Randy Stoklos Named PaliHi Volleyball Coach

Palisades High has hired lifelong Palisadian Randy Stoklos, a former beach volleyball great, to coach its boys volleyball team this spring. Stoklos takes over the program from Chris Forrest, who led the team to a City Section championship last May. The move comes one year after Stoklos joined Forrest’s staff as an assistant, so the former PaliHi star has plenty of familiarity with his roster, which he estimates will have at least four incoming players after upcoming tryouts. ‘It’s a perfect fit,’ Stoklos told the Palisadian-Post. ‘I’ve lived in this community my entire life and I’m very versed in the game. I’m very happy I (Continued on Page 10) made this decision.’ Stoklos grew up in Castellammare and now lives next door to his childhood home. He graduated from PaliHi in 1978, went on to play indoor volleyball at UCLA and was briefly a member of the U.S. Men’s National Team before turning his attention to beach volleyball. He teamed up with fellow Palisadian Sinjin Smith and they became the fiercest tandem on the pro beach volleyball tour, winning 113 open tournaments in an 11-year span to become the winningest duo ever. Stoklos earned a number of individual awards, including Association of Volleyball Professionals Most Valuable Player in 1988, 1989 and 1991 and Best Setter in 1989. Internationally, Stoklos was champion of the Federation Internationale de Volleyball Tour with Smith from 1989-93 and was named MVP of the Italian, Brazilian and Australian tours in 1992. ‘I can say one thing truthfully, that every program and every team I’ve ever been a part of, I’ve had success with,’ said Stoklos, who also runs a summer volleyball camp at Will Rogers State Beach wih