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The Tar Heel volleyball program is under the direction of one of the country's most respected coaches. Over the past 18 years, Joe Sagula has compiled an impressive 364-258 overall record at both North Carolina and the University of Pennsylvania and has been involved with the sport on a national level through United States national teams, the U.S. Olympic Festival program and U.S. Volleyball Association teams.

Since coming to Carolina nine years ago, Sagula has guided the Tar Heels to the 1990 and 1998 Atlantic Coast Conference championship match, four appearances in the ACC Tournament semifinals (1992-95-96-98) and three top-three finishes in the league's regular-season standings including last year's regular season crown.

Last season was the coaching pinacle of Sagula's career as he coached the 1998 squad to a regular season ACC title, a second place finish in the ACC Tournament, and the first NCAA Tournament appearance for the Tar Heels in a decade. Carolina also made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

As a result of his dedication and success last season, Sagula was named the ACC Coach of the Year by his coaching peers, and was the AVCA NCAA District III Coach of the Year as well.

Sagula allows his players to develop both on and off the court during the four years they are at Carolina. A prime example of this is senior Tori Seibert who was named to the All-ACC second team as a freshman and sophomore and to the first team last season. Or look at former setter Erin Berg who earned the ACC-Player-of-the Year honors last season and received the Athletic Director's Scholar-Athlete Award, a true example of the complete student-athlete.

"Joe is a quality human being, as well as an outstanding coach," says former UNC Director of Athletics John Swofford, now the commissioner of the ACC. "He has done a superb job in developing our volleyball program, and I can't think of a finer representative of intercollegiate athletics than Joe."

In 1996, Carolina went 20-12 overall and 9-7 in the ACC, tying Clemson for fourth place in the conference. The Tar Heels reached the semifinals of the ACC Tournament for the second consecutive year.

In 1995, the Tar Heels advanced to postseason play for the first time since 1989 when they appeared in the 1995 National Invitational Volleyball Championship in Kansas City, Mo.

During Sagula's tenure at Penn, the Quakers won Ivy League titles in 1983, 1986 and 1989 and Big Five championships in 1984, 1986 and 1988, while never finishing lower than second in the conference standings. Named the Ivy League's Coach of the Year four consecutive seasons, Sagula chaired the NCAA Division I All-America Committee for four years. He served four years on the AVCA Board of Directors as the Awards Chairman and is a certified Level III instructor for the U.S. Volleyball Coaching Accreditation Program.

A native of New York City, Sagula earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the State University of New York, College at New Paltz in 1978. While there he earned three letters in volleyball, captaining the team his senior year.

Prior to accepting the position at Penn in 1981, Sagula taught high school fine arts in Westchester County, N.Y., and also coached girls' volleyball and track and field at the prep level. During the summer of 1990, Sagula served as an assistant coach for the USA National Women's Volleyball B Team which trained in Walnut Creek, Calif.

Twice he has coached at the United States Olympic Festival: in 1987 in Chapel Hill as an assistant coach and in 1989 in Oklahoma City as a head coach. In both cases, his teams took home silver medals. Sagula coached for six years in New York's Empire State Games, earning two gold medals and three silver medals. In 1980, he coached the boys' PepsiCo Volleyball Club of Westchester County to the AAU national junior championship and has been involved in both boys' and girls' junior development programs at PepsiCo.

Sagula coached USVBA women's volleyball clubs throughout the East coast for nine years from 1981-90. His AVIA/SUNSIDE teams won numerous regional championships and competed nationally. As recently as 1988, they finished fifth at the USVBA championship in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sagula also served as the player/coach development coordinator for the USVBA Keystone region. The national association honored him with its Clinician of the Year award for 1989.

In addition to his duties with the women's team at Penn, Sagula also served as head men's volleyball coach from 1981-89 for the program which competed at both the varsity and club level. His record with the men was 111-75 (.597). Competing in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, he was named Coach of the Year in the club division in 1989.