Written by Thomas Scott
The Dalhousie University Tigers men’s volleyball coach, Dan Ota, is in his 25th season with the team this fall. The 16-time AUS Coach of the Year and 14-time AUS champion as head coach holds a 411-204 record with the Tigers.
Receiving a Masters of Kinesiology (Art and Science of Coaching) from the University of Calgary in 1998, Ota did not take the typical route of becoming a varsity head coach. Many university coaches are varsity athletes themselves before moving into coaching.
“That's not my story and it never will be, so the only way I can be credible in this environment and confident is to be exceptionally good at coaching and teaching people skills and helping athletes improve,” says Ota.
In high school, Ota had a great passion for sports, playing every sport he possibly could. After high school, not being involved in sports was tough. He went to his high school’s athletic director, where he expressed his desire to coach.
The sport available for Ota to coach was volleyball. Although volleyball was not Ota’s first sport of choice, as he was a better hockey and rugby player, he wanted to get involved in coaching as an 18-year-old. He began coaching a junior high boy's volleyball team.
Ota says he was not a particularly good coach in his first few years, but his athletes enjoyed playing volleyball. In his second season of coaching, he achieved success. Success for Ota was seeing his athletes improve.
“It made me think I can have a future in coaching because I saw how much the athletes improved, and so I kept with it,” says the 2023 NORCECA Men's Continental Championship silver medalist.
These athletes of Ota’s went on to win city and provincial championships.
“When you see the athletes you're working with have that kind of success, it creates aspirations to want to work at a higher level,” says Ota.
Ota, becoming the Tigers head coach in the 1999-00 season, came up as an assistant coach under Al Scott, the 1988-89 CIAU (now U SPORTS) Coach of the Year.
“I felt it was my responsibility to continue the tradition Al Scott left here and, if anything, try to build on that. That's still an important thing for me,” says Ota.
Among his many successes, Ota’s fondest memory of coaching the Tigers dates back to his first season. In the 2000 national quarter-final, the Tigers defeated Laval, the number one ranked team in the nation, in their home gym.
It was a team with a wide spectrum of personalities and headaches. It is the adversity that the team faced which made this moment so special for Ota.
“The thing that makes it really relevant for me is how much we had to struggle as a group before we got to that moment,” says Ota. “I don't have this kind of relationship with any other team I've coached. I'm firmly convinced it's due to the fact we went through that kind of adversity together and then made it through to the other side.”
Moving from the AUS to the RSEQ conference in the 2018-19 season has given Ota a new challenge and a more competitive league.
“I think as I get closer and closer to retirement age, which is fortunately still not that imminent, but I still feel as competitive as ever,” says Ota.
Coaching isn’t a job he expects to be understood or appreciated by others, but Ota has given Dalhousie 25 years of hard work and dedication. There have been countless late nights, staying up until 3am to study film and then awaking at 6am to watch more and prepare for the game. Ota also spent his offseason with Team Canada this summer from late May through August.
“That's valuable time for people in my profession that are working at a university level because it's usually their time to recharge and I was doing the exact opposite,” says Ota. “I don't do that for personal gains. It's all for if it makes our team five per cent better this year.”
There is a uniqueness to university sports. The athletes are here to perform on the court, but more importantly, perform in school, all while being in a highly competitive environment on the court and in the classroom. Ota has an appreciation for seeing his athletes grow when they become fathers, husbands, and leaders in their communities after graduating from Dal.
“It's extremely humbling the number of people that have gone on and done great things and become great people most importantly, and some of them are still very connected to this program,” says Ota, who wants his athletes to continue to strive off the court.
Even after 25 incredible years for the Tigers, Ota has plenty of juice left in the tank.
“The work's not done. That's for sure.”