We recently connected with Sina Aghassy and have shared our conversation below.

Sina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

SoCal Legends Volleyball Club is a club that was founded on the idea of growing the sport in the San Fernando valley, while giving opportunities to kids who would otherwise not receive them (like I did growing up) along with allowing our coaches to have a platform to help our kids. It’s meaningful to me because ultimately, I was in our kids’ & families’ shoes at one point navigating high school and the journey to play volleyball in college. Providing a competitive atmosphere is one thing where kids can grow, but to provide an experience that is a family environment/welcoming along with providing a hands-on experience for them in the college recruiting journey is something I think that sets our club apart. We invest a ton of time in the strength conditioning, technical side of the volleyball and a fully balanced approach to help our kids and families grow in more ways than one!

Sina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Sports has been apart of my journey my entire life. It’s what has shaped me into the person I am today; from the lessons I’ve learned from countless great coaches, to building character through adversity with my teammates, to even just learning the concept of hard work & determination. Being taught and influenced by so many strong role models, I thought to myslef it would be extrodinary to be able to give that back (somehow) the older I got.

When we started SoCal Legends Volleyball Club, our goal was to try and raise the level of play in our area to be able to compete with places volleyball flourished closer to the beach(es), along with giving kids an opportunity where they didn’t have to travel hour(s) to find something competitive. It allows families in our communities to reach a high level of competitiveness along with the resources to get them to the next level within an environment that allows them to feel comfortable. Ultimately, finding great coaches and mentors for our kids and families was the most important ingredient within this.

I am most proud of the culture and environment we have developed in a short 5 years as a club. For us to have success on the court is great, but to do it with a culture where kids are comfortable making mistakes, learning and leaning on their coaches in times of adversity resonates as to why I was motivated to start this journey.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

I would say the biggest close call for our business happened during COVID like many businesses. Our first year was in 2019 when we started as a small club of just 5 teams (only about 60 kids). When COVID happened, all indoor activities stopped, school stopped, and ultimately all sports had stopped. We thought it was such a challenge to get the club off the ground the first year, that after COVID we thought the dream would end there.

We had so much success with two of our boys teams qualifying for USA Nationals (a huge accomplishment we were proud of in year 1), to then see Sports Facilities closing down to even long established clubs never starting up again. We thought it was a great run.

But our families rallied during COVID when things started opening up in 2020. We were an indoor club that opted to practice outdoors on the grass with masks and pre-cautions while competing in Orange County indoors where restrictions were different. We still found ways to be successful and even found a way to grow the club from 5 teams to 8 teams during COVID. So what was (we thought) the end of our club… actually grew us a bit. Once COVID had ended we had doubled into 16 teams once schools opened up into the trajectory we are at this year close to 40 teams along with nearly 500 kids this year!

What once was something that we thought would end our club, turned into a growth opportunity from 60 to 500 kids. We are so proud of the growth and can’t wait to continue to see where it leads us!!

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

My biggest advice for managing a team and maintaining the best morale is to surround yourself around great people. People always improve in roles the longer they have to gain experience and confidence. Making sure that they are taken care of is the most important part! Finding people who care about what they do will always result in them going the extra mile to ensure the quality is there. That is why I always seek great people (more than great coaches) because I know they have the passion for not only the sport, but for the families that want to continue to feed into that passion.

I am proud that a lot of our club is surrounded by people I have known for a long time. Whether that’s when we played in high school, to met throughout college to even people I have coached myself or have been apart of my journey as a teacher/coach/person. Celebrating their achievements on and off the court is important… whether its an engagement, a promotion or even getting together away from the chaos that can happen during the year; it’s important to spend time to celerbate the little things and enjoy time off the court!

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: @sclegendsvbc
• Facebook: @sclegendsvbc
• Twitter: @sclegendsvbc
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/socal-legends-vbc-chatsworth

Image Credits

Olivia Duval (Odd4Media)