| Orlando Larracuente | ||
 |
Title | Head Women's Volleyball Coach |
| olarracuente@howard.edu | ||
| Phone | 202-806-5204 | |
| Fax | 202-806-9090 | |
Orlando Larracuente, Head Women's Volleyball Coach
Orlando Larracuente enters his second season as the head women's volleyball coach at Howard University. Larracuente brings 24 years of coaching experience to Howard.
He began his volleyball coaching career in 1989 at Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Long Beach California, where he headed up the boy's and girl's volleyball teams until 1994. His appointment to the boy's team in 1989 made him the first boy's volleyball coach in Long Beach Poly history.
A few months after taking over the girl's program in 1991, his team won the prestigious West Coast Prep Nationals and was nationally ranked by Volleyball Monthly Magazine and USA Today. His girl's team would eventually win three league championships, as well as make quarterfinal and semifinal California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) appearances.
Larracuente's boy's team at Long Beach Poly was just as impressive as his girl's team, winning or sharing the league crown in the first four years of play. His boy's team won four league championships and made six CIF State appearances with one semi-final berth. Larracuente finished his career at Long Beach Poly with a combined 122-31 overall record and an impressive 57-13 league record.
In 1994, Larracuente moved from the West Coast to the East Coast (Maryland) where he continued to teach and coach in the public school system. In 1996 he was recruited to become the trainer and head coach of the DC Juniors Volleyball club 18 and under girl's team. During his two-year tenure, his team won two consecutive Chesapeake Regional championships while qualifying for the junior national's.
In 1998, Larracuente was named the head coach of Walt Whitman High School girl's varsity volleyball team. In his first season, his Whitman team finished with an undefeated record while earning its first ever state championship. For his efforts that season he was honored as The Washington Post All-Met Coach of the Year, The Montgomery Journal and the Gazette Coach of the Year for girl's volleyball. Between 1998-2003 Larracuente's coached his Whitman team four division championships while recording a 68-19 overall record in his career at the school.
Larracuente's winning style is evidenced by his teams, as they have shown to be technically sound, in great physical shape and disciplined.
He was instrumental in the development of elite volleyball players, Popi Edwards and Chris Harger on the west coast and Sheryl Weaver and Candace McNamee on the east coast.
Edwards, who Larracuente trained at Long Beach Poly, was the first female athlete from the high school to receive a full scholarship in the sport of volleyball (UC Irvine). Edwards was recently inducted into the UC Irvine's Hall of Fame in two sports: volleyball and track. Harger, who Larracuente introduced to the sport of volleyball in his junior year at Long Beach Poly, went on to become an All-American at UC Irvine and a member of the USA Men's national Team.
Both Weaver and McNamee represented USA Volleyball abroad during their junior and senior years in high school. Weaver went on to become an All-American at Long Beach State University where she was a member the NCAA National championship and McNamee went to UC-Berkeley on a full scholarship. Both players would eventually play for the USA Women's National Team. Weaver and McNamee are currently playing professionally overseas.
Another one of Larracuente's player, Tanisha Larkin, was a High School All-American and attended national powerhouse UCLA on a full athletic scholarship.
Larracuente's appointment to Howard will put him against one of his former players, Renee Arnold, who is the head coach at Delaware State University. Arnold played for Larracuente with the DC Juniors Volleyball Club elite team before playing collegiately at George Washington University.
A native of Puerto Rico, Larracuente received his Bachelor of Science in physical education from Massachusetts-Amherst in 1981 and his master's in Education, emphasis on Physical Education, from Azusa Pacific University in 1994.
There are no contests upcoming.
Multimedia
Coach's Comments from 2008 Football Spring Training (Part One)
Coach's Comments from 2008 Football Spring Training (Part Two)
Howard University
Photos Taken By All-Pro Photography