91±¬ÁÏ

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Podcast: S9 Ep. 26
Date: September 22, 2026
Title: LU Volleyball is set for success
Host: John Rollins

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JOHN ROLLINS: Welcome to the LU Moment, where we showcase all the great things happening with 91±¬ÁÏ faculty, staff, students, and alumni. I'm John Rollins, Associate Director of Community Relations and Public Affairs here at LU, and I want to welcome you all to this week's show. Today we'll be talking 91±¬ÁÏ volleyball, and here with me in the studio, I've got Ariel Apolinario and Kiki Reyes. Ariel, Kiki, welcome to you both, and thanks for joining me today on the LU Moment.

ARIEL APOLINARIO: Thank you for having us.

KIKI REYES: Thank you for having us.

JOHN: So, Ariel, you are head coach for volleyball, and Kiki, you are assistant coach. So, let me ask you both: when I have a coach on or anyone in the athletic world, my first question is always, what brought you to 91±¬ÁÏ? I'd love to hear your story.

KIKI: So I started off as a graduate assistant, and at the time in 2023, my old junior college coach was the head coach, and my best friend was the assistant. So it was a combination of I wanted to get into athletic coaching, and also I knew the people at Lamar, and then eventually, once the old head coach got let go and Ariel got brought on, I had the opportunity to get my master's degree, and also I really bought into the vision that Ariel was bringing to the table, and his knowledge and his experience. I wanted to learn more from him and help him guide the program to where we used to be, and keep getting better as a person and as a coach too.

JOHN: Wow! So, are you a current student?

KIKI: I was. I graduated last May, and now I'm a full-time assistant. I could take classes if I wanted to, but I don't have time.

JOHN: But, Lamar alum?

KIKI: Yes, I am.

JOHN: Very nice. Okay, awesome. And Ariel, what about you?

ARIEL: Oh, I mean, for me personally, it's always been about just the opportunity, right? And when I'm looking at it from the big picture, it goes back to the administration. You know, I thought that we had an administration that was willing to give us the resources to do things that we haven't done in a really long time. It kind of started with that, and you know, Jeff, our president, you know, our CFO at the time, Jason. You know, it was one of those things that it was the foundation started with them, you know, because I'd seen it before, you know, and college athletics it could be brutal sometimes, you know, but they allowed me to come in and just hit the ground running and gave me the resources and they said it from day one that we want to be successful again. What do you need? And we got to work and you know year three this is where we are right now so I think the foundation always been there and I think that now we finally are putting the right pieces together so just excited about the future Lamar volleyball.

JOHN: Let's go ahead. We know your titles now. We know your names. Let's have you officially introduce yourself. And I do always like to ask, what kind of got you into this world of college athletics, and specifically volleyball? So whoever wants to start, Kiki, you want to start?

KIKI: I’ll start first. I'm Keishla Kiki Reyes. I'm the assistant volleyball coach. I got into volleyball because I've played volleyball since I was about five years old. Yes, I've been around the sport for a long time. I didn't know if I wanted to coach, but I've always wanted to go into teaching or mentoring of some sort. And I knew that my knowledge of the game was great. It was more like, how can I apply it and how can I coach someone outside of the sport? So that's really what's gotten me into this profession. I really enjoy it so far. Yeah, I'm still young.

JOHN: Five years old is young? Where were you playing volleyball at five?

KIKI: In Puerto Rico, we start pretty early, so I played at two of the best clubs over there, and then when I moved to San Antonio, I was pretty far ahead compared to everybody else my age. It's definitely like a commitment of some sorts. So it's definitely a lifestyle is what Ariel likes to say whenever we talk about anything related to volleyball. This division, you have to definitely commit to it, and it's a process. And you have to make the decision of what you want to prioritize, what's important to you. To me, volleyball, the girls, my family, my friends, those would be my priorities right now. So, the support that I get from my family is what allows me to do this job, and the support from my staff and everybody that I work at Lamar with. Because you can't do this job by yourself. You definitely need friends and connections, and just being personal is really big. Making sure that you can talk to people and understand them-that's what I've gathered, and what will continue to keep me in this job for sure.

JOHN: Yeah, teamwork and collaboration, right? And Ariel, you could probably speak to that as well.

ARIEL: 100% So it's been a blessing. It's been a blessing to have a support staff and you know a direct staff that work with you every single day and so adaptable and flexible. So we've been blessed. We've been blessed the last few years to have a really good group of people that allow us to, you know, to take that that step because every day is a different journey, you know. It really is, and I always say that managing people is probably the most difficult part of the job. You know, the X's and O's. You know, with time, with experience, you will eventually get to a point that you feel comfortable. Enough, but the man managing people. Whenever you know, you have 18 people coming from everywhere, you know, and not only local kids, right? But we have from out of state, international athlete as well. So just a different lifestyle, different background, you know. So, but it's been a blessing, you know. I think that this is a beautiful profession. Actually, when I started as a young boy, I was a basketball player. So growing up, it was all basketball. I actually thought that basketball was going to be my career, and then from one thing to the next, you know, kind of start. I got into volleyball. At first, it was more of a joke. You know, men's volleyball, especially Miami, when I got when I moved from Cuba was not a big sport. It was not a sport that people wanted to play. It was all basketball, football. So, but then we got into it, and now more people were attracted to it. And then we were building something pretty cool, and we kind of committed to it eventually. So, and then long story short, I ended up going to college and had it was a blessing. I met so many cool people along the ways and a lot of people that I still call friends nowadays and mentors still. So you know, kind of volleyball kind of provided me the platform to do what I thought that I wanted to do with basketball, but it's always been athletics. I knew that the competition, the grind, it was something that I wanted to be part of.

