Eastern’s associate volleyball coach, Manolo Concepcion, will not be with the team for the 2025 season. His contract was not renewed, according to athletic director Tom Michael.
“He was and is one of the best training and development coaches in the country, in my opinion,” said head coach Sara Thomas. “He has a brilliant mind and can see talent from just watching film it’s insane.”
Michael did not comment on why his contract was not renewed.
Concepcion, who was brought in by Thomas in 2020, has been at Eastern for four non-consecutive seasons. He spent the 2023 season as the assistant coach at the University of Washington but returned in 2024.
Before he left for Washington, in 2022, he was named Eastern’s beach volleyball head coach for their inaugural season.
In 2023, while he was away, Eastern’s volleyball team won the Ohio Valley Conference championship and made it into the NCAA tournament. Despite his absence, Thomas gives him credit for the team’s success.
“He was the reason that helped us win in [2023], all those years leading up to it,” Thomas said.
In a phone interview, Conception said he hopes to stay in the sport and is excited for new opportunities.
“To me, I mean beyond the training and development, he is a Power Five coach,” Thomas said. “I mean worldwide- he can coach professionally, I mean he really knows his volleyball stuff.”
Conception recapped the various recruits he brought to campus. He mentioned Giovana Larregui-López, a two-time OVC Female Player of the Year, Christina Martinez-Mundo, the Most Valuable Player in the OVC Tournament and Catalina Rochaix, the 2023 OVC Setter of the Year.
“You know it’s so many special people that composed this program from, you know, the last couple of years,” Concepcion said. “It allows me to go out thinking ‘man, there was a lot of growth and development done for this program.’”
A nationwide search to fill his position is underway, according to Thomas.
Aidan Cusack can be reached at 581-2812 or at atcusack@eiu.edu.