Miramar MVB's Landicho to retire from coaching
Miramar MVB head coach John Landicho, the only head coach the program has had since its inception in 2015, has announced his retirement from coaching at the end of the 2023 season.
A veteran of 31 years in the sport, Landicho was hired by Miramar College in the Spring of 2014 to develop men's and women's volleyball programs for the College. Men's volleyball competed for the first time in 2015, with women's indoor volleyball following in 2018 and the accompanying women's beach program this Spring of 2023. In its first nine years of existence, the Jets MVB program has produced four PCAC championships and five state Top 10 rankings, while placing 16 student-athletes into four-year university MVB programs. Landicho was honored as the 2017, 2018, 2022, and 2023 Pacific Coast Athletic Conference men's volleyball Coach of the Year, for his efforts in capturing PCAC championships in those seasons. He also served as Jets WVB indoor head coach in 2022, guiding the program through its first post-COVID season. Throughout his tenure at Miramar, Landicho has been instrumental in the development of all three programs, as well as Miramar's new four-court sand volleyball complex.
"For 30+ years I've tried to develop dynamic young men and women through championship-level volleyball," says Landicho. "While those seasons didn't all produce championships, it did produce better human beings, and there can be no better outcome from intercollegiate and interscholastic athletics. That I've been able to experience a ridiculous amount of winning is also a byproduct of our program, and is a testament to our players understanding, embracing, and flourishing in our process." Landicho will continue to remain active in the sport of men's volleyball as the president of the California Community College Men's Volleyball Coaches Association (CCCMVCA), where he will continue to provide leadership to the sport while advancing initiatives to grow the sport in the California JC system. He is also looking forward to much more time with his family. Continued Landicho, "I'm grateful to our athletic director, Nick Gehler, and Miramar's administration for giving me the opportunity to grow three new volleyball programs and give future student-athletes the opportunity to enjoy the great benefits of intercollegiate athletics."
Prior to arriving at Miramar, Landicho spent five years as head coach of the MVB program at San Diego Mesa College, where his last team (2013) was Mesa's first PCAC playoff-contending team in eight years. He was also an assistant in the WVB program at Mesa, helping the Lady Olympians to a PCAC championship in 2011. Landicho is well-known in the San Diego volleyball community for his time in the championship volleyball program at Francis Parker School, where he was the girls head coach for two seasons (2012 & 2013), the longtime top assistant coach in the girls program led by Olympic gold & bronze medalist Eric Sato, and also an assistant coach in the School's boys program under CIF-San Diego Section Hall of Fame coach John Herman. In his 25 seasons at Parker he helped Lancer volleyball teams to 53 championships, including 17 CIF-SD Championships, seven Southern California regional titles, girls CIF State Championships in 1998, 2004, 2005, 2012 and 2013, and four season-ending #1 rankings in San Diego County. Landicho's efforts as girls head coach resulted in a 64-7 record and the School's 7th and 8th CA state championships, and earned him Coach of the Year honors from both the CIF-San Diego Section and the High School Sports Assn. of San Diego County. He is a three-time inductee into the Parker Athletic Hall of Fame, as part of the school's standout 1998 boys volleyball team, as a member of Parker's 1998 girls state championship-winning squad, and as a member of the Lancers' 2005 boys volleyball team (CalHiSports.com's 2005 State Team of the Year for all sports).
Landicho was an assistant coach & technical coordinator for the 2007 UC San Diego men's volleyball team, helping the NCAA Division-II Tritons to wins over two D-I Top-15 teams. Landicho was active in USA Volleyball's High Performance program from 2001-2020, with his last assignment being part of the 2020 Men's Junior A1 National Team Training Program. He has coached in seven USAV HP Boys Holiday camps, has been a head coach of an A2 and an A3 Youth camp, served as associate head coach of three A3 Youth, Select, and Future Select-age group camps, and worked as an assistant coach at numerous HP camps since 2009. He is a past member of the coaching staff at Epic Volleyball Club, where his last team (boys 17-1) earned a top-10 Open Division finish at the 2007 USA Volleyball Junior Olympics. Landicho served as a technical advisor to the 1996 USA Men's Olympic Volleyball Team, putting together the defensive scouting tapes the team used in the Atlanta Olympic Games. He helped Grossmont College's 2001 women's squad to a 12-0 PCAC championship as the team's assistant coach. Landicho has also coached for San Diego, Starlings, and Seaside volleyball clubs, helping two teams to USAV Junior Olympic silver medals along the way, and has also coached/presented at numerous volleyball clinics since 1991. He has directly helped over 50 athletes to roster spots on a four-year university's athletic team.
Landicho is also a professor in the Dept. of Exercise Science, Health & Nutrition at Miramar, a position he'll continue in through December of 2023.
