January 11, 2025 • 11 mins
Danijela Tomić is the Head Coach of the UC Volleyball program.
She joined us on ESPN1530.
Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
She joined us on ESPN1530.
Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Nineteen away from six. This is ESPN fifteen thirty on
my leg or yesterday, at the University of Cincinnati, a
new volleyball coach was introduced, Daniella Tomach, who spent the
last fourteen years as the volleyball coach at Bowling Green,
Terren's alma mater. I had a chance to swing by
the University of Cincinnati, attend the press conference and spend
(00:23):
a few minutes chatting with the new volleyball coach.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Here is that interview on ESPN fifteen thirty. I guess
let's start with this.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
It's hard to leave a place like Bowling Green when
you've been there for as long as you were, so
it had to have been a really good opportunity to
compel you to leave.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Why the University of Cincinnati.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
You're right, it was a bitterswee decision to leave Bowling Green.
That was my home for thirteen years. Just relationships and
had just a team that we built and a culture.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
Was tough.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
But with that being said, this was an opportunity I
couldn't pass. A few reasons, the culture of this program
and the university, just the sense of excellence and growth.
Just if you drive around the campus. You see all
the buildings, and I love to build. I love to
see that process. Uh, it gets messy in the you know,
(01:19):
building process. But I wanted to be a part of
I wanted to build another championship program, and I wanted
to make sure that the leadership right is right. The
values of the university, of the institution, the athletics department
aligned with my values. And the Big twelve conference was appealing.
(01:41):
Competing against some of the best programs in the country.
It checked all the boxes. And then the city. Everybody,
everybody I talked to friends when I asked them about Cincinnati, uh,
everybody just said it's an unbelievable city. And but professionally,
it was a no brainer for those reasons that I mentioned.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Obviously, you introduce yourself to a lot of people. John
Cunningham met with the media, perhaps most importantly your players.
What are those meetings like both when it's you and
all of them and you and each of them individually.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Well, the first time I met and was on the
twenty third, when the news was in the press, when
I was announced the next coach. I met first with
my BDSU team team to tell them that I was
leaving and then met the players on Zoom and it's
nothing like meeting them in person. And I spent a
(02:39):
few days connecting with most of them, just one on
one video calls, just chatting and getting to know them.
As a coach, I need to know my athletes. I
need to know their story. I need to learn what
their again goals, dreams are and help them on their journey.
And the more I talked to them, the more I.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
Knew I made the right decision.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
They're just good, good young women and I'm so excited
to get to know them better and help them again
on the journey. Get get in the gym next week
and start working on being you know, getting closing that
gap very from.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Where we are now and where we want to be.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
But when it comes to the character and the level
of the type of a person that coach Alby and
her staff recruited, I really kould us to them because
they recruit some good, good young women.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
You talk about recruiting, and whenever there's a coaching change
in any sport, there's always a little bit of a
pause in recruiting, right because the program is in so
many words, it's in limbo, so kind of take us through.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
What's next in that regard.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah, well, we we need to fill some positions. I
know we're looking for a middle blocker for this fall,
et cetera. I think we're good with outsides, but once
we get in the gym, I'll again I have a
better idea where our gaps are, what our strengths, what
our weaknesses are. Recruiting never stops, so I've been recruiting
(04:08):
since day one.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
But we'll hit the road this weekend.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Club season starts, so it's it's a never ending story.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
I know that to compete again.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
For the championshship in championships in the Big Twelve, we
need physicality, we need the athletic season, we need size,
we need skills, we need like everybody that every every
top program is looking for.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
But I also I'm not going.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
To compromise the type of a person that we are
bringing to to this university, and I believe that we
can recruit both.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
I've done that at all of my schools.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I have players who I recruited for mid majors who
could play at power floor level, and that's that's what
we're going to do here, finding the right person for
the University of Cincinnati. And for this program and for
our values and who are also really good and volleyball.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
This is a part of the country, it's a part
of the state you have recruited before.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I know a lot of volleyball dads who.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Talk about the level of competitiveness at the high school
level and at the club level here. How good is
this area when it comes to girls and young women's volleyball.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
I mean it's really good.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
I mean the coaches from every part of the country
are coming to recruit in the Midwest, from Ohio, Indiana,
and Kentucky. It's it's going to be the key is
going to be again finding making the appealing.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Case why they want to why they need to choose
and should choose Cincinnati.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
But when it comes to the amount and the number
of talent here, it's it's very rich. And that that
was another piece actually of my decision making, because I
knew I already have established relationships here and it would
be an easier transition than going to completely different part
of the world where I needed to start from scratch
(06:03):
like I did when I moved from Florida to Ohio.
So I'm excited again to just be in the high
school gyms and meet more high school coaches. They see
those players every day, you know, in high school, and
then club coaches, and then see them the tournaments, and.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
Yeah, we'll find you know.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
My approach philosophy, I guess in life is a philosophy
of abundance and not scarcity. I think there are plenty
of good players, we just need to find the right
ones for us.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
It feels like this sport is really taking off.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
The Final Four was on a Thursday night and I'm
out to dinner and everybody's watching the national championship game
is on national television.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
We have household names in women's volleyball in college.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
It's got to be really exciting to be a volleyball
lifer and be a part of the sport and seeing
what's happening with it.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
You're absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
I mean, this is I'm not going to even call
it a renaissance. I don't know what word I should use.
A boom, but we knew that for us who have
been in this sport, we have seen this coming up.
It's just that the rest of the world. I think
TV ESPN has finally caught up. People want to watch volleyball.
I can tell you from the fans. V developed a
(07:18):
big following in Balling Green, I mean just a big
volleyball community, and they just absolutely love the game. And
then they get to know the game and they start
to understand the game better, which we're gonna do that.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
We actually will do.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Chalk talks for our fans, for our we will sell
season tickets, we will ticket volleyball here. Uh, we will
educate them about the game. We we share our scout reports.
And once you understand the game better, you even have
a bigger appreciation for it. And now with pro leagues,
I mean we have two of our Cincinnati and alumni
are playing tomorrow, I believe. Today in pro leagues in
(07:55):
this country and then overseas, it's just it's unbelievable. The records,
attendance records are being broken every weekend.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
And that's what we're gonna do here.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Actually, I'm gonna get the numbers to see attendance numbers
and set a goal to break the record next next season.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
But once people.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Come and experience the game, and when they get to
know the players and they see the quality of people
that we have in the program, they get hooked and
and I'm gonna I'm gonna tell I've been saying this
for thirteen years in Bowling Green, and I'm gonna say
it here. If you come and you don't love it,
you don't love seeing our team play, I'm gonna refund
(08:31):
you the tickets. Okay, So that's what I'm gonna do.
Nobody has taken me on that offer. That's how much
I believe in the in the in the in the
program that we're gonna put here. So come and check
it out and then bring a bring a friend or
two and help us again break the records.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Are two more because you've been very generous with your time.
I watched an interview you did. I think I might
have been right after you were hired at Bowling Green
and you talked about as as a teenager you were
reading coaching, right, So obviously you've you've had volleyball in
your blood for all of your life, but you knew
at a young age you wanted to be a coach.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
I don't know why.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
I mean, I just my middle school teacher gave me
a book for volleyball, like a book with it was
Asian inspired, like books drills.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
And how to do things.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
And I remember practicing roles and like reading, like practice designs.
And then when I was a teenager, I went to
like a training camp for the national team, and they
had a coaching clinic in conjunction with that. So when
my friends were going on the beach, I actually went
and I listened to the coaching clinic.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
I don't know why.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
It just I guess when they say somebody's professions are calling,
I feel like I've been just called to do this
and and I'm I'm so grateful. I mean, what a
better job than to do this and impact young people
and be a part of their life journey in those
(10:03):
crucial years of eighteen, Between eighteen and then twenty two,
I feel like I hit the jackpot. So why it happened,
I don't know. My mom or dad didn't play sports.
There were not My mom was a teacher. I think
that teaching gene I got from her.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
Both of my sisters had teachers, so maybe that. But volleyball,
I don't know. It was love at first sight.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
I remember the moment when I saw volleyball for the
first time and I fell in love, and I guess
it was meant.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
To be so regardless of what sport you coach at
the university is in Sinnati and variably you're going to
be asked about playing Xavior the athletic director's or former boss.
Have you had a chance or will you have a
chance to talk to to Greg about your new rivalry.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Yeah, Greg Christopher. I apologize I forget to mention his name.
He hired me at BGSHO. I have a lot of
respect for Greg. We haven't stayed in touch. I know
that he's still Xavier. You know, when me playing Xavier,
what I want to do is I want to be Xavier,
so I'll, you know, say hello and chat with him after.
(11:09):
But it's it's a great I think it's a great
thing that we had at Riverley. Those games are fun
for the fans and fun for building the excitement about
the game.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
So I look forward to to playing Xavier.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Coach.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
Thanks so much, Thank you,
Nineteen away from six. This is ESPN fifteen thirty on
my leg or yesterday, at the University of Cincinnati, a
new volleyball coach was introduced, Daniella Tomach, who spent the
last fourteen years as the volleyball coach at Bowling Green,
Terren's alma mater. I had a chance to swing by
the University of Cincinnati, attend the press conference and spend
(00:23):
a few minutes chatting with the new volleyball coach.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Here is that interview on ESPN fifteen thirty. I guess
let's start with this.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
It's hard to leave a place like Bowling Green when
you've been there for as long as you were, so
it had to have been a really good opportunity to
compel you to leave.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Why the University of Cincinnati.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
You're right, it was a bitterswee decision to leave Bowling Green.
That was my home for thirteen years. Just relationships and
had just a team that we built and a culture.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
Was tough.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
But with that being said, this was an opportunity I
couldn't pass. A few reasons, the culture of this program
and the university, just the sense of excellence and growth.
Just if you drive around the campus. You see all
the buildings, and I love to build. I love to
see that process. Uh, it gets messy in the you know,
(01:19):
building process. But I wanted to be a part of
I wanted to build another championship program, and I wanted
to make sure that the leadership right is right. The
values of the university, of the institution, the athletics department
aligned with my values. And the Big twelve conference was appealing.
(01:41):
Competing against some of the best programs in the country.
It checked all the boxes. And then the city. Everybody,
everybody I talked to friends when I asked them about Cincinnati, uh,
everybody just said it's an unbelievable city. And but professionally,
it was a no brainer for those reasons that I mentioned.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Obviously, you introduce yourself to a lot of people. John
Cunningham met with the media, perhaps most importantly your players.
What are those meetings like both when it's you and
all of them and you and each of them individually.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Well, the first time I met and was on the
twenty third, when the news was in the press, when
I was announced the next coach. I met first with
my BDSU team team to tell them that I was
leaving and then met the players on Zoom and it's
nothing like meeting them in person. And I spent a
(02:39):
few days connecting with most of them, just one on
one video calls, just chatting and getting to know them.
As a coach, I need to know my athletes. I
need to know their story. I need to learn what
their again goals, dreams are and help them on their journey.
And the more I talked to them, the more I.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
Knew I made the right decision.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
They're just good, good young women and I'm so excited
to get to know them better and help them again
on the journey. Get get in the gym next week
and start working on being you know, getting closing that
gap very from.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Where we are now and where we want to be.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
But when it comes to the character and the level
of the type of a person that coach Alby and
her staff recruited, I really kould us to them because
they recruit some good, good young women.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
You talk about recruiting, and whenever there's a coaching change
in any sport, there's always a little bit of a
pause in recruiting, right because the program is in so
many words, it's in limbo, so kind of take us through.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
What's next in that regard.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah, well, we we need to fill some positions. I
know we're looking for a middle blocker for this fall,
et cetera. I think we're good with outsides, but once
we get in the gym, I'll again I have a
better idea where our gaps are, what our strengths, what
our weaknesses are. Recruiting never stops, so I've been recruiting
(04:08):
since day one.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
But we'll hit the road this weekend.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Club season starts, so it's it's a never ending story.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
I know that to compete again.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
For the championshship in championships in the Big Twelve, we
need physicality, we need the athletic season, we need size,
we need skills, we need like everybody that every every
top program is looking for.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
But I also I'm not going.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
To compromise the type of a person that we are
bringing to to this university, and I believe that we
can recruit both.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
I've done that at all of my schools.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I have players who I recruited for mid majors who
could play at power floor level, and that's that's what
we're going to do here, finding the right person for
the University of Cincinnati. And for this program and for
our values and who are also really good and volleyball.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
This is a part of the country, it's a part
of the state you have recruited before.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I know a lot of volleyball dads who.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Talk about the level of competitiveness at the high school
level and at the club level here. How good is
this area when it comes to girls and young women's volleyball.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
I mean it's really good.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
I mean the coaches from every part of the country
are coming to recruit in the Midwest, from Ohio, Indiana,
and Kentucky. It's it's going to be the key is
going to be again finding making the appealing.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Case why they want to why they need to choose
and should choose Cincinnati.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
But when it comes to the amount and the number
of talent here, it's it's very rich. And that that
was another piece actually of my decision making, because I
knew I already have established relationships here and it would
be an easier transition than going to completely different part
of the world where I needed to start from scratch
(06:03):
like I did when I moved from Florida to Ohio.
