Monday Morning MIL: Baldwin alum Donan Cruz joins University of Hawai’i men’s volleyball coaching staff

If Donan Cruz’s volleyball life was made into a children’s show, it would have to be called “Donan the Explorer.”

From Guam, to Wailuku, to Lamoni, Iowa, to Des Moines, Iowa, to Muncie, Ind., Cruz landed in Mānoa, O‘ahu, last week in a move that can only be described as an unexpected homecoming. 

The 41-year-old Cruz, a 2001 Baldwin High School graduate, was named an assistant coach for the University of Hawai‘i men’s volleyball program that he has battled for the last four years as head coach at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. 

Cruz stepped down at BSU in late June after compiling an 81-36 record, including a 23-4 mark in 2022 when he led the Cardinals to an NCAA Final Four berth, where they lost in five sets to UH.

For the last week, Cruz has been helping head coach Charlie Wade and fellow assistant coach Kupono Fey run practice for the Rainbow Warriors.

“It’s pretty, pretty amazing, man,” Cruz said Tuesday. “It’s been a busy couple days, but I’m just fortunate to have this opportunity to coach alongside Coach Wade and Kupono.”

Milan Zarkovic stepped down as a University of Hawai‘i assistant men’s volleyball coach on Sept. 22, after 11 years on the job, to take a similar job at UCLA. Cruz then jumped to the head of the line to take over Zarkovic’s slot.

“Being able to be here and play whatever role I can to help the team be successful … is crazy to think that I’m here and all of this was able to work out,” Cruz said, adding that the decision to take the UH job happened less than 10 days before he was in Mānoa helping to run practice on Sept. 29. “It’s a pretty surreal feeling.”

His wife Anna and their three sons — Nixon, 10; Nevon, 8; and Micah, 4 — are still in Muncie.  

Cruz arrived at Ball State following a decorated 10-year tenure at Grand View University, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics school in Des Moines, Iowa, where he won NAIA national titles in 2018 and 2021 and left with a 212-55 record.

He earned American Volleyball Coaches Association National Coach of the Year honors at Ball State in 2022 at the NCAA level. He was named AVCA national coach of the year four times at the NAIA level at Grand View and is still the winningest coach in NAIA men’s volleyball history with a .793 winning percentage.

“Unbelievable opportunity,” Charlie Wade said at a news conference on UH’s lower campus on Tuesday. “Donan and I talk pretty regularly throughout the year. As this came available, and it came on pretty fast, I said, ‘Hey, what do you think?’ And we were able to come to an agreement and get him out here.”

When Cruz stepped down at Ball State on June 27, his volleyball coaching future was set for only three more months, as an assistant coach for the USA under-21 men’s national team. That team recently won a bronze medal at the under-21 world championships in China, marking the first time a USA team, men or women, medaled at that level. 

That USA team included University of Hawai‘i players Tread Rosenthal, Kainoa Wade (Charlie Wade’s son) and Trevell Jordan.

During his two-year run with the USA under-21 team, Cruz also encountered UH players Adrien Roure of France and new libero Quintin Greenidge of Canada during the under-21 competitions. 

“They really enjoyed just his energy and the insight he was giving them. I think it’s pretty significant,” Charlie Wade said of the UH players’ connection with Cruz.

Born on Guam, Cruz moved to Maui before his sophomore year at Baldwin High School, where he played volleyball and seriously started his journey in the sport. He played collegiately for three seasons (2004-06) at Graceland University in Lamoini, Iowa, where he was an outside hitter and defensive specialist.

Al Paschoal is the current coach at Baldwin for boys and girls and has a prominent club program, Hawaiian Style Volleyball Club. Paschoal has known Cruz since Cruz was in high school.

“This is an epic step for Maui volleyball, Donan coming from Maui,” Paschoal said. “Being in the sport for as long as I have, UH is the mecca, at least if you plan to stay in Hawai‘i, it is. He’s paid his dues, he’s gone off to the Mainland. He’s been assistant coach for fabulous programs. He’s been a head coach for fabulous programs, Final Four coach … that is a nice connection, a perfect fit, really.”

Cruz began his collegiate coaching career at his alma mater, spending two seasons as a student intern (2004, 2005) for the women’s program before becoming the recruiting coordinator (2006) while still playing for the men’s team. 

“It’s just this massive sense of pride … to be able to have started at Baldwin, playing there right in Wailuku with a bunch of my friends that I went to high school with and taking that love for the game and trying to figure out a way to do it full time,” Cruz said. “Early on was, ‘Hey, how am I going to make this work? How am I going to be able to do this?’ ”

Now, in the most unlikely of circumstances, Cruz finds himself back in the state he considers home. Cruz credited his coach at Baldwin, Kamu Wilhelm, as one of the early volleyball influences in his life. Cruz’s aunt and uncle still live on Maui and his mother, brother and sister all live within a few miles of the UH-Mānoa campus.

“Any real quality coaching opportunities are just very few and far between,” Cruz said. “To be able to have this opportunity to come home and just the timing of like how things aligned, it’s pretty remarkable.”

He already takes great pride in donning the tapa “H” on his chest.

“Obviously, UH is a team that I grew up as a fan of and there’s a lot of young volleyball players here in the state that certainly look at UH men’s volleyball as a source of inspiration,” Cruz said. “I’m very proud to be part of that now.”

“Monday Morning MIL” columns appear weekly on Monday mornings with updates on local sports in the Maui Interscholastic League and elsewhere around Maui County. Please send column ideas — anything having to do with sports in Maui County — as well as results and photos to rob@hjinow.org.