Head Coach John Landicho
Former UC San Diego men's assistant and longtime San Diego high school and club coach John Landicho was appointed head coach of Mesa's men's volleyball program in the Spring of 2008.
An accomplished teacher of the sport, Landicho was an assistant coach & technical coordinator for the 2007 UCSD men’s team, helping the NCAA Division-II Tritons to wins over two D-I Top-15 teams. He has been a fixture in the championship volleyball program at Francis Parker School since the Fall of 1993, where he is the top assistant coach in the girls program led by Olympic gold & bronze medallist Eric Sato, and has also logged 10 seasons as an assistant coach in the School’s boys program (1997-2006). In his 21 seasons at Parker he has helped Lancer volleyball teams to 48 championships, including 15 CIF-SD Championships, four Southern California regional titles, girls CIF State Championships in 1998, 2004, & 2005, and four season-ending #1 rankings in San Diego County. Eighteen of the last 19 Lancer girls and boys teams Landicho has been a part of, have made CIF-San Diego Section Finals appearances while winning league championships in all 19 of those seasons. He is a two-time inductee into the Parker Athletic Hall of Fame, as part of the school’s standout 1998 boys volleyball team & as a member of Parker’s 1998 girls state championship-winning squad.
Landicho is a past member of the coaching staff at Epic Volleyball Club, where his last team (boys 17-1) earned a top-10 finish at the 2007 USA Volleyball Junior Olympics. He served as a technical advisor to the 1996 USA Men's Olympic Team, putting together the defensive scouting tapes the team used in the Atlanta Olympic Games. Landicho helped Grossmont College's 2001 women's squad to a 12-0 Pacific Coast Conference championship as the team's assistant coach. He has previously coached for San Diego, Starlings, and Seaside volleyball clubs, helping two teams to USAV Junior Olympic silver medals along the way, and has also coached at numerous volleyball clinics since 1991.
A 1993 graduate of U.S. International University with a Bachelor's degree in Physical Education, Landicho is a member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association and has earned CAP Level I certification through USA Volleyball's Coaching Accreditation Program. Landicho and his wife Sandi are the proud parents of a daughter, Kimi.
Assistant Coach Matt Wilkinson
Already having achieved great success as a coach and a player, Matt Wilkinson joins the Mesa coaching staff as the first assistant coach for the Olympian men's volleyball team.
Wilkinson has crafted an award-winning career as a coach. He has been a member of the coaching staff at Epic Volleyball Club since 2004, where he has led three boys team to top-5 finishes at the USA Volleyball Junior Olympics, including a bronze medal finish with the club's 17-1 team in 2006. He also led the 2002 Seaside VBC 15-1 team to a J.O.'s 6th place finish in 2002. Wilkinson spent seven years coaching at his alma mater, San Pasqual HS, leading the boys' program from 2000-2007 as head coach and serving as the head coach for the girls' team in 2001 and 2002. His teams won three CIF-San Diego Section championships in that time, earning girls titles in '01 and '02 and a boys' championship in ‘07. Wilkinson was named California HS volleyball Coach of the Year in 2002, and CIF-SDS boys volleyball Coach of the year in 2007, for his efforts. He has also coached at Sunwest VBC and at Mission Hills and Poway high schools, and numerous clinics in and out of California.
As a player, Wilkinson twice earned first team JC All-State honors; first while leading the Palomar College men's team to a state runner-up finish in 1995, and then leading the 2000 Grossmont College men's squad to a third-place finish in the state. He was a four-year starter for San Pasqual HS, where he led the Eagles to a CIF title in 1994 and was named CIF-SDS Most Valuable Player. Wilkinson still holds the school's all-time records for single season and career assists.
Incredibly passionate about San Diego volleyball and SD county men's volleyball in particular, Wilkinson is a member of the staff of VolleyHut.com, one of the nation's leading retailers of volleyball equipment and apparel. He is single and resides in Poway.