Men’s Volleyball Record-Setter Inducted into Hall of Fame

立志成为一名篮球运动员， Naseri Tumanuvao 来到美国.S. from Western Samoa as a young boy and discovered volleyball, later helping 康科迪亚的男队 to win the 2013 NAIA National Championship in its first season in existence. 图马努沃最近被选入 崔体育名人堂.

“I have great memories of Concordia and loved my time there,” the 6-foot-4 alumnus says. “From the professors to the athletic department, 所有的支持人员, everyone was really supportive of men’s volleyball. 这是一次很棒的经历.”

A student-athlete for two years at Concordia, Tumanuvao set high marks for the fledgling program he helped pioneer. He was a 2013 NAIA All-American and was named 2013 NAIA Player of the Year. He led the team in scoring during Concordia’s climb to victory in the championship game. 在那个历史性的季节, Tumanuvao also posted the best hit percentage in the 2013 NAIA National Tournament. 今天, he still ranks in the Top 10 overall in a whopping 25 different categories in the Concordia record books – including in aces, 攻击, 每场杀戮数, 命中率. He holds school records for most kills in a single season (374) and most aces in a single game (6).

但在他成为球场上的怪物之前, he was a kid growing up in Western Samoa with the beach as his back yard.

“I have a lot of really vivid memories,他说. “We lived in a small village outside the capital, Apia. 我们没有室内管道. Once a week, we would go down to the well for fresh water. 这就是生活，很棒. I have a lot of really cool, fun memories of growing up there.”

有四个兄弟和一个妹妹, 还有附近的大家庭, 他被亲人包围着, but soon his parents decided to move to the U.S. 寻求更大的机会. They lived with relatives in Redondo Beach for a year.

“It was a bit of a transition, in a good way,” Tumanuvao says. “我们不会说英语, and we weren’t at school that first year but just at home with my aunts and uncles and cousins. 我们看了很多电视. It’s a running joke that we learned to speak English watching Gilligan’s Island, 危险, 及家庭事务.”

He was introduced to volleyball as a freshman at Lakewood High in Long Beach. There, the volleyball coach noticed his height and recruited him to the team.

“[My cousin and I] went to try out and were hooked,” says Tumanuvao. 超级好玩. Our athleticism transferred really well from basketball to volleyball. We loved it and started playing at lunchtime on concrete courts.”

很快, he was also playing before and after school, though he says his first year competing in the sport was more of a learning experience.

“I wasn’t great, and I didn’t really know how to play,他说. “我踢中路, the position where you can cause the least amount of damage to your team, but I liked the sport so much and I wanted to improve. After that, I looked for opportunities to play anywhere.”

Local beach volleyball and club teams accelerated his improvement and “fanned the flames of my volleyball passions,他说. “我无法停止打球.”

特雷弗·约翰逊, former Concordia’s men’s volleyball coach and program founder, convinced him to join the school’s first team.

“I thought it was exciting to be part of the inaugural team at Concordia,” Tumanuvao says. “Trevor had a vision and a plan,and I trusted him. 他很信任我这个人. I investigated the academic programs, and they aligned with the athletic piece. It was a great group of guys and we were all really motivated.”

Much of the roster was former junior college athletes who had “a little bit of a chip on their shoulders for being underrated,他说. “

We called ourselves the JC All-Stars,” Tumanuvao says. “We were super-motivated to do some special things that year.”

附近几乎没有NAIA球队比赛, the Golden Eagles filled their schedule with D1 teams like CSU Long Beach, 加州浸会大学, 加州北岭, 和斯坦福大学——这让他们的比赛更加精彩.

“We were pretty battle-tested when we came across an NAIA team,” Tumanuvao remembers. “这给了我们巨大的信心.”

最重要的是, “特雷弗关注的是我们这个人, making sure we were training well and doing the right things, 学术和建立我们的信仰,他说. “He was more focused on culture, not on winning. 胜利是文化的副产品.”

While ripping through a record-setting season, Tumanuvao hardly seemed to notice.

“I didn’t focus much on individual awards,他说. “我们有一个非常好的团队. 我们在很多位置上都很深. I may have been the focal point offensively for some matches, but we had a really talented team. 任何人都可以拥有一个星光灿烂的夜晚.”

In a Cinderella-type year, the team ascended to the championship game and won handily. The next year they also made it to the final match but lost. Tumanuvao then graduated and returned as a graduate assistant coach for the team. 以教练为职业, he became an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton on the women’s side while coaching two club teams. In 2019, he was hired at UC Irvine where he now serves as an occupation, he became an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton on the women’s side while coaching two club teams. In 2019, he was hired at UC Irvine where he now serves as an assistant coach of the women’s program.

“Coaching has been super-fulfilling,他说. “The coolest part is you go through four years of a recruiting class, 然后人们会回来参加校友活动, 你看他们做得很好. You impact their lives in a really positive way, similar to how a lot of my coaches impacted my life. 我希望能把它传递下去.”