About our Coaches:
VEVC coaches work closely with our athletes to help them achieve their full potential, on and off the court. Our coaches train our athletes to master the sport of volleyball, not just win. Our coaches bring years of unique volleyball playing and coaching experience to our club.
Ashley Chappel
Ashley (Miller) Chappell was born and raised in Vacaville, CA where she attended Will C. Wood High School. Ashley was the 2nd freshman in the history of WCW Volleyball to be pulled up to Varsity. She earned a starting position as Defensive Specialist as a freshman. Her sophomore, junior and senior seasons she played all the way around as an outside where she helped her team earn the MEL Title two times and CIF Section Runner up her sophomore year. Ashley’s junior and senior season’s she was named to the MEL ALL-League team.
Ashley’s club experience includes Club Vacaville for five seasons and Golden Bear Volleyball Club in Berkeley, CA for 3 seasons. While playing for Golden Bear, Ashley attended the Junior Olympics all three years placing in the top 10 two of the three years. Ashley’s junior season, while playing in Atlanta at the Junior Olympics, she was approached and offered a full ride volleyball scholarship to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR.
Ashley attended the University of Arkansas from 2004-2007. Ashley earned the starting Libero position, beating out two juniors and two freshman. Ashley was on the ALL-SEC Team her freshman year and continued making an impact on the volleyball program. Ashley was named captain two of the four years where she helped her team to the NCAA tournament three of her four years. Ashley holds all of the digs records at the U of A including: match dig record with 36, single season with 548, career dig record with 2,128, and career digs per game with 4.36. Ashley was the digs per game leader all four seasons. She held the SEC career dig record for one year at 2,128. She earned four ALL Tournament Team Awards and SEC Defensive Player of the Week.
This will be Ashley’s second season as the Will C Wood JV Head Coach.
In 2015-16 Ashley was the Club Coordinator where she led, clinics, tryouts, conditioning, and facilitated the development of our Club Standards. This year Ashley has been named the Director of Player Development where she looks forward to working with players and coaches and hopes to make as big of an impact at Club Extreme as she did at as a player.
Darla Williams
Darla Williams has been the Solano Community College Head Women's Volleyball Coach since fall 2003. Fall 2016 she will be entering her 29th year as a head volleyball coach. Since Coach Williams' arrival, Solano has consistently produced competitive volleyball teams. This past fall season she broke the Solano College record with 200 wins. Overall as a head coach she is one game shy of 400 career wins.
Darla began her high school coaching career at Vintage High School in Napa from 1991 - 1996. In 1996, Darla moved to Will C. Wood High School from 1996-2003. Wood won two MEL crowns and was a Nor Cal State qualifier in 2001. Coach Williams ended her tutelage as a high school varsity coach with a 188 - 87 record. Darla has been involved with Vacaville Extreme Volleyball Club since her daughter picked up the sport at age 9. After 10 years she has continued to support the club and help with facility planning and coordination.
Coach Williams was a student-athlete at Sierra College earning her AA Degree in Liberal Studies. In the spring of 2008 she was honored and named into the Hall of Fame at Sierra College Athletic Department. Darla earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 1988. Darla has her Master of Arts Degree in Counseling from La Verne University 1991. Coach Williams also has a Master of Arts Degree in Physical Education from St. Mary's College in 1995.
Darla has been teaching Kinesiology, Health Education courses and coaching volleyball since 1988. At Solano, she continues to develop young athletes through youth and high school volleyball camps.
Alyssa Medina
Over the last 11 years, I’ve truly fallen in love with coaching. My coaching philosophy is simple; I develop my teams based on the potential I see from day one. I encourage each player to win as much as possible, to grow in trying new things on the court, take risks, learn from their mistakes, and become a leader. I push for my athletes to use their voice on and off the court, I praise when needed, and I always make sure to remind them to have fun.
Technically, I really focus on having a strong serve, receive- passing is everything. Serving is something I also strongly focus on, as this is a momentum provider and can help shift a game positively or negatively. Being a setter myself, I work very closely with my setters, training them one-on-one to get them to where I need them to be. I try and push my players to work outside their comfort zone and give me their 100% effort at all times.
