Dinu Dan recently finished his sixth year with the Centenary College women’s volleyball program. In his five seasons with Centenary, the volleyball program has made tremendous strides toward becoming a conference and regional competitor.

In 2011, Centenary returned to the Colonial States Athletic Tournament, earning the fifth seed in the CSAC Tournament. The Cyclones fell in the first round match versus Baptist Bible College 3 games to 1, ending the season 15-20 and 7-5 in CSAC play. The Cyclones won their first five CSAC matches, giving them a leg up on the conference. Centenary would slide a bit in the back half of the season before finishing on a three game winning streak.

Coach Dan's team finished the season ranked fourth in the nation in aces per set. Jelena Markovic was a key factor in that area as she was the nation's leader in aces per set wit 1.65 and became Centenary's all-time aces leader with 356. Markovic was rewarded for her achievements bein named the CSAC Player of the Year in additon to being placed on the First Team All-Conference.

In addition to Markovic, Devon Paffendorf was named to the Second Team All-Conference and the CSAC All-Sportsmanship Team in 2011, her senior season. Kelsey Walter, another senior finished her stellar career with 2,076 digs. Erika Chu was another Cyclone who reached the top of the Cenenary leader charts when she became the school leader in all-time blocks with 210.

The 2010 season saw the team come a game short of its second consecutive Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Tournament. Despite an extremely tough schedule, the team was able to reach double-digits in wins for a program-record fourth-consecutive season. CC saw three of its players receive All-CSAC accolades, a program-first. Sophomore Jelena Markovic, the 2009 CSAC Rookie of the Year, took home First Team All-CSAC honors, as did junior Devon Paffendorf. Fellow classmate Kelsey Walter was named Honorable Mention. It also marks the first time in program history that two players were named to the First Team in the same season.

Paffendorf finished the season with 484 kills. That total led the CSAC and set a new single-season Centenary record. Markovic led the Cyclones with 755 assists, the second-highest single-season total in Centenary history. Walter finished with 543 digs, a single-season team record. She is now the program’s all-time leader in that category, with 1,506 for her career.

Through the course of the season, the Lady Cyclones competed in eight matches that went to the fifth and deciding set, finishing 2-6 overall in those contests. Despite the tough non-conference schedule, the team was 5-5 in conference action on Saturday, Oct. 30, when it hosted Philadelphia Biblical in what amounted to be a one-game playoff for the final spot in the CSAC Tournament. CC dropped a hard-fought first set, 26-24, and eventually succumbed to the Crimson Eagles, losing the match 3-0. Off the court, seven volleyball players earned CSAC All-Academic Team honors.

In 2009, CC earned a berth to the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Tournament for the first time in five years, thanks to a 7-4 CSAC record, marking a program-record for conference wins. The team fell in three closely fought sets at Baptist Bible, 25-17, 25-23 and 25-19. That left the Cyclones 15-17 on the season and set them up for an even better year in 2010.

Freshman Jelena Markovic was named CSAC and Centenary Rookie of the Year and also earned Second Team All-CSAC honors. The team also achieved success off the court, finishing with a team GPA above 3.3 to earn an American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award. Moreover, eight student-athletes were named to the CSAC All-Academic Team.

Dan has led the team to double-digit victory marks in three consecutive seasons for the first time in school history. In 2008, Victoria Rice earned All-CSAC Honorable Mention accolades. The 11 victories two years ago marked the first time in the program’s history that the program 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 (NEC) championship game 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. He was a two-time AVCA Northeast Region Coach of the Year while leading the program to an impressive 148-60, including two NCAA Division II Quarterfinal appearances in 1998 and 2000. The Lady Setters also notched four consecutive Northeast-10 Conference Championships (1997-2000) and were NE-10 regular-season champs in 1997 and 2000. While at Pace, Dan was named both the NE-10 Conference Coach of the Year and the AVCA Division II Northeast Coach of the Year in the 1998 and 2000 seasons. Entering the 2009 season he holds a career record of 258-202.

Dan’s coaching career began in 1990 with the girl’s volleyball team at Montclair High School. He then continued on to Montclair State and Rutgers 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, Dan has numerous years of playing experience to go along his wealth of coaching knowledge. Before he began his college coaching career, he participated in volleyball tournaments all across Europe and played for a Division I professional team 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. He is a long-time practitioner of the Japanese style of Martial Arts known as Kyokushnkai. He holds a Black Belt in Kyokushnkai and has owned his own dojo in Romania. In addition, Dan was Romania’s Amateur National Tennis Champion and currently is a member of the USTP (United States Tennis Professionals). In 2011, Dan won gold medals in the New Jersey Garden State Olympic Games in singles and mixed doubles. He continues to work with adults and children teaching the game of tennis.

He is the founder of the NYC/NJ Volleyball Open Court (VOC) Experience housed at the Armory Tennis Center in Manhattan (Harlem), N.Y.

Dan also works outside of the athletic realm, serving as a coordinator of Body/Mind Empowerment Therapy in Bloomfield, N.J. There he plans and implements therapy programs for specific disabilities such as spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy.