2004, Katie played the 2005 and 2006 seasons for Solano Community College in Fairfield, California becoming a two-time first team all-Bay Valley Conference selection, while also earning league MVP honors in 2006. While at Solano she set the Solano JC career record for both digs (565) and aces (93). After attending SCC, she pursued her dream of playing volleyball at Sacramento State University. As a walk on her junior year, she played as a defensive specialist; however, she earned a scholarship her last year as the team’s libero. In her senior year she had a service reception success rate of .942, and posed a career high of 35 digs at Portland State, which was tied for the third most in the Big Sky all season, and tied for the eighth best mark in Sacramento State history. While playing for the Hornets, Van Der Wende was a part of the 2007 Big Sky Conference Champion team, made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament, beating Minnesota in the first round, and then losing the second round to Stanford, named to the Big Sky All-Academic team both years, also named to the CenturyTel Premier All-Tournament team her senior year.

A graduate of Sacramento State, Katie is currently working back at Solano Community College as the women’s volleyball assistant coach and physical education instructor.  In addition to working at SCC, she is entering her fifth season of coaching club volleyball (Force Volleyball Club).

JV Coach

Breanne Horton

Breanne brings with her many years of volleyball experience.  She has played volleyball since elementary school.  She played 3 years at Ponderosa, and then 4 years on the women’s team at Hope International University, Fullerton.  She then preceded to Assistant Coach the Men’s volleyball team at Hope International University.  Breanne also played and coached many years of basketball.  She likes to wake surf and is a photographer.

Currently, Breanne has a B.A. in Business, a single subject Social Studies credential and is working on her masters at Chapman University.