Coach Bios
Bert Novicio
Head Coach, Girls 15-Bert
BNovicio@epicvb.com
Bert Novicio has been a fixture in the San Diego county volleyball community for over 25 years. He played for Mission Bay High School from 1990 to 1994 as an outside hitter. His teams reached the CIF Finals twice, in '93 and '94. After high school, he became a setter and played for San Diego Mesa College, a team that reached the Regional State Finals in 1995.
Bert's coaching experience is extensive. From 1997 to 1998, he was a volunteer Assistant Coach at San Diego Mesa College eventually becoming the 1st Assistant from 1999 to 2001. In the Fall of 2002, he was hired on as the Head Coach for Women's Volleyball at Grossmont College where he led the team to back to back appearances in the State Tournament.
At the high school level, Bert has coached various teams for both boys and girls. At the Bishop's School, he held the positions of Frosh/Soph Coach (1999), Head JV Girl's Coach (2000-2001), and Boy's Varsity Head Coach (1999-2002) where he led the team to two CIF Division 3 Semifinal appearances. In August of 2006, Bert was hired on to run the girl's volleyball program at West Hills High School. During his tenure at West Hills, Bert coached both the Freshman and Varsity teams which made 4 consecutive playoff appearances including a Grossmont League North championship in his final season.
Bert coached for Sunwest Volleyball Club for a number of years before joining Epic. From 1999 to 2003, he was the coach for various 15s and 16s level teams at Sunwest. In 1999, he was an assistant coach for Sunwest's 18-1 team that won the Volleyball Festival Championship. While at Epic, Bert has coached several teams at both the 16s and 18s level that have earned Top 20 finishes at Festival, including a 16s team that finished 5th at Festival in 2008 and a 17s team that finished 6th in 2009. In 2010, Bert co-coached the Epic 18-1 girls with Pat Bonner which finished 4th at Festival. Currently, he is serving as the Assistant Varsity coach at Poway High School.
For the 2017-2018 club season, Bert has been assigned Epic's 15-1 team. He has expressed how excited he is to be coaching the 15s this season and is looking forward to get the year started. Last year, his 14-1 team capped off the regular tournament season finishing in Division 1 (17th overall) in the SCVA region and finished 7th place at AAUs. He is hoping to build upon the growth and improvement his team achieved last year with another successful club season.
Bert's strengths as a coach include establishing a great rapport with his players and his ability to bring out the best in a team. He is extremely technical and highly demanding when training athletes all the while working hard to provide his players with a fun and growing experience. In August of 2014, Bert married fellow Epic coach, Jacy Norton. The two reside in Mira Mesa where they have 2 dogs (Sidney & Finn) and a cat (Vader).
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