Jonathan Jacobskind/ Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of FIU Sports
After watching a prominent volleyball matchup on the late television series, “ABC’s Wide World of Sports: The Thrill of Victory and Agony of Defeat,” Trevor Theroulde realized his true calling: volleyball.
With the inspiration of the television show and the motivation of his high school physical education teacher, Theroulde, 15 at the time, picked up a volleyball for the first time. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Theroulde’s high school, The Trinidad Ministry of Education, originally did not have a suitable volleyball facility to support his aspirations of becoming a volleyball player.
“The funny thing is that we had no nets and [volleyball] courts, so we had to construct the polls from two big steel pipes,” Theroulde shared. “We had to make like a container and stick the poles onto the cement and make sure we had a strong enough net to play with.”
Theroulde went on to play for his community club team, subsequently landing a spot on the Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National squad.
Coach hopes to be a “role model”
After a short stint with the squad, Theroulde was hit with the harsh reality that he was too small to achieve success at the national level.
Despite the letdown, Theroulde then gravitated onto the coaching scene, acquiring his first coaching gig when he was only 18 years old. Theroulde was appointed head coach of the women’s local club team. Coaching at such an early age was not the lone challenge Theroulde faced in his coaching debut.
“The strange thing was that some of the girls were older than I was,” Theroulde explained. “They still showed great respect since I had qualities to be a good coach and teacher.”
His coaching career then took off as he became the head coach of the Trinidad and Tobago Female Senior National Team from 1995-2002. He made history as the youngest coach ever awarded the Caribbean Volleyball Coach of the Year Award after leading the country to its first Senior Caribbean Women’s Volleyball Championship in 1997.
Theroulde took a monumental step in his coaching career when he decided to go overseas to attend the University of Leipzig in Germany where he studied sport scientific methodology. In Germany, Theroulde attained a more profound insight on the game of volleyball from an international perspective and used this insight to eventually mold the FIU program into what appears to be an international volleyball melting pot.
“When I went to Germany, it was more about being more organized; we did more technical work and better tactical awareness. We also looked at fitness and bio mechanics, and how to correct certain techniques,” Theroulde explained. “As I look at international volleyball, what I try to do is draw things from the teams that have been successful all round the world and mesh them into the program.”
As a voluntary assistant coach at Marshall University from 2001-2005, Theroulde helped
guide the Thundering Herd to an overall record of 89-45 over the four-year span. In his final year with Marshall, Theroulde capped a stellar tenure at Marshall with a Conference USA championship victory over Houston University. After just one year of service at Central Florida in 2006, Theroulde became the lead assistant coach for FIU.
After serving as the program’s assistant coach for the previous four seasons, FIU appointed Trevor Theroulde as the squad’s head coach in mid-April. For the past four seasons, Theroulde gradually helped develop a new international team dynamic while under the tutelage of Danijela Tomic.
As the sun sets on the Tomic era, Trevor Theroulde plans to shine a new light on the University program.
“I want to be an instructor and more of a role model,” Theroulde said. “How I live my life is how I expect my players to approach their lives, with discipline and organization.”
jonathan.jacobskind@fiusm.com
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