Fred Mann is in his first season at PHS, and he has already made an impact. From professional beach volleyball to the coach of eight state championships, Mann bring new strategies and experiences to the table for a Puma program that has struggled since 2007. Mann, a highly successful coach, has high expectations for this year’s varsity team. Along with many other accomplishments, Mann won the Arizona Region Salute as one of the most influential volleyball contributors to the growth of Arizona volleyball. After making a big move from Mountain Pointe after being a coach there for 20 years, Mann expresses his reasons for the big change and the long past that he left behind. His career and family life remain a major influence on him as a person and the newest edition to Perry’s Campus.

CHARISSA BROOKS: You had been coaching at Mountain Pointe for 20 years. Why the change to Perry?

FRED MANN: I live out here near Perry and my kids go to Perry, so I knew it was a really good school, you know, and I just wanted the opportunity to coach at a really good school with really cool kids, and I got that opportunity.

CB: Was it hard leaving Mountain Pointe?

FM: Yeah, it was really hard, because when you are at a place for 20 years you make good friends and good relationships and I just felt super comfortable over there. It was very difficult to leave.

CB: You have won 8 volleyball championships; 7 with boys and 1 with girls. With having more success with boys, why choose girls volleyball at Perry?

FM: You know, I just did boys for the longest time and I was girls JV volleyball coach. They offered me the head coaching job for varsity. I turned it down and they offered me again, and I turned it down. Eventually in 2001, which sounds like a long time, a friend of mine who was the head coach over there wanted to go back to Utah and he wouldn’t move his family unless he felt like he was handing that program over to somebody he felt he could trust, and I didn’t want to say to him “Nah dude, I’m not taking over because I don’t care if you don’t go, follow your dreams, and so I’ll take over the program.”

When I first took over they told me that girls will bring drama and girls will bring all sorts of negative things and honestly I don’t really know how to be a girls coach, so i went in there and coached them like I coach boys. Everything they told me about girls, I’ll be honest with you, was absolutely wrong.

CB: What differs between boys and girls?

FM: Girls were nothing but hardworking, nothing but receptive, and they didn’t want to be treated like they were weak. They wanted to pushed, they wanted to be driven; and so every little thing I was told about girls being drama, was untrue. Over the course of time, I’ve began to enjoy coaching girls even more.

CB: You played professional beach volleyball in the US and South Africa, how does that affect your coaching strategies?

FM: You know, I think it helps a little bit if you’ve played before and I would hope that it helps me, having had experience, to know what options the hitters have and knowing where you should be and how you should block.

CB: Why did you choose to be a guidance counselor for the STEM program?

FM: It was a position that was offered to me but when you are working of STEM kids, you are working with kids that need six credits of science and five credits of math and those are some pretty darn good kids right there. It’s neat to work with kids who are motivated.

CB: How did it feel to win the Arizona Regional Salute Award for your coaching success?

FM: I’ve never really been big on the recognition. I’m not the kind of guy that needs the pat on the back, I’m a guy who is super competitive and I just want to win. I am super motivated by winning and I’ll watch film for hours, I’ll think about the game for hours and so really that’s what motivates me. It does feel good to know that people think I was helpful in pioneering volleyball in Arizona, but that’s not the kind of thing that’s motivates me.