Cory Chandler

Club Director & Head Coach (14s & 17s)

Cory Chandler founded Athletes Only after a successful coaching career in California at the College, Club, and High School level. He currently coaches the Casteel High School Girls Volleyball team. In his first year he led them to their first region Championship and earned Coach of the Year. He also had the Region player of the year and all District player.

Chandler is going on his 29th year coaching with his most recent stint before Casteel at Chaminade College Prep where he led the team to their two best finishes in school history and the first League Championship. The Eagles finished the year 35-2 and 8-0 in league play in 2021 which topped the previous best school record of 28-11 that was set in 2019. Chandler traveled from Arizona to California in 2021 to coach this special group of athletes. The group he assembled later went on to win the California State Championship.

Before Chaminade, Chandler was the Athletic Director and Head Boys Volleyball coach at Calabasas High School where he led the team to their first two playoff appearances with one being in the CIF Finals. As an Athletic Director he changed the entire culture of sports at the school where they won multiple CIF Championships in football and basketball, and raised the bar for all sports to become extremely competitive.

Chandler opened up Club Koa Volleyball in Woodland Hills, CA with the girls volleyball coach at Calabasas High in order to bridge the competitive gap. Club Koa opened initially just for the athletes at Calabasas and quickly grew to 11 teams within 3 years. Club Koa has never marketed itself and relies solely on word of mouth. Our hope is to grow the game and give athletes and families opportunities that they may not have had if we were not there.

Before Chaminade, Calabasas HS, and Club Koa, Chandler was fortunate to coach at Laguna Beach Volleyball Club, Sport Shack Volleyball Club, 951 Elite Volleyball Club, Saddleback Volleyball Club, and Mission Viejo High School. He was blessed to find all these places as he navigated through his teaching credential and student teaching all while still playing competitively.

Cory was also very fortunate to be able to coach at Concordia University-Irvine with Paula Weishoff where he was the recruiting coordinator, setters, and middles coach. He was also able to learn a great deal from some of the best coaching minds in the game including Marv Dunphy, Mick Haley, Tim Nollan, David Hunt, Tony Westman, and the list goes on.

As a player Chandler was a 4-year Varsity letterman and starter for Aliso Niguel High School where he was also a 2-year captain. Chandler also won a CIF Football Championship in 1996 with a 14-0 record and was a 3 year varsity starter and 2 time all-league player at the Tight End position. He was also the first Tri-Sport Athlete Letterman at the school as he also competed in Varsity Basketball.

Chandler played junior college at Irvine Valley before he started coaching at Concordia University-Irvine and then headed over to played for the Gigantes De Adjuntas in the Puerto Rican Superior League. In addition to playing in Puerto Rico, Chandler competed in many AVP events but was never lucky enough to get in the main draw. He did however, earn his AAA rating when he won an event at Manhattan Beach with partner Nate Michaels.

Chandler has coached many great players over the years. His son Brendin was a member of the USA Junior National Team. Some others players he has directly coached as a head coach or assistant coach are Dicey McGraw (UCLA), Megan Blackshire (UCSB), Katy Daley (Pepperdine), Bojana Todorovich (UCLA), Julianne Piggot (UCLA/UCI), Alex Palmer (Minnesota), Allison Palmer (Illinois), Leonie Strehl (UC Davis), Raquel Ferrier (Concordia/AVP), Tracy Weamer (Concordia/AVP), Johnna Fouch (San Diego State),Kyla Oropeza (San Diego State), Lily Staight (Cal Sate Monterey Bay, Bridgett Brady (Fordham), Isabella Martinez (Cal Poly-SLO-Sand), Devon Johnson (Hawaii), Mac Cavanaugh (UCI) , Oliver Martin (UCLA), and his son Brendin Chandler (USA JNT, Pepperdine/ASU), and the list continues.

Cory currently lives in Queen Creek, Arizona with his wife, Tracy, two children, Rylie and Beckham, and dogs Bronco and Belli. His eldest son Brendin recently graduated from Arizona State University. His wife Tracy played volleyball at the University of Utah, his sister-in law played at University Nevada-Reno, and brother in-law played at Loyola Marymount with local Arizona legend and Olympian gold medalist Reid Priddy.