Head Volleyball Coach

Dinu Dan enters his third year with the Centenary College Women’s Volleyball program.  In his first two seasons with Centenary, the volleyball program has made tremendous strides toward becoming a conference and regional competitor.  Last fall, the Centenary women notched 11 victories, marking the first time in the last ten years that the program has reached double figure wins for a season. 

Prior to coming to Hackettstown in the 2006, Dan was the Head Women’s Volleyball Coach at Long Island University, where in two seasons he totaled a mark of 40-28.  In addition to the tremendous record, he took the Blackbirds to the Northeast Conference Final in 2002, their first appearance in the NEC Playoffs in nine years.  The women then followed that with an appearance in the Semi-Finals in 2003.  Prior to his two seasons with LIU, from 1996-2001 Dan was the Head Women’s Coach at Pace University.  At Pace the program went an impressive  148-58 under the direction of Dan, including two NCAA Division II Quarterfinal appearances in 1998 and 2000.  The Lady Setters also notched four consecutive NE-10 Conference Championships (’97 – ’00) and were NE-10 regular season champs in 1997 and 2000.  While at Pace Coach Dan was named both the Northeast-10 Conference Coach of the Year and the AVCA Division II Northeast Coach of the Year in the 1998 and 2000 seasons.  Entering the 2008 season he holds a career record of 233-161. 

His coaching career began in 1990 with the girl’s volleyball team at Montclair High School.  He then continued on to Montclair State and Rutgers Universities in 1991, as an assistant.  Then in 1995 he took over the head coaching responsibilities at College of St. Elizabeth before moving to Hunter in 1996.  The change for him was that at Hunter College and at Rutgers, Dan worked with both institutions Men’s programs.

A native of Romania, Coach Dan has numerous years of playing experience to go along his wealth of coaching knowledge.  From 1978-1988 he participated in Volleyball Tournaments all across Europe, as well as playing a few seasons professionally in Romania.  Along with his abilities in the sport of volleyball, Dan has also competed in marathon running, specifically at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle. 

Dan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Administration Recreation from Kean University in 1996, along with a Diploma of Engineering from Romania in 1981.  Since 1980, Coach Dan has practiced the Japanese style of Martial Arts known as Kyokushnkai.  Dan holds a Black Belt, 1st Dan in Karate-Kyokushnkai and has owned his own Dojo in Romania.  In addition, Dan was Romania’s Amateur National Tennis Champion in 1987 and currently is a member of the USTP (United States Tennis Professionals).  Today, he continues working with adults and children teaching the game of tennis.  He is also the founder of the NYC/NJ Volleyball Open Court (VOC) Experience housed at the PAL Tennis Center in Manhattan (Harlem), NY.

Coach Dan also has done work outside of the athletic realm, serving as the coordinator of Body/Mind Empowerment Therapy in Bloomfield, NJ.  There he planned and implemented therapy programs for specific disabilities such as spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, and cerebral palsy.