The Santa Fe College athletics program, which features men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball, has enjoyed its fair share of success. Combined, the program has earned 17 conference championships, two Florida College System Activities Association state titles and two second-place finishes in national tournaments.
The college will soon add women’s volleyball to the list.
The New Addition
The newest Saints sport will begin its inaugural season in fall 2014, with its first regular season contest set for August 26 against Pasco-Hernando State College. Coach Nick Cheronis will be the first to step onto the Santa Fe gymnasium floor for the Saints — after all, the program started with him.
Cheronis was announced as the Santa Fe women’s volleyball head coach on Dec. 18, 2013, and officially began his duties in January 2014. For someone who has coached for 32 years at nearly every level of the game and garnered numerous accolades along the way, Cheronis has traveled far and wide to get to Santa Fe.
Most recently, Cheronis coached the Cardinals of Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.
“Volleyball was one of the more popular sports on campus, as popular as football and basketball,” Cheronis said. “That’s where I got introduced.”
The sport was not around in high schools when Cheronis was growing up in Noblesville, Ind., so he got his first taste as a three-year member of the Cardinals club team.
However, Cheronis did not see coaching in his future after college. When he graduated in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, he started working in energy industry. But, volleyball remained in Cheronis’ life, and he continued to play on weekends with various teams.
During that time, Cheronis crossed paths with Jean Kesterson, who was head coach for Valparaiso University volleyball. She asked if he would play against her Crusaders.
“It kind of blossomed into me becoming an assistant coach, and then, it sort of took off from there,” Cheronis said.
He remained at Valpo as an assistant and later interim head coach from 1982 to 1985. Over the next six years, he held various assistant positions at Parkland College, Eastern Illinois, Northern Michigan and Missouri State.
1992 brought his biggest job yet: an assistant coaching position at the University of Florida under the up-and-coming Mary Wise. Wise had been hired the year before and was already coming off a Southeastern Conference championship, a NCAA regional final appearance and SEC Coach of the Year honors.
Cheronis would stay at Florida for 18 seasons, eventually being promoted to associate head coach in 1996. As UF’s defensive coordinator, he helped guide the Gators to 17 SEC titles, 10 Elite Eights, seven Final Fours and a NCAA Championship runner-up placement. Cheronis also worked specifically with the middle blockers, developing players including Cassandra Anderson, Benavia Jenkins and Kelsey Bowers.
In addition to his collegiate coaching experience, Cheronis has spent time working for club, professional and international volleyball. He is the assistant director and coaching director of Vision Volleyball Club; the women’s head coach of Florida Wave, a team associated with the USA Volleyball-sanctioned Premier Volleyball League; and was an assistant coach for the 2013 Girls’ Youth National Team, which won silver at the 2013 FIVB Girls’ U18 World Championship in Thailand.
Cheronis returned to Gainesville schools when he took the head coaching position at St. Francis Catholic in 2011. He led the Wolves to the regional semifinals in 2011, a state runner-up finish in 2012 and a state semifinal appearance in 2013.
Then, the Santa Fe Saints came calling, or rather Cheronis went to them.
“I really felt like it was a unique challenge to start a brand-new program, and even though I’ve had the opportunity to coach at a lot of different levels and a lot of different athletes, starting a program for the first time was a challenge that I was really interested in,” he said.
It was a match made in volleyball heaven.
Building with Vision
How do you build a collegiate athletics program from the ground up? Cheronis has been slowly but surely piecing together the answer since January 2014. He believes the tradition of great recreational club and high school volleyball in Gainesville will play a big role in the growth of the Santa Fe program.
“My vision is that the program will be raised by the village, and I really think the village of volleyball in this community will support what we’re trying to do,” Cheronis said. “It’ll support the goals and aspirations that I’ll have for these athletes, and I really see it as a perfect fit.”
Gainesville and the surrounding areas are home to the core of the 16-man roster Cheronis has formed. He delved into North Central Florida as a recruiting territory because of its talented volleyball players, many who he hopes will continue to play the sport at a school like Santa Fe.
“There’s only one time that this is ever going to happen,” he said, “so everybody is really buying into this vision of, wow, how many chances in your lifetime do you get to be part of something that’s a first?”
That “first” factor is what helped Cheronis land 6-foot-3 middle blocker Kaylin Powell all the way from Chicago, one of many from an overall turnout of 73 girls at two open tryouts, one for high school seniors and one for current Santa Fe students.
The Santa Fe administration, including college president Jackson Sasser and athletic director Jim Keites, is ready to start a new chapter in the Saints’ sports program. Santa Fe is one of three colleges in the six-team Mid-Florida Conference who recently added volleyball to its program, along with the College of Central Florida in 2011 and Daytona State College in 2013.
“If you’re going to do something, you’re going to want to do it the right way,” Cheronis said. “Santa Fe wasn’t going to just add volleyball for the sake of adding volleyball and not give the student-athletes a chance to be successful…Santa Fe College has shown me over and over and over again that they are interested in having a highly competitive program.”
If Cheronis continues to win the way he always has, it’s no question that Santa Fe College volleyball is in good hands.