JOHN: So, okay. We are in it! 2026-2027 volleyball season has begun. I believe y'all had a super successful weekend. A couple of sweeps, if I saw right on social media, and great job on that. So let's talk about. There are quite a few upcoming home games as well. So let's talk about you know what are your hopes and expectations for the season. Tell us about the team a little bit, and we'll just talk about Lamar volleyball.

KIKI: I'll take it for the team dynamic. I think this is the first year where we've had a great spread of personalities from people who are very quiet. They'll still like be involved in conversations and have fun, but very, very quiet. To probably the loudest people I've ever met in my life have so much personality. They don't know what to do with it. I like to say all of our middles have the most personality on the team. Probably, my group. I coach the DSs and the Lamarros-they are like a good mix of like loud and quiet. The outsides probably have the most of the quiet people, I would say, and then the right sides are quiet. But if you catch them at the right time, it is very funny. I just think that because of how many different types of like dynamics we have going on, it allows us to be successful and it allows us to have conversations that maybe we weren't able to have last year. I think that is what will guide us to be very successful. You know, because especially since we had four transfers coming in over the spring, and then now we have six freshmen. That's a lot for girls. There's a lot of personality to get through in a short amount of time. But I think that we're balancing it as well as we could at this point in time going into this weekend. I'm very excited. We are finally home after a very long time, and as the person in charge of travel, all I have to worry about is making sure that everybody is at the right place at the right time.

JOHN: Which is McDonald Gym, right?

KIKI: McDonald Gym, yes.  Oh man, it's just I'm really excited. We tend to just have a little bit more confidence when we're on our home court. You know, we are we're comfortable. We're at home. We get to bring over more friends and family since we're so close to the dorms. We get a pretty good crowd. We have some great themes coming into this weekend. We're hoping that we can get more high schools and clubs coming. You know, since we are home and we do a pretty decent job of going into the community and helping as much as we can. I believe on Saturday we have a free clinic after the match as well, so that'll be exciting. We should have some poster signings. It'll just be fun to finally be home after our exhibition match all the way in August. I'm looking forward to good competition on our home court, especially against Sam Houston. I think that one will be very very interesting. And ULM, they should be pretty good, and North Dakota State, I believe, is the other team. They should also be pretty good. So no matter what, we have an opportunity to reset after every set, every point, and just show what we're made of and show what this preseason has taught us. I know the record doesn't reflect how much progress we've made. You know we're 2-6 right now, but I think the competition has really gotten us ready for conference, and just going into this weekend at home, we're on our home court. We get to take a deep breath and know that we get to defend home court this weekend. So that'll be really exciting.

ARIEL: Yeah, we definitely being on the road for, including tomorrow, long time. It will be 10 matches before we actually go home, and you know we'll be here for a few games, like you mentioned before. So looking forward to it. Looking forward to it. In the past couple of years, after every season, we kind of come together and we start comparing notes and talk about like some of the things that went well and some of the things that we need to do better, right? So like every other organization, but we did find out that playing at home is always a positive thing. So we actually have done a really good job. If if I'm correct, don't quote me on it. I believe in the last two years we are 15-5 at home, which is a definitely it's a positive thing, especially coming to from where we come from as a program. That winning it was a very challenging, which is always going to be challenging, you know. So, but I thought that we we were able to to put some really good groups together that we were playing well at home. So for us is well, let's add more games at home, you know. So one of our weekend during preseason, our fourth weekend, which is happening this weekend coming up, we have done that now for two years, so we're excited about the possibility to be at home and play in front of our friends. And you know, it's comfortable, right? Sleeping in your own bed is a little bit different, you know. So now we don't have to travel. That’s just an additional day that we get to rest, you know. So and it's well needed right now. We have some girls that are a little beat up, you know. Last week, it was tough during practice. A lot of people were out sick, you know. So we definitely paid the price, you know. But it was in a way by design, being on the road for that many games. But definitely looking forward to be at home. We also following this weekend we open our conference play at home as well. We had two very important matches at home, you know, just looking forward to to set the tone. So I think that we are in a good place. So, like Coach mentioned before, the record doesn't really tell you the whole story. We we've been close enough with some really really good teams that have been to the NCAA the last couple of years. So I know it doesn't say in the win columns right now how much progress we have made, but we are very encouraged about what we've seen so far.

