Rider Names Christopher Feliciano Head Volleyball Coach
MAAC Sports
Lawrenceville, NJ - Christopher
Feliciano has been hired as the new head coach of the Rider University
volleyball team, Director of Athletics Don
Harnum announced today.
Feliciano comes to the Broncs
from the Bronx (Fordham University) where he served as an assistant coach for
the Rams this past season.
"Chris emerged as our leading
candidate because of his successful head coaching experience combined with his
Division I experience as an assistant coach," said Harnum. "His passion for
teaching the game, combined with his desire and work ethic in recruiting quality
student-athletes, will be real positives for Rider's volleyball
program."
Feliciano helped Fordham to a 17
win season with the Rams qualifying for the Atlantic 10 Championship Tournament,
losing to Duquesne in five sets.
"I am really excited to be
here," Feliciano said. "Don
Harnum has given me a great opportunity to be part of a great University and
I am excited to work with the program. Our goal is to be competitive in the
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference every year."
At Fordham, Feliciano helped
scout opponents and also worked with individual players via video training
sessions and identified recruits for the Ram program.
Feliciano is a 2003 graduate of
New Jersey City University where he served as the men's and women's head coach
for volleyball until 2007.
Feliciano was the winningest
coach in NJCU history with a 117-28 record in 145 matches for a .807 winning
percentage and was the 2007 New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Coach of the
Year.
NJCU appeared in the postseason
in each of Feliciano's years as head coach, the only four years the Knights have
ever appeared in a postseason tournament. In that first season, the Knights won
30 matches for the first time ever, finishing 30-6, and qualified for the first
postseason tournament in the first 22 years of the program's existence. NJCU was
selected to the ECAC Division III South Tournament for the first time, and won
the Association of Division III Independents championship.
NJCU returned to the NJAC in
2005 after one year as an independent and during the next three years, Feliciano
led the Knights to a combined 23-1 record in conference play, winning the
league's regular season title and earning the #1 seed in the NJAC Tournament in
2005 and 2007, appearing in the NJAC championship match in three consecutive
seasons. The 2005 season culminated with the first NJAC volleyball crown in
school history, as well as the first for any women's sports team, and a berth in
the NCAA Division III Tournament.
In 2006, NJCU won a
single-season school record 33 matches. After finishing second in the conference
and losing in the finals, the Knights were the No. 1 seed in the ECAC Tournament
and won the championship of the eight-team regional event hosted in Jersey City.
In 2007, NJCU was 28-6, won
another NJAC regular season title with an 8-0 ledger, before falling in the
finals. NJCU was the No. 2 seed in the ECAC Tournament before losing in the
quarterfinals. Feliciano earned NJAC Coach of the Year honors for the first time
in his career for his efforts. The club won 30 consecutive games and 47 of 48,
while stringing together a 16-match winning streak.
Feliciano also served as head
men's volleyball coach at NJCU for four years from 2004-07, finishing with a
mark of 72-54 (.571). He was named the 2005 North East Collegiate Volleyball
Association Metro Division Coach of the Year.
"We have some athletic players
returning," Feliciano added about the seven letterwinners coming back for
Rider. "With additional training, I believe that these players will reach their
potential. I want to focus on a blue-collar type of effort, playing strong
defense with constant communication to dictate the pace of a match."
Feliciano worked in the Newark
Public Schools as a seventh grade Language Arts Instructor, technical director
for the YMCA of Greater New York and spent three years as a 16s National head
coach and mentor at the Atlantic Valley Volleyball Club in Westfield, New
Jersey.
Feliciano was a recipient of the
2009 American Volleyball Coaches Association '30 under 30' award.
For the last 23 semesters (since
the Spring of 1999), Rider volleyball has achieved a team grade point average
over a 3.00 and the team twice (2006, 2010) received the American Volleyball
Coaches Association National Academic Award, something that Feliciano looks to
continue.
"Coming from Fordham, they have
been a recipient of the AVCA academic team award and I expect to continue that
at Rider," Feliciano said. "I firmly believe that being a student-athlete is a
correlation of academic and athletic excellence. If they are focused in the
classroom, they will bring that same focus to the volleyball court."
Feliciano is the eighth coach in
the 33 year history of volleyball at Rider and he replaces Emily
Ahlquist who resigned in December after 12 seasons.