Dale selected as Warriors' girls volleyball coach

Fallbrook High School named Jason Dale as the Warriors’ new girls’ volleyball head coach.

Dale was officially notified of the position Jan. 31.

“We’re excited to have him as our volleyball coach,” Fallbrook athletic director Patrick Walker said.

“I want to try to build a program from the ground up. I want to make it a fun and enjoyable experience for every girl who has a passion for volleyball,” Dale said.

Chip Patterson had been the head volleyball coach of both the Fallbrook High School girls and the Warriors’ boys. He will remain the coach of the Warrior boys, whose 2019 season begins with a Feb. 26 match at Point Loma High School.

“I’m trying my very best to get more on-campus coaches who are part of the staff who can be more involved with the kids that are there every day. They can hold tutorials and meetings in their classroom,” Walker said. “That’s the best deal to have a teacher who is also a coach and on campus.”

Dale teaches math at Fallbrook High School. He was hired by the Fallbrook Union High School District in 2014.

Patterson, who is an off-campus coach, took over as head coach of the girls program in 2014. He was an assistant coach on the girls team in 2013, when Robin Reese was the Warriors’ head coach. Patterson has been the boys’ head coach since 2014.

Dale coached Fallbrook’s girls’ junior varsity team in 2014 and 2015 and has also coached the Temecula-based Viper club.

“He’s also highly qualified,” Walker said of Dale. “He coached the JV girls a few years ago for a couple of years and did a great job.”

Dale, who is now 33, graduated from Valley High School in 2003. His father, Alan, was the Jaguars’ boys volleyball coach. Dale played for the Jaguars and attended California State Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo, which has club but not National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s volleyball. Dale played on the university’s club team before graduating with a business degree.

The emphasis of Dale’s business degree was accounting and finance, and he worked as a certified public accountant in Orange County for two years.

“I wanted to go back and become a teacher,” he said.

Dale obtained his teaching credential from the University of California Irvine and began his teaching and coaching career at Aliso Niguel High School in Aliso Viejo. He coached the Wolverines’ junior varsity boys team for two years before returning to San Diego County. Dale taught at Rincon Middle School in Escondido before the Fallbrook High School teaching position became available.

His daughter is now 5 1/2 and in kindergarten at La Paloma Elementary School, but Dale stepped down both as the Warriors’ junior varsity coach and as a Viper coach to spend more time with his daughter and took a three-year absence from volleyball.

The advantages of an on-campus coach include being available to athletes throughout the day, being able to monitor grades and other academic issues, being able to work with school administrators on financial and schedule issues and being able to develop a year-round sports program which allows athletes and potential athletes to participate in the off-season.

“He’s trying to get more teachers involved in athletic programs,” Dale said of Walker. “He let me know that what we were trying to build was a long-term program.”

Dale’s desire to return to volleyball gave Walker an opportunity.

“I was interested in the program and he was looking for that kind of position and it just kind of worked out,” Dale said.

The 2019 CIF girls volleyball season will begin in August – the first permissible day of practice will be Aug. 1 and the first permissible match can take place no earlier than Aug. 8. A team’s 2019 schedule must be submitted to the CIF by June 1. Dale’s presence on campus will allow for the development of a physical education class emphasizing volleyball.

“We can build a program for all levels,” he said.

Athletes on Fallbrook’s CIF team can participate in the physical education class during the winter and spring CIF seasons, as can students who were not on the varsity, junior varsity or novice teams during the fall but might be interested in volleyball. Although the CIF prohibits club competition during the CIF season, a player may participate both in an off-season physical education class and a club team during the same weeks.

The physical education class will also teach volleyball knowledge and skills to those who may be involved in volleyball in a non-playing capacity such as business management, health and fitness training, or announcing.

“It gives them an opportunity to still shine,” Dale said. “I’m excited to start. I love the game, so it will be a really fun new adventure.”