July 30, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- Reggie Cajayon has joined the Samford volleyball coaching staff as the second assistant coach, announced Samford head coach Derek Schroeder. Cajayon will begin his time at Samford on Aug. 3. He will help with training the Bulldogs' individual defense and defensive systems. He will also open up doors for recruiting in Texas.
"I am excited about Reggie joining our staff because he brings an incredible passion for the game and life," Schroeder said. "He will be 100 percent invested in what we are trying to do here and add much to our staff dynamic."
Cajayon recently completed his third season at Texas Advantage Volleyball with his second trip to Nationals with TAV and fifth bid overall. His most recent college coaching stint consisted of two seasons as the head volleyball coach at Eastfield College, a Division III junior college in Dallas, Tex.
During ten years of coaching at the club level, Cajayon has been the setting coach for Metro, Alamo and Texas Juniors while also serving as camp director for the Texas Advantage.
Cajayon began his coaching career nearly fifteen years ago at Trinity University in San Antonio as an assistant coach under Julie Jenkins while completing his undergraduate degree in Mathematics. During four years with at Trinity, the Tigers earned two conference championships, four NCAA berths, and produced several All-Conference and All-Region honorees and four All-Americans.
In 2001 at Texas Lutheran University, Cajayon assisted head coach Phil Jackson and the Bulldogs to their second conference title in as many years. As the head girls varsity coach at Antonian College Preparatory High School, he led the Lady Apaches to the TAPPS-5A District title while twice defeating the eventual state champs, coaching two seniors to All-State honors.
After his stint at Texas Lutheran, Cajayon served as head volleyball and tennis coach at Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, Ky., where he was able to achieve significant success with both programs. The volleyball program produced three All-Conference volleyball performers, four Academic All-Conference awards, along with the final Region Player-of-the-Week award for the season. The tennis program added multiple conference Players of the Week, the men's program's first conference Player of the Year, the first conference tournament championship and the program's first national ranking and bid to the NAIA National Championships.
Before his return to Texas, Cajayon was the head tennis coach at Western New Mexico University for two seasons, having also completed his second season assisting the volleyball program in 2004. During the 2003 and 2004 volleyball seasons, WNMU finished second and third in the extremely competitive PacWest Conference and accumulated four All-Conference, four Academic All-Conference, two All-Region honors and the program's first All-American award.
Over the last couple of years, Cajayon has expanded his efforts to empower young people through his work in youth substance abuse prevention and leadership training, concurrently working for a non-profit and building a motivational speaking and youth leadership training company, power2inspire.
"I've been a part of a number of programs and organizations," Cajayon said. "Samford offers a terrific combination of administrative support, modern facilities, the beauty of its campus and Birmingham, and most importantly hard-working and dedicated student-athletes that make coaching both easy and fun! I'm excited about the opportunity to help Samford volleyball make its mark in the SoCon and the NCAA."
