Solon volleyball will have a new head coach this season.
Ruben Galvan will lead the Lady Spartans as they attempt to return to the regional championship to play for a trip to the state tournament.
Galvan will be beginning this new chapter at Solon after being the head coach at West Liberty for the past 26 years. Galvan found a lot of success at West Liberty including being the 3A State Runner-up in 2021. Galvan will look to get Solon into the state tournament for the first time in a decade. Galvan said, “I’m the type of person that likes challenges and this will be the perfect one for me.”
Galvan was born in Mexico and was brought up in a family that was passionate about volleyball. However, he was never able to play competitively as a kid. The first year he made the team, his family moved to America before the season began.
The family-shared passion for volleyball has led Galvan to be a volleyball coach. This season will be his 35th year coaching and his 29th year as a head coach. Starting at new school will bring upon some challenges of readjusting. Galvan said, “[A big challenge] is to just to get the know the kids and for them to adjust to my system of coaching.”
He got the team right to work when he officially started earlier this summer as the volleyball head coach. Galvan started hosting open gym workouts right when school was let out for the summer. He had these twice a week for all high school and junior high athletes and got over 100 kids to attend and practice.
The Lady Spartans lost Britta Elijah, Brynn Deike, and Ally Stahle to graduation and return seniors Grace Erwin, Izzy Frees, Addie Miller, Yasmine Sell, and Lauryn Wear with juniors Kiley Devery, Cydney Jaster, Gable Knight, Jozie Lahr, and Kennedy Whitford. Sophomores Scarlet Ferin and Macy Fuller are shown on this season’s roster as well. Solon went 22-15 last year bowing out in the 3A Region 8 Championship with a 3-0 loss to Assumption Catholic (Davenport).
Now as the season gets closer to the start on September 3, Galvan will focus on making the team look more like a team. Galvan said, “We have a lot of good individual players, now we need to focus on getting the team together. From my experience talent can only take you so far, so you got to be able to create a good environment and surround yourself with good teammates.”