JOHN: Yeah, well, I think that's important to mention. Y'all have been battling against these high caliber teams, you know. So the fact that they're even hanging in there is pretty amazing. Indeed. And like you also mentioned, being at home provides a level of comfort. You've got your people nearby. Fellow classmates can come. We obviously want our student section to be full at every game, right? So there is that added level of just comfort, and hopefully we see those amazing results. Like you said, y'all are putting in the work. Now you know we'll bring it home and see how that goes as well. So you kind of mentioned the personality. So I want to ask: Whenever y'all go into recruitment, what specific things are you looking for from these players?

ARIEL: Yeah, I take that one. So especially recruiting, it's a happy medium, right? Because you want the best volleyball players that you can find that could potentially play and excel in your system. You know, it's not rocket science. It's really not, you know. But you do want good volleyball players. You want good people, right? And that's the part that sometimes takes the longest to to really figure it out what they are about, right? Because you could come out and do a little bit of scouting. You can watch them on a weekend, and you can walk away and and think that they might be the right player for for you, but they might not be the right person for you. But sometimes you don't you don't really have enough time to do that evaluation, and sometimes in a dedicated decision. But you know, the early part of my college career, you know, in the profession, I got caught up with personality way too much. Right, that was the younger coach in me. The more that I do this personality to me doesn't matter anymore. Now, from time to time, you might get a group that is high energy, right, and you might get a group that very quiet. But for me, it's really about direction. You know, I think that as long as you are able to to make that commitment and and you made that agreement that hey you are who you are and I'm going to allow you to continue being that person. We just need to understand that there's a place and a time for everything that we do. You know, younger athletes it takes them a little bit longer to really understand what that means. You know, but it's part of the job, right? I think that another part of the job is the education that we are able to provide to to these young athletes because they really don't know what they don't know, you know. So I think some of it is just takes time, you know. But I love all of it, you know. I really do. But I think it's more about direction than personality for me personally. But in the past, I have gotten cut out because of it. I wanted people just to fit my personality. I wish I think in some ways it's awesome, right? But at the end of the day, that's not really going to win you any more games, you know. But of course, you want to enjoy your time. You spend more time with them than you spend with your own family, and that's real, you know. So you do want to go go to work and enjoy being out there, which is important, you know. So, but it's a fine line. It's a fine line from from the volleyball athlete that that you want to play your system and the type of personality that they bring to the table. Because in in many cases, we we really don't know until they are here with us, and then we learn about. Oh, I didn't know. Oh, okay. That's that's different, you know. So, but it takes time. It takes time.

JOHN: So, Kiki, let me switch to you really quick before we wrap up today. You know, I had Coach Aqua Franklin on talking about women's basketball not too long, maybe about a year ago, and I do feel like there, there, it's the elephant in the room, right? How do we get people in athletics to support women's sports more? So, how in how in y'all's opinion could we create more buzz? You know, you said they're active in the community. I think that's a step in the right direction, right? So what do you think about that?

KIKI: I think one thing that we have going for ourselves is that volleyball continues to grow as a whole from the club level to college to professional levels. So more so now, it's getting people to know our people, our girls, making sure that we can put their personalities out there, so that people know and have like kind of like emotional connection to them. They want to come out and support them. We have a lot of our girls who go out and do a lot of community service, so they're putting their name out there. They're putting who they are. They are their personalities. Lamar volleyball. We're pretty active on social media as well. We have our Instagram, our Facebook. A lot of them are social media like pretty famous, and some a lot of them go viral. So they have videos, and they have a lot of people that come out to the games. I think the best way to do it is also a lot of the girls coach clubs. So they're involved in the community, whether it's in Lumberton, in Beaumont, and Orange, Port Arthur, wherever they are, they do a great job of reaching out, and I think we actually get a lot of payback from that. I mean, our gym is pretty packed. Is it on the smaller side, 100% But there's almost no standing room now. We have done a good job. We've done a good job of going out there and making those connections.

JOHN: You can see the fruits of your labor, right?

KIKI: 100% Now it's getting our alumni to come back and support us. So that is the next step as to where what can we do to continue reaching out to the community is getting our alumni to come back and understand that no matter who is the coach, we want a connection with them because they are the foundation of everything that we want to do. So that is kind of like our next step.

JOHN: I love that, and you know that's across the board, because football is running into the same thing where they're trying to get more of that alumni involvement created. So at least you know that it's something to focus on, and it's on y'all's mind.

KIKI: Every year we get like two or three more, so I'm hopeful this year will be better.

JOHN: It's two or three more than you had, right? Love it. Step in the right direction. So, Ariel and Kiki, thanks again for joining me today on the podcast to share all about LU volleyball. We're looking forward to a great season for these ladies on and off the court.

KIKI: Yes, thank you for having us.

ARIEL: Appreciate it.

JOHN: Thank you both. To catch the LU stories, just like Ariel and Kiki's, be sure to search LU Moment wherever you get your podcasts to keep up with the events, activities, programs, and people right here at 91±¬ÁÏ. This is John Rollins, your host. Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.