MATTHEW DIAZ
DIRECTOR - SMBC WEST

It is not hyperbole nor an understatement to say that Matt Diaz is one of the most respected boys volleyball club figures in all of Southern California, nor is it an understatement to say that the athletes and families of SMBC West are lucky and blessed to have a man of Matt's integrity, character, and coaching acumen as their Director.

An accomplished player and product of the Southern California volleyball pipeline, Matt transitioned from successful athlete in the 80's at University High School, Santa Monica College, and Cal State Northridge to an amazingly successful coach in the 90's and beyond; his first gig as an assistant at his alma mater high school netted two City Championships, and that is just the start.

Matt was the Club Director of the famed Pacific Palisades Volleyball Club ("Pali") for 17 years, all the way up to when he helped launch SMBC West. At Pali, his club won ten medals at Junior Nationals (half of them his own teams), and produced a vast number of All-Americans, NCAA Champions, Olympians, AVP beach professionals, and international overseas professionals. He also was a founding member of the coaching staff that built USA Volleyball High Performance, and coached for the program for twelve years ('01-'12).

Matt is a teacher first, in volleyball and in life. He has taught middle school for LAUSD for more than twenty years, shaping and molding the minds and bodies of the future leaders of our city. At SMBC West, Matt builds and guides the gentlemen of tomorrow with his hard work today. He values passionate competition, hard work and dedication to craft, playing the game the right way, respecting his opponent, and never comprising integrity; in other words, using volleyball as the vessel by which we teach our athletes to be responsible, contributing members of society.

Please feel free to contact Matt with any questions about the SMBC West program. His contact information is below and he is eager to speak with you.

(cell) 818-395-4495
(email) matthew.diaz@me.com

WHO WE ARE - WHAT IS THE SMBC WEST WAY?

Established in 1982, SMBC Boys Volleyball Club is one of the longest-running, highly decorated, and most respected boys volleyball clubs in the country with multiple locations in Southern California.SMBC Boys is also the official Boys Club of the Los Angeles Volleyball Academy (LAVA), one of the largest club volleyball organizations west of the Rockies.

Based in Thousand Oaks, SMBC West taps into the talent-rich regions of the Conejo Valley greater Ventura County, and the western San Fernando Valley, fielding seven to nine teams per season across the various age divisions. At SMBC West, we combine the best of all possible worlds: while we have the stability, backing, and access to the significant resources of the larger SMBC and LAVA organizations, SMBC West is a place where coaches and players know each other well and support each other well, a place players and parents alike can call home.

Our club has three central goals at its core: (1) train well and develop fully the young male athletic talent of the area in the sport of volleyball; (2) teach the boys of this community how to be excellent young men through the vehicle of athletics; and (3) compete on-court to win matches at the highest of competitive levels.

Core Goal #01 - Train and Develop Male Athletes in the Sport of Volleyball ... As our center as coaches here at SMBC West, we are teachers, educators, mentors, molders. Coaching, training, and the development of our athletes in the skills and fundamentals and techniques of volleyball is something we take a great deal of pride in and strive to achieve to a very deep degree. Our training regimen and the structure of our overall program yields on-court results as our athletes grow and improve to dramatic degrees as each season moves along.

Core Goal #02 - Teach the Boys of Our Community to Become Excellent Young Men ... The vehicle of athletics is one of the best ways to help grow boys into young men. Concepts of respect, hard work, diligence, resilience, team-based performance, being part of a team, and pushing to become the best version of yourself are all life lessons our athletes take with them. The journey from boy to man is, without question, the most important journey our athletes will take; it is our job and our passion -- and, indeed, our privilege -- to help them along their way.

Core Goal #03 - Compete On-Court at the Highest of Competitive Levels ... Anyone involved in sports is a competitor at heart; it is no different for the coaches of SMBC West. We are all competitive in our own ways and seek to pass along all the positive aspects and life lessons the pursuit of excellence in a competitive sphere can bring. Our top teams seek to compete at the highest of levels against competitors from across the country. Our second-level teams seek to compete to the best of their abilities at the highest level they can reach.

We have coaches committed to the craft of teaching, committed to training and developing male athletes to be their best on court selves. We have a history of success that breeds competitors with the drive and determination to repeatedly succeed. Finally, and most importantly, we have passionate people who care deeply about what they do  –  a group of truly incredible, wonderful people.

This is the SMBC West Way.

HOW SMBC WEST CAME TO BE . . .

In Spring of 2017, the excellent people behind three of the most successful and recognizable names in junior boys club volleyball – SMBC Boys, Bones Volleyball Club, and Palisades Volleyball Club – joined forces to bring to the Conejo Valley and its surrounding areas a boys club volleyball that has at its core three central goals: (1) train well and development fully the young male athletic talent of the area in the sport of volleyball; (2) teach the boys of this community how to be excellent young men through the vehicle of athletics; and (3) compete on-court to win matches at the highest of competitive levels.

