Shane Pinder is a Bahamian who serves as the women’s head volleyball coach at Liberty University in Lynchburg Virginia and he has his sights set on one day winning the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) volleyball title with Bahamians a part of his programme.

Pinder took over the programme at Liberty University four years ago with the intent of winning the conference title.

In an interview with the Journal Pinder said, his goal is now to win a National championship. "I believe that I would be the first Bahamian coach to accomplish that feat. I also want to add Bahamians to my program because I believe they can contribute a lot," he said.

"Being a Bahamian coaching at the NCAA level, my first order of business was to identify the best team in the conference and then build a team of my own around the players I had available. However, with the school fully funding scholarships, I was able to recruit athletes from Texas, California and South Florida to take the program to a new level," said Pinder.

He said with careful recruiting of talented student-athletes in 2007, the Liberty Women’s team was able to win the regular season championship along with the Big South Conference Championship and a trip to the NCAA tournament for a shot at the National Title.

Pinder said he is thankful for the opportunity to head the program at Liberty. "We have done so much in the short period of four years and I am really excited because the future looks great for our program," he said.

He said one of the biggest challenges he faced at Liberty was recruiting good athletes to come to the school, along with building a good relationship with the other coaches in terms of the women’s volleyball program at Liberty.

Pinder noted that volleyball is played year round in the United States, as the student-athletes are involved in juniors’ league, club and junior national programs, which help to sharpen their skills.

"Four years ago I never thought that I would have this much success but I found success early which has given me a platform to work from. I don’t know where the national program is for the Bahamas, but the only way we are going to have success is meeting the right people, and hopefully I can get involve here at some level," said Pinder.

However, to date with so few trips back to The Bahamas, Pinder has not had an opportunity to meet with members of the local volleyball federation.

He said during his recruiting process, he would be looking for female student-athletes with a minimum height of 5’10" with quickness and strength.

"Some of our athletes at Liberty are 5’10" with 38 inch vertical, and I know that Bahamian athletes are gifted too. IN some instances we don’t look at height but look at the positions that we need to fill and the training that a student-athlete has done," explained Pinder.

He said Liberty University is the world’s largest Christian school and for him to combine his faith with the sport he loves, coaching at the highest college level is really exciting for him.

"Our short term goal at Liberty is to win our conference championship every year and secure a spot in the NCAA tournament"

noted Pinder.

Pinder’s father Gerald Pinder said he is excited about what his son is doing and he is a proud father.

"I know my wife Sonja, Shane’s mother is also proud of his accomplishments at Liberty University. For a long time it has been a dream of his to coach at a USA College- University," said Gerald.

He said female student athletes who are interested in attending Liberty University to play volleyball can contact him at the school by phone or visit the school website