Todd Garrett, who coached the Dos Pueblos girls volleyball team to a CIF-Southern Section championship in 2009 and the semifinals in 2011, has stepped down from the position.
Todd Garrett coached the Dos Pueblos varsity girls volleyball team for six years.
Garrett has coached in the DP volleyball program for 12 years, six years as the head varsity coach.
“It was just time for me to open up some time in my life for other things,” he said of his decision. “It is always difficult to walk away from something you have put so much time and energy into but I just need a break.”
Garrett will continue teaching sports medicine and kinesiology at DP. He also plans to help out with the boys volleyball program this spring, coaching the freshman team.
His 2009 team was special. Led by Stanford-bound sisters Sam and Carly Wopat, Notre Dame-bound setter Sammie Brown and other standout players, the Chargers went 32-3, 10-0 in the Channel League and swept Huntington Beach for the CIF 1AA title.
Several of Garrett’s players have gone on to play in college. McKenna Goss of this year’s team is headed to Boston College.
“I have great memories of every team I have coached,” Garrett said when asked about highlights of his career coaching the girls varsity. “We did win the Division 1AA CIF Championship in 2009 and made it to the Division 1 final four in 2011, but every season was special in their individual ways. The thing that is so great about coaching in Santa Barbara is there are so many talented coaches at all levels. By the time the girls reach the varsity level, they have been taught the game by amazing club coaches, JV coaches, frosh coaches and sand coaches, among others. That makes the varsity coach’s job a lot easier.”
On leaving, he said he’ll “miss the relationships that are developed and cultivated by the athletic and competitive environment. The girls are fun and goofy and have brought me so many laughs and so much joy.
“I have been so blessed to have had incredible assistant coaches and lower level coaches,” he added. “We have truly worked as a team to try and be successful at all levels. I am also very fortunate to have had amazing support from DP’s athletic department and administration.”
Dan Feldhaus, DP’s athletic director, said the school will follow the standard procedure of first looking for a qualified coaching candidate on campus and in the school district before pursuing a walk-on coach.