Welcome to SMBC West, the fruit of this collaboration.

SMBC Boys is one of the oldest boys clubs in the country. The club has left an indelible mark on the volleyball community with more than 50 medals earned in national competition and alumni scattered throughout the ranks of men’s collegiate volleyball. It is the flagship boys club program for LAVA.

Bones Volleyball Club was the oldest exclusive boys volleyball club in the Conejo Valley area with almost a decade spent training and developing the boys youth of the community. The goal of Bones was to teach young athletes proper fundamentals, develop skills, teach them how to compete, and give them the tools they need to be complete athletes, excellent teammates, and exemplary human beings. Under the steady leadership of Founder Doug Magorien, Bones teams earned multiple national competition medals and a slew of Top Five and Top Ten finishes.

Palisades Volleyball Club was one of the oldest and most successful boys volleyball clubs in the country and over almost three decades built one of the finest reputations for honor and integrity, coaching excellence, and competitive dominance seen anywhere in the country. Behind long-time Owner/Director Matt Diaz, Palisades VBC rose to exceptional heights.

Bringing the best of SMBC, Bones, and Pali together and working off its defined set of core goals, SMBC West swiftly compiled -- and has continued to compile -- an outstanding coaching staff that features some of the finest coaches working today, not to mention a few of the most successful, recognizable, and popular coaches in our Conejo Valley volleyball community. Our coaches are well-respected as both volleyball coaches and as human beings, with strong pedigree and strong personalities.

SMBC West has already found significant success since its inception, whether winning national medals, earning qualification bids to Junior Nationals, competing in the upper echelons of the region, or simply in taking the boys of today and teaching them what it means to be gentlemen -- gentlemen who also happen to be very good, very competitive volleyball players.

We hope you will come see for yourself what it means to play for SMBC West.

THE HISTORY OF SMBC BOYS

Established in 1982, SMBC Boys Volleyball Club is one of the longest-running, highly decorated, and most respected boys volleyball clubs in the country. SMBC Boys -- which began in Santa Monica, moved to the San Fernando Valley in the 1990's, and in recent years has expanded to multiple locations -- has left an indelible mark on the boys volleyball community.

SMBC Boys is the official Boys Program of LAVA and has multiple locations. The five SMBC Boys locations are: SMBC South (Encino), SMBC West (Thousand Oaks), SMBC VC (Camarillo), SMBC Shack (West Los Angeles), and SMBC North (Santa Clarita). Each location brings everything to the table one would expect given the historic successes of SMBC Boys — top coaching, structured training, and the superior values and ethics that are so very deeply LAVA.

With more than 50 medals won in national competition -- more than half of which have come at Junior Nationals -- SMBC Boys is a well-respected juggernaut with alumni scattered throughout the upper echelons of the collegiate men's volleyball ranks (125+ seniors over the past decade, playing at USC, Pepperdine, UCLA, UCSB, Irvine, Ohio State, Pacific, UCSD, CSUN, among others), including LAVA Co-Founder Trevor Julian who played for the club back in his playing days.

For nearly four decades SMBC Boys has been coaching the young male athletes of Los Angeles to exceptional heights.

BOYS YOUTH PROGRAM @ SMBC WEST

The Boys Youth Program at SMBC West has been successful for several years. The program is seasonal -- Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall -- with each session running for multiple weeks. The cost per player for each session depends upon the length of the session (customarily ranges from $80-$160 per player for the full session, sometimes even free depending on the time of year). Practices are typically 75 minutes long.

The program is designed to give young male athletes a taste of volleyball in a encouraging environment that mixes quality skills training with lots of competitive games to build a passion for this excellent sport. The program is coached by professional, paid coaches; it is not volunteer-based and, as such, the training value and player growth is significant.

>> Want More Info? Click Here to Visit the Home Page of the Boys Youth Program @ SMBC West.

LAVA WEST GIRLS VOLLEYBALL CLUB - SISTER CLUB OF SMBC WEST

SMBC West Volleyball Club for Boys is the brother club of the LAVA West girls program. Many of our families have daughters playing for LAVA West and sons playing for SMBC West.

LAVA West fields more than a dozen teams a year for girls grades 4th-12th, as well as offers an excellent youth program for 3rd-6th grade girls not ready to play club volleyball just yet.

Have questions? Please contact our LAVA West Girls Director Trevor Julian at trevorjulian@gmail.com or via cell phone at (818) 631-7785. You can also click here read more about LAVA West.