BY: Andrew Sischo

Already at 16 varsity sports, the Daemen College Athletic Department had the joy of announcing the addition of one more, making it a grand total of 17 varsity sports. In the Spring of 2017, the department announced the addition of a Men’s Volleyball program.

Starting in the fall of the 2018-2019 school year, Daemen will join the short list of Division II schools who field a men’s volleyball team in the country.

At the helm of this new program is first year coach Donald Gleason, who has had an enormous impact on the success of the women’s volleyball team. He has previously held the position of assistant women’s volleyball coach for the last few seasons.

Gleason, a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, played on the school’s club volleyball team during his time at school, and excelled on the sidelines as the assistant here at Daemen. With the experience he brings to the table, he has some big expectations for the first season.

“The possibility of bringing programs like Penn State and UCLA to the Daemen campus is being explored, so I am excited to bring a new level of exposure to the college,” Gleason stated.

The team will not play in any contests until the second half of the 2018-2019 school year, hoping to have their first contest beginning in January of 2019.   This will give Coach Gleason plenty of time to go out and recruit a solid team for the start of the 2018 school year.         “It’s definitely promising to see so much interest from the players, but the most important goal is to find players who are the right fit for Daemen,” Gleason said.

Seeing that no contests will be played in the near future, Gleason has been working hard to recruit the best players possible for his program. He has a blank slate to work from, and that is something that could become a big factor in the success of his team in the upcoming years.