Morgan takes over as boys' volleyball coach

Ryan Morgan inherits a Fallbrook High School boys’ volleyball team which finished 15-7 last year and reached the CIF Division I quarterfinals.

He doesn’t inherit 2008 Fallbrook senior and Avocado League Player of the Year Taylor Hughes or two other all-league players who graduated last year.

Morgan’s most important goal for the players who have been practicing since February 23 is training in the fundamentals.

“My goal, really, is to make sure these guys turn out to be good players,” Morgan said. “We’re just trying to rebuild the program and get a strong foundation going.”

After Tom Saunders notified the school this past fall that he would be pursuing other opportunities, Morgan applied for the vacant position. “I was <already> coaching at the school,” he said.

Morgan was the junior varsity head coach of the 2008 Fallbrook High School girls’ volleyball team, and he had previously been a varsity assistant on the girls’ squad.

He interviewed for the position in December with Fallbrook High School athletic director Patrick Walker and was offered the job at the interview. “They knew my track record,” Morgan said.

Morgan’s record at the high school also includes playing the 2004 season on the boys’ team as a setter. He was home-schooled until 12th grade and only spent one season playing high school volleyball. He played no other sports at Fallbrook High School.

Morgan is a second-generation school coach; his father coached at Los Angeles Harbor Community College. “I grew up playing the game,” he said.

Morgan was born in San Pedro and moved to Fallbrook when he was young. He was competing in beach circuit tournaments by the time he was 15 and played indoor tournaments at the men’s level during his high school years.

After his year in high school Morgan returned to the beach version of the game. He soon began coaching both beach and indoor volleyball, providing training for both and serving as an assistant coach upon request.

“The more I did it, the more I began to like it,” he said of coaching.

Morgan began coaching camps and clinics and eventually was asked by Galen Tomlinson, then Fallbrook High School’s varsity girls’ coach, to be an assistant.

Morgan notes that speed is one of the biggest differences between boys’ and girls’ volleyball. “It’s a little bit faster,” he said of the boys’ game.

Fallbrook opens its season March 25 when the Warriors host Tri-City Christian. “I’m excited. It looks like it will be a big rebuilding year for us,” Morgan said.

“We’ve got some guys who don’t have a lot of experience but are willing to learn,” Morgan said. “Looks like we’ve got some potential.”

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