Scott Wong has coached several standout players and racked up over 100 career wins

When Scott Wong was a standout high school volleyball player in Hawaii, he didn’t envision himself one day stepping into the coaching ranks. 

The All-American player still never saw himself directing players from the sideline during his four-year college career with the Pepperdine Waves men’s volleyball team. 

That changed when Wong coached a successful 16U San Fernando Valley boys volleyball team three years after graduating from Pepperdine in 2001. 

Wong caught the coaching bug. 

“People, relationships move me,” he said. “I was emotionally moved by the team, the experience, and coming together as a team. That, along with the sport I love, grabbed ahold of me, and led to me coaching.”

Now 19 years later, Wong, the head coach of the Pepperdine Waves women’s volleyball team, is the West Coast Conference’s Coach of the Year.

The Waves head coach of nine years said winning the award is an honor.

“It’s a reflection of our team doing great things,” Wong said. “You win as a team, and then start winning all these individual accolades that reflect back on the team.”

The top Wave won the postseason accolade after coaching Pepperdine to its 12th WCC Championship ever. The Waves went 15-1 in the nine-team conference, while recording a 19-8 overall record in the regular season. Pepperdine won 17 consecutive games during their campaign and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight season and fifth time in the last six years.

The squad was defeated 3-2 by Dayton in the first round of the tournament on Dec. 1. 

This season, Wong stated, was meaningful because all the Waves’ hard work from this year and recent seasons paid off. He recalled how Pepperdine secured the WCC crown with a Senior Night sweep over San Diego on Nov. 11. 

“To see how much it meant to our team,” Wong noted. “The emotion behind it. It was a pretty special day when we clinched the WCC championship. What a cool testimony to our young ladies working hard, grinding, talking about that day coming, and it came. It was pretty special.” 

The Waves’ successful season led to them tallying a litany of other postseason honors. 

Junior pin hitter Grace Chillingworth was named the WCC Player of the Year. She led the conference in kills and attacks per set and was the WCC Offensive Player of the Week four times. 

Isabel Zelaya, a graduate student, was the WCC Setter of the Year. She led Pepperdine in assists in every match and had six double-doubles. 

Graduate student Riley Patterson was named the WCC Libero of the Year. Patterson had double-figure digs in 20 matches and led Pepperdine in digs in 19 matches. 

Chillingworth, Zelaya, Patterson, senior middle blocker Meg Brown, and senior outside hitter Birdie Hendrickson were all named to the All-WCC First Team. 

Sophomore attacker Emily Hellmuth was named to the All-WCC Second Team. Sophomore middle blocker Vanessa Polk was an All-WCC honorable mention, and defensive specialist Laine Briggs was named to the WCC All-Freshman Team. 

Additionally, Chillingworth was named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s All-Pacific South Region first team. Patterson and Zelaya received honorable mention status. 

Pepperdine had the fifth toughest non-conference schedule in women’s college volleyball before they began WCC play, and it showed. The squad began their campaign with a 1-6 record. 

The team had a two-hour meeting in the locker room after Hawaii swept them on the second day of the Sept. 7-10 OUTRIGGER Volleyball Challenge in Honolulu. 

The group discussion was a problem-solving session, Wong said. 

“Team sports are challenging,” he said. “We talked through things. At that moment, I knew great things were going to come. At that point, we were as tight as possible.”

Pepperdine defeated Liberty 3-1 the last day of the challenge. The victory was the beginning of their 17-match winning streak. The streak ended with a 3-2 loss to Pacific on Nov. 16. 

Wong describes himself a collaborative coach. His message to the team was simply “Let’s get after it today. Let’s be our best today,” amidst the string of wins. 

Wong played several sports as a youth in Perl City, on the island of O’ahu. He decided to focus solely on volleyball in the eighth grade. Wong played at Punahou School in Honolulu before joining Pepperdine’s men’s volleyball team in 1998. 

He won MPSF and AVCA Freshman of the Year awards his first season at Pepperdine. Along with being a three-time All-American, Wong was a four-time All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation player. 

He was an outside hitter and libero on the U.S. Men’s National Team that won gold at the 2001 World University Games. Additionally, Wong played professional beach volleyball for seven years. 

However, coaching was in his heart. Wong was an assistant coach for Pepperdine men’s volleyball coaching legend Marv Dunphy from 2005 to 2009, and credits Dunphy for influencing his coaching style. 

“If you are around him, you are constantly taking notes in your mind,” Wong said. “Like Coach Dunphy, I try to surround myself with great people.” 

Wong was an associate coach for the Hawaii women’s volleyball team from 2010 to 2014, and also coached Hawaii’s women’s sand volleyball team during those years.

Since taking the Waves’ head coaching reigns, Wong has coached several standout players and racked up over 100 wins. 

Wong is just as competitive as a coach as he was as a player despite his calm demeanor on the sideline. 

“I see the game pretty well because I played at high level,” he said. “I’ve grown a ton. How I communicate, lead, and manage has changed significantly.” 

Wong is honored that other WCC coaches voted him as Coach of the Year. It is not an award he strove to receive. 

“It meant a lot for the other coaches in the conference to feel like I did a good job,” Wong said. “I’m really appreciative of our team really getting after it this year.”

On Sunday, Peruvian runners ages 5 to 18 will compete in a cross country race being held in Torrence’s memory 

Olympic and professional middle-distance runner David Torrence was jaunting toward making his dream of aiding young runners in Peru, his mother’s native country, a reality before he died over six years ago.

Torrence, who represented Peru in the 5,000-meter race at the 2016 Olympics, wanted to establish healthy eating, exercise programs, and hold training clinics for young runners in the South American country. 

On Sunday, Peruvian runners ages 5 to 18 will compete in a cross country race being held in Torrence’s memory in Huancayo, a city in the central highlands of Peru. The race is being organized by the Dave Torrence Legacy Foundation. 

Malibu Realtor Bianca Torrence, David’s mother and the foundation’s president, said a number of young runners are expected to participate in the event. She said the running spectacle will include seven divisions of male and female runners. All the participants will receive a medal. The top three finalists of each category will receive prize money, Bianca said. 

“The prize money idea was so kids can have something for Christmas,” she said. “This is the first time we are trying this. They are excited and if this goes well we will do this every Christmas.”

David Torrence was found dead in a Scottsdale, Arizona, apartment complex’s swimming pool on Aug. 28, 2017. He was in Arizona training for a race. 

He died a little over a year after competing in the Olympics. Torrence had begun to set Peruvian running records in professional races after his appearance in the Olympics. Torrence was the first Peruvian to ever qualify for an Olympic final in track and the first Peruvian to run the mile in less than four minutes. Before, he donned Peru’s red and white colors on the track, Torrence competed in one-mile, as well as 800-, 1,000- 1,500-, 3,000- and 5,000-meter professional races across the globe for nine years. 

He was a standout runner at the University of California, Berkeley and before that a star runner at Loyola High School in Los Angeles.

The Malibuite often trained on the track at Pepperdine University or would run up and down Pacific Coast Highway. 

The David Torrence Family Foundation donated running shoes and other running gear such as shorts and T-shirts to 93 athletes at an event in Huancayo in April 2022.

David’s mother said promoting and supporting youth running events is challenging sometimes, but the kids’ excitement makes worth it.

“It truly is priceless,” Bianca Torrence said. “It warms my heart.”

Torrence said many Peruvian athletes are inspired by David’s belief that runners from the country could compete with the best in the world. 

“This message has, in essence, empowered kids,” she said. “They feel more confident. They feel the support or mental shift to believe in themselves. David used to say, ‘Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot do it — even if its yourself.’”

Torrence said continuing her son’s dream of empowering young Peruvian athletes has given her life more meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. 

“I know we are making a difference,” she said. “Small progress with some of the athletes, but we try to be consistent. I honestly feel that David is proud and smiling in heaven. I am grateful for all the support to the David Torrence Legacy Foundation; every little bit helps.” 

For more information or to make donations, visit www.DTLF.org. 

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Waves athletics teams have won 63 conference regular season or tournament championships during his tenure

Pepperdine University Director of Athletics Steve Potts will retire at the end of the 2023-24 academic year. 

Potts is stepping down from the position after a tenure of nearly 13 years, during which Waves sports teams snagged a variety of big wins.

In a Dec. 6 statement, Potts said he has worked alongside talented and dedicated coaches, staff members, and student-athletes during his years as Pepperdine’s athletic director. 

“I am proud of what we have accomplished during my time as the director of athletics and am energized by the prospective continued and renewed success for all of our teams with significant facility upgrades on the horizon,” he said. “The best is yet to come for the Waves!” 

Guided by Potts, Pepperdine captured the I-AAA Athletic Director’s Association All-Sports Award — which goes to the top-performing non-football school in Division I — at the end of the last two academic years and the 2011-12 year. Pepperdine finished in second place for the award at the end of the 2016-17, 2018-19, and 2020-21 academic calendars. Pepperdine finished in third place twice — 2014-15 and 2017-18. 

Ten years after Potts, a Pepperdine Caruso School of Law graduate and past Pepperdine law school professor of 17 years, became the university’s director of athletics the Waves men’s golf team won the 2021 NCAA championship. 

Pepperdine began sponsoring women’s beach volleyball under Potts’ leadership and won the inaugural AVCA national title in 2012 and then again in 2014. The volleyball team finished second in the 2017 NCAA Championships. 

Overall, Waves athletics teams have won 63 conference regular season or tournament championships since Potts became Pepperdine’s athletic director in 2011. 

Other notable achievements sports teams had under Potts’ direction include the men’s basketball team winning the postseason College Basketball Invitational in 2021, the women’s soccer team reaching the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2014 and 2021, and the women’s swimming and diving team winning the Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference title in 2022 and 2023. 

Additionally, the women’s tennis team advanced to the national championship match in 2021, the baseball team advanced to the Super Regional in 2014, and the men’s volleyball team won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title in 2019 and advanced to the NCAA, and then captured the MPSF crown again in 2022. The men’s water polo team won the Golden Coast Conference tournament in 2016 and 2019. 

Pepperdine has ranked as high as 58th in the end-of-year NACDA College Directors’ Cup standings, which includes all Division I schools. 

A March 2020 AthleticDirectorU study that identified the top Division I athletic director hires ranked Potts 14th out of 229 schools that had changed athletic directors over the past decade. 

Potts, a Nashville, Tennessee, native, said he has been blessed to work as a law professor and as the athletic director at Pepperdine. He thanked several people including former Pepperdine President Andrew Benton, current President Jim Gash, Senior Vice President Tim Perrin, former Director Of Athletics John Watson and Caruso School of Law Dean Emeritus Ron Phillips.

“May God continue to richly bless Pepperdine University and the Pepperdine Waves,” Potts said.