Brad McClure is another one of many new and exciting head coaches who are currently preparing for their first OCAA season with the Mohawk Mountaineers.

McClure is a Hamiltonian himself and is extremely active in the local volleyball community. He will enter the season alongside two assistant coaches, James Ellison and Marcin Jedrzejewski, who are also well regarded in the local volleyball landscape.

McClure was formerly an assistant coach at Western University and Fanshawe College while getting some experience on the head coaching side with Conestoga College.

He is currently the technical director of Hamilton's MAC Volleyball Club, which is where the connection between this staff comes in. Ellison is the head coach of MAC's 17U program while Jedrzejewski runs the 16U program.

"I'm quite excited to be working with James Ellison and Marcin Jedrzejewski for the upcoming season. In taking over the men's program, I felt is was important to surround myself with coaches that have competed and had success at the highest level of the sport," says McClure. "I feel they each have these amazing experiences that the athletes can draw from and relate to as we look to compete for a spot in the OCAA tournament this season."

Both assistant coaches excelled at the Canadian collegiate level, both winning multiple provincial medals.

Ellison is a former player for Canada's Men's National Volleyball Team and former Junior National Team member. He also attended the University of Manitoba where he won a national championship and a national silver medal. While racking up the medals with the Manitoba Bisons, Ellison also represented Team Canada at the World University Games in the former Yugoslavia.

Ellison has roughly 30 years experience in volleyball as both a player and a coach. Coach McClure says Ellison's work on both sides of the games made him an easy choice to join the staff.

"James brings a couple decades worth of playing and coaching experience that the athletes and myself will be able to draw upon. He has worked and had success at multiple levels as a coach and has also worked with many successful athletes. This will allow him to connect almost instantly with any of the athletes on our roster," explains McClure. "I feel a real strength of his comes in the form of skill development, where he is able to quickly identify errors in performance and work with the athletes to develop highly personalized and individual feedback on how they can improve."

Jedrzejewski is a former Mountaineer and found success during his time on campus, winning three OCAA medals. In his first year, 2011-2012, he won a bronze medal, followed by a silver in his second year and at last, he captured an OCAA gold in his final season with the Mountaineers.

Aside from his time at Mohawk, Jedrzejewski won an OUA gold medal during his only year at McMaster University and he also played one season at McGill University.

He grew up playing in the MAC Volleyball program and spent four of his five collegiate seasons in Hamilton as well. His roots run deep in the local volleyball community and he's continued to give back on the coaching side since his playing career ended.

McClure says his playing experience and his familiarity with the area will be a huge asset to the program.

"Marcin brings a wealth of playing experience, but also a tremendous amount of familiarity with volleyball in the Hamilton region. I feel that it is really important to stay plugged in and help develop the Hamilton volleyball community as much as possible and Marcin definitely embodies this," added McClure. "I feel Marcin brings a strong understanding and ability to help develop our primary passers and overall team defence, having formerly been a libero."

The playing experience from these two speaks for itself. They've won at every level in their playing careers and have continued to find success on the coaching side as well.

McClure is excited with the staff he's put together and he says he's confident the players will benefit from these two assistants.

With the success this coaching staff found while playing at the college level, we look forward to seeing if they can replicate that from the coaching side.