Meet Our Directors

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 27th 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 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.

 

Although living in Arizona, Chandler is still a major part of Club Koa. He also coached at BONES Volleyball Club during this time where he was fortunate to be able to coach his son Brendin Chandler to an open bid in Junior Olympics.

Before Chaminade, Calabasas and Club Koa, Chandler was fortunate to coach at Laguna Beach Volleyball Club, SportShack Volleyball Club, 951 Elite Volleyball Club and Saddleback
Volleyball Club and Mission Viejo High School. He was blessed to find all these clubs 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 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 in 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 Gilbert, 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.

Anthony Mezzavilla, founder of Athletes Only, has been coaching volleyball since he was in high school, and now surpasses more than two decades of coaching experience. His excitement for coaching started when he volunteered his time as a middle school coach during his junior year. Year after year, his passion and high level of commitment to coaching youth volleyball produces consistent successes. Anthony believes in developing the athlete as a whole player. He strives to give each player, at any skill level, his dedication and commitment to their continued development on and off the court. After graduating from UCLA, he taught elementary school for three years. During these years he developed a passion for educating young players about the game and watching the moment when the training and learning click. The ‘Ah Ha’ moments.

 

Currently, Anthony is the head coach of Basha High School women’s volleyball program. Prior to Basha, Anthony served as the Master Coach for Actyve Volleyball Club in Santa Monica, CA. A role that satisfied his desire to work with a varied spectrum of athletes across the whole club. Ranging from the rawest developmental athletes to the highest echelon of athletes who compete in the top division in the SCVA. Within the world of club volleyball, he has found success at multiple clubs. While at Sports Shack, the 18U team won back-to-back Open Gold Medals in 2010 and 2011, 2013 ended in a Top 25 campaign in the Open division at Nationals, and 2014 the team took home a fifth-place finish in the USA division. While at Laguna Beach Volleyball Club, the 18U team finished in the Top 25 of Open and he coached two future NCAA champions headed to Stanford (2018 and 2019 National Champions). At Actyve, he coached the first team to ever qualify for nationals in 2016. Last club season, he coached 13s and 14s and both teams finished in the Top 36 of Southern California.

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At the high school level, Anthony has run two different programs in LA for a combined total of six seasons. Before that, he was the varsity assistant at Archer School for Girls for six seasons. Giving him more than a decade of experience with high school athletes. While running the program at Buckley, he brought in the first ever CIF-Southern Section title in the school’s 80+ year history; honors included, 2017 League Champions, CIF Player of the Year, 3 All-CIF players, League MVP, Coach of the Year honors, and [his personal favorite] highest team GPA schoolwide. During his time at Archer, he helped lead the team to an appearance in the CIF-SS Final Four. That finish was the highest any team in Archer School history had accomplished at the time.

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Prior to Archer, Anthony attended UCLA (2006-2009) and volunteered as the Undergraduate Assistant Coach for the women’s volleyball team. While at UCLA, the women’s team made appearances in the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and Final Four. Under the tutelage of coach Andy Banachowski, who coached the Bruins for 45 years, Anthony grew an immeasurable amount as a coach in just three seasons. He graduated cum laude with a major in history and minor in education.