So I'm excited again to just be in the high
school gyms and meet more high school coaches. They see
those players every day, you know, in high school, and
then club coaches, and then see them the tournaments, and.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
Yeah, we'll find you know.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
My approach philosophy, I guess in life is a philosophy
of abundance and not scarcity. I think there are plenty
of good players, we just need to find the right
ones for us.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
It feels like this sport is really taking off.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
The Final Four was on a Thursday night and I'm
out to dinner and everybody's watching the national championship game
is on national television.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
We have household names in women's volleyball in college.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
It's got to be really exciting to be a volleyball
lifer and be a part of the sport and seeing
what's happening with it.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
You're absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
I mean, this is I'm not going to even call
it a renaissance. I don't know what word I should use.
A boom, but we knew that for us who have
been in this sport, we have seen this coming up.
It's just that the rest of the world. I think
TV ESPN has finally caught up. People want to watch volleyball.
I can tell you from the fans. V developed a
(07:18):
big following in Balling Green, I mean just a big
volleyball community, and they just absolutely love the game. And
then they get to know the game and they start
to understand the game better, which we're gonna do that.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
We actually will do.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Chalk talks for our fans, for our we will sell
season tickets, we will ticket volleyball here. Uh, we will
educate them about the game. We we share our scout reports.
And once you understand the game better, you even have
a bigger appreciation for it. And now with pro leagues,
I mean we have two of our Cincinnati and alumni
are playing tomorrow, I believe. Today in pro leagues in
(07:55):
this country and then overseas, it's just it's unbelievable. The records,
attendance records are being broken every weekend.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
And that's what we're gonna do here.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Actually, I'm gonna get the numbers to see attendance numbers
and set a goal to break the record next next season.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
But once people.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Come and experience the game, and when they get to
know the players and they see the quality of people
that we have in the program, they get hooked and
and I'm gonna I'm gonna tell I've been saying this
for thirteen years in Bowling Green, and I'm gonna say
it here. If you come and you don't love it,
you don't love seeing our team play, I'm gonna refund
(08:31):
you the tickets. Okay, So that's what I'm gonna do.
Nobody has taken me on that offer. That's how much
I believe in the in the in the in the
program that we're gonna put here. So come and check
it out and then bring a bring a friend or
two and help us again break the records.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Are two more because you've been very generous with your time.
I watched an interview you did. I think I might
have been right after you were hired at Bowling Green
and you talked about as as a teenager you were
reading coaching, right, So obviously you've you've had volleyball in
your blood for all of your life, but you knew
at a young age you wanted to be a coach.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
I don't know why.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
I mean, I just my middle school teacher gave me
a book for volleyball, like a book with it was
Asian inspired, like books drills.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
And how to do things.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
And I remember practicing roles and like reading, like practice designs.
And then when I was a teenager, I went to
like a training camp for the national team, and they
had a coaching clinic in conjunction with that. So when
my friends were going on the beach, I actually went
and I listened to the coaching clinic.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
I don't know why.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
It just I guess when they say somebody's professions are calling,
I feel like I've been just called to do this
and and I'm I'm so grateful. I mean, what a
better job than to do this and impact young people
and be a part of their life journey in those
(10:03):
crucial years of eighteen, Between eighteen and then twenty two,
I feel like I hit the jackpot. So why it happened,
I don't know. My mom or dad didn't play sports.
There were not My mom was a teacher. I think
that teaching gene I got from her.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
Both of my sisters had teachers, so maybe that. But volleyball,
I don't know. It was love at first sight.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
I remember the moment when I saw volleyball for the
first time and I fell in love, and I guess
it was meant.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
To be so regardless of what sport you coach at
the university is in Sinnati and variably you're going to
be asked about playing Xavior the athletic director's or former boss.
Have you had a chance or will you have a
chance to talk to to Greg about your new rivalry.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Yeah, Greg Christopher. I apologize I forget to mention his name.
He hired me at BGSHO. I have a lot of
respect for Greg. We haven't stayed in touch. I know
that he's still Xavier. You know, when me playing Xavier,
what I want to do is I want to be Xavier,
so I'll, you know, say hello and chat with him after.
(11:09):
But it's it's a great I think it's a great
thing that we had at Riverley. Those games are fun
for the fans and fun for building the excitement about
the game.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
So I look forward to to playing Xavier.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Coach.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
Thanks so much, Thank you,
Mo Egger News
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