By WES STEVICK ’29
Updated 11:50 a.m. EDT, 31 Oct 2025
This fall, Mark Corbin was hired to be the head coach of the men’s volleyball team. According to the Houghton Athletics News, he has more than twenty years of experience, including coaching at Emmanuel University in Georgia, Truett McConnell University, and Bob Jones University under Vicki Denny. Corbin looks forward to working with “a group of men who are eager to grow in the game of volleyball and in their love for Christ, their school, and their community.”
Recently, Corbin has been drilling the team on communication. “We have to move and talk all the time,” he said. “If we can’t do that without a ball … how are we gonna do that when the ball’s in play and we have so much more going on?”
So he has the team play no-ball volleyball. Jonah Sissel ‘27, offside hitter and defensive specialist for the men’s volleyball team, describes this game: “He’ll make the throwing hand signal, and we have to talk to each other like ‘the ball is here, I’m the one getting the ball, and it’s going to there.’”
This forces the team to develop the habit of communicating during the real games. Sissel found this strategy helpful and felt it improved communication within the team.
“He’s very serious about practice,” said Sissel. It’s important that the whole team understands foundational skills early in the season, so later on, they don’t have to waste time catching up. Sissel added, “If there’s something that’s going on in practice that some of the guys don’t understand, he’ll stop … he’ll talk to us through it.”
Communication is only part of what Corbin wants to teach. “We wanna win; we wanna grow and get to that point where we can win championships,” he said, “but more than that, we wanna develop good, godly young men.”
Corbin sees the role of coach as a moral guide and as a physical educator. He recalled Billy Graham’s quote, “A coach will impact more people in one year than the average person will in an entire lifetime.”
This is a responsibility Corbin takes seriously. “I have to be careful that I am being a good example to the guys, but also show them what it’s like to be a godly man … Through my experience, maybe I can help them through things that they’re going through.”
The men’s volleyball team is very new, having been created in 2023. “We’re still growing, still trying to lay that foundation of the team,” Corbin said. He’s excited, though: “The guys are working really hard, they have great attitudes, doing awesome … they’re going to see a big difference even in this season, and in the seasons to come it’s just gonna get better.” ★
The men’s volleyball team will scrimmage on Dec. 6, 10 a.m.
