Rex Mauga-Head returns for 24th year as Westmoor volleyball coach

The Lady Rams, however, are coming off the worst season of Mauga-Head’s tenure. Westmoor finished with a 3-24 record in 2023, with two of those wins coming against rival Jefferson, a team that has totaled just 12 wins over the past six seasons.

“As a coach, it was humbling,” Mauga-Head said. “To be on the bottom record wise, it was humbling as a coach facing the adversity with everyone. Everyone tuffed it out, considering the down year.”

The down year hasn’t affected the program’s turnout in 2024. With Westmoor’s volleyball tryouts opening Monday, there were 60 players in attendance to compete for spots on the varsity or junior-varsity teams. Yes, it will be necessary for Mauga-Head and his volleyball staff to make cuts — approximately half of those who turned out Monday.

Anyone with setting experience will have a definite edge on making the cut. This was the reason for the Rams’ woes last season, the lack of a setter. It got so bad, now-graduated senior Kaylie Quon, naturally an outside hitter, converted to setter simply so Mauga-Head had someone with volleyball experience driving the ship.

“So, we were scrambling,” Mauga-Head said.

“There were injuries,” he said. “We ended up having to move JV players that weren’t ready yet. It was that kind of year. ... In the past I’ve always had decent setters. So, last year was a trial.”

Mauga-Head certainly isn’t making excuses. The veteran coach has been dealt tough hands in the past, but has a knack for teaching the game — a scrappy and tenacious brand of volleyball, at that — despite fielding relatively undersized teams year after year.

Westmoor kind of lucked into landing Mauga-Head as a longterm coach. A 1994 graduate of Westmoor, Mauga-Head returned to campus in 2001 as a campus supervisor. As a student, he played varsity football, a program that was shuttered by Westmoor, a few year’s after Mauga-Head’s graduation, in 1996.

With Mauga-Head newly on campus, Westmoor’s volleyball turnout was an inkling of what it is now. It was so bad, the school was talking about sacking the junior-varsity program. Even though the initial proposal was to put JV on a one-year sabbatical, Mauga-Head knew all too well were that would lead after watching the football team go away.

“They said: ‘We’ll cut [football] for one year and then we’ll bring it back,’ and they never brought it back,” Mauga-Head said.

Mauga-Head didn’t have much volleyball experience. His younger sisters Renita and Rachel both played the sport at Westmoor, but he grew up merely playing a little bit recreationally. He didn’t get his first structured dose on the court until he was a student at Skyline College, where he took a volleyball class. It’s something he and his friends still joke about, considering his longevity as a coach.

“It’s funny,” Mauga-Head said. “It’s like: It paid off.”

During Mauga-Head’s infant stages as a coach, Westmoor girls’ athletics soon underwent a renaissance, specifically on the basketball court. When Corey Cafferata was hired to take over Westmoor girls’ basketball in 2002-03, the program went on a tear, including a legendary 49-game winning streak in PAL play, and six straight appearances in the Central Coast Section playoffs.

Mauga-Head, however, never intended to be running the volleyball program through those seasons he shared the gym with Cafferata’s girls’ hoops powerhouses — or beyond.

“I thought it was going to be a short stint,” Mauga-Head said. “... I thought I was just going to coach for a couple years. I thought I knew the game. Coaching is different from playing. We had other coaches who helped me get through it and I just learned as I went.”

A self-proclaimed workaholic, Mauga-Head now embarks on season No. 24 looking to rebuild the program. The Rams are just two years removed from their last CCS playoff appearance in 2022, but haven’t finished a season with an above-.500 record in league or overall since 2017.

When asked if that 2017 team that posted a program-best 23-11 overall record was his favorite, the answer was a quick: No.

“To be honest with you, I’ve enjoyed every team,” Mauga-Head said. “Even last year, even though the record didn’t show it ... but as a coach, I learned a lot. It’s humbled me.”