IU Columbus volleyball players Alaina Wesling, from left, and Alyvia Luce watch head coach Jose Olivio demonstrate serve technique during practice at Ceraland in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Jose Olivo played and coached college volleyball in his native Venezuela, but that didn’t completely prepare him for attempting to start a college program in Columbus.
Olivo took the helm last year as the first volleyball coach at IUPUC. Now called IU Columbus, the Crimson Pride will open their inaugural season Friday and Saturday in a tournament at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.
“It’s completely different,” Olivo said. “There (in Venezuela), you don’t recruit. You only have the players who are attending the school. Here, I faced the issue to start recruiting, and that was really tough because you have to sell a program to a kid that wants to play college and when you talk to that kid, I really don’t have much to offer. The only thing that I could offer was, ‘You definitely would have the opportunity to play at a high level, and I remember saying one of the most important things here is that after four years, you would have an IU degree.”
And Olivo stressed to each of his 12 players the importance of getting that degree.
“After you graduate, most likely, you’re not going to be a professional volleyball player, and the most that you will be able to do is probably coach and believe me, coaching, you won’t be making enough money to live,” Olivo said. “So you have to get your degree. Your education comes first. You’re just going to have fun while their going to school. And I think that pitch worked because I had the opportunity to talk to several girls, and to be honest, I got probably 70 to 80 percent of the girls that I talked to.”
All 12 players on the roster are from Indiana, and 11 are freshmen. That includes a pair of Columbus North graduates in Logan Branstetter and Grace Barkes.
“I think it’s really awesome,” Branstetter said. “I was a little bit nervous at first, but I think we’re a pretty close-knit team and I think we’re all ready to do a lot of big things this year. I’m excited for the season.”
Leah Thompson, who played at Rock Creek Academy, is the lone sophomore on the team. The other freshmen are Abigail Watson (Brown County), Addison Lemon (Seymour), Malia Schembra (Center Grove), Madison Hunter (Silver Creek), Alyvia Luce (Jeffersonville), Mackenzie Broman (Western), Olivia Embry (Wes-Del) and Cora Baker (South Adams) and Alaina Wesling (Marion).
“It’s amazing how different backgrounds, different locations they are,” Olivo said. “I have a couple that I call from the south. They are from southern Indiana. Then, of course, I have a couple locals, and Logan is one of them. I always followed her at Columbus North and was very excited when she decided to become part of the team because I always felt that it’s important to have somebody representing the town. Then I have several girls from the North (in Indiana), and then we have one from Seymour and Nashville. So we have a very diverse background.”
Olivo, who works for Cummins during the day, also has experience coaching at Central Middle School.
“Last year, one of parents that I coached one of their kids contacted me and said, ‘Hey, would you be interested coaching college?’” Olivo said. “They said, ‘It’s an opportunity,’ and I said, ‘Nah, nah, it’s OK.’ They said, ‘You would be great,’ and I said, ‘OK fine,’ just because I never like got get people down. So she contacted (IUC athletics director) Zach (McClellan), and Zach contacted me, and we went through the interview process, and I was fortunate to get the position and it took me a few days to actually sleep.”
“What doesn’t get matched is his passion,” McClellan said. “Jose is a passionate person about life, sports. We’re very fortunate to have Jose here.”
Olivo said volleyball is played at a quicker pace than when he played and coached in Venezuela.
“It is different,” Olivo said. “The speed that you play the sport now is completely different from 20 or 30 years ago. This is a fast-paced game, and you have to use every single opportunity that you have to score points.”
Olivo was pleasantly surprised with the way the Crimson Pride played when they scrimmaged a couple of teams at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods earlier this month.
“I told them that I was very optimistic from what I saw,” Olivo said. “I think that I cannot promise a lot of victories, but I can promise that we’re going to compete, because we have a lot of talent, but more than talent, I think that we have heart, and to me, that is more important than anything else.”