Playing time— I play the best 6. Club is not an equal playing opportunity and while I keep that in mind, I do play to win matches. When there is an opportunity for my team to advance or a close game the best 6 players will play, no matter what. At tournaments I will always allow players to have a chance on the court, but it will not be equal or fair. My teams are aware of this from day one, and I strive to instill in each of them the philosophy of TEAM. In effect, it gives each player something to strive for themselves; to prove themselves as players and earn their spot on the court. My coaching and leadership is heavily centered on what is best for the team—we win together as a team, we lose together as a team, and we play together as a team. Equal and fair is not a part of my team philosophy, and our decisions as coaches are based on what is best for our TEAM. Don’t play or be selfish, play and be exactly what our team needs- on and off the court!
Melissa Muzio
Melissa Muzio is a Vacaville High School graduate, where she played volleyball and earned MEL Player of the Year. She played Club Volleyball from the age of 10 to 18. Through Club Volleyball, she was scouted by the Holy Names University Head Coach and received a full ride volleyball scholarship. She was named Player of the League twice, was ranked 3rd in the nation in her division and served as team Captain Junior and Senior year. A few years after graduating, she had her jersey retired and was inducted in to the Holy Names University Hall of Fame.
It didn’t take long for Melissa to realize she wanted to coach and teach younger players the fundamentals needed to become a great player. During her 7 years of coaching Varsity Volleyball, she earned a Coach of the League award twice. She became an Art teacher at Golden West Middle School not long after, and then found herself coaching the school volleyball team. This gave her the opportunity to once again start with the basics and teach young players the correct form and skills needed to improve in the game.
Melissa has also been training young volleyball players outside of school for 5 years now. She holds a training session weekly to help players work on their skills needed to become an experienced player. These sessions include serving, passing, setting, blocking, hitting, defense and many other fundamentals required. She is excited to expand that training session to working with Club Extreme players as well. She finds passion in building not only their physical skill level, but their mental game and confidence needed to continue to improve.
Claudia Diaz
Claudia played four years of varsity volleyball at Rodriguez High School and was named Female Athlete of the Year in 2014. She played 8 years of club, including four years at Club Solano, one year for Golden Bear 15’s, one year for NorCal 16’s and one year for NCVC 18’s. Claudia’s NCVC 18’s team earned an American bid to the Junior Nationals in 2014.
Claudia continued her volleyball career playing for Solano Community College and was named All-Conference First Team. She led the conference and was second in state for aces per set. Claudia is excited for her next step as she will continue playing volleyball at William Jessup in the fall on a scholarship. She will be a Liberal Studies Major where she desires to become an elementary school teacher.
Claudia has coached for Club Solano’s Junior program in 2015 and was the Assistant Coach for Vacaville Extreme 13-1 in 2016. Claudia is excited to help out this summer with Vacaville Extreme’s camps before leaving for college. She is great at the fundamentals and loves working with the younger age groups.
Jason Balmes
Jason Balmes was born in the Philippines in 1982. As a child he was always active be it running, basketball or climbing on whatever he could climb; he loved to play. He was introduced to volleyball in the 3rd grade; it instantly caught his attention and interest. While in high school at Guadalupe Catholic High School in the Philippines, he played volleyball and basketball till he graduated.
At the age of 19, Jason and his family migrated to the USA. Jason then looked for ways to play the sports he loved. Luckily through friends, he found open gyms for volleyball and recreational leagues he joined. Jason has always been a leader in his own way and thrives when given responsibility. So naturally, he's the one who took charge in organizing his rec league team and became their coach and captain. Jason has led his team to two championships in the Fairfield City league and came 2nd three times in the Vacaville City League.
Another thing Jason enjoys doing is volunteering. He volunteered for the
Vacaville SPCA in 2012; coached volleyball to kids ages 10-12 at the Woodland YMCA and is currently a volunteer for the YOLO County Animal Shelter grooming their dogs and getting them ready for adoption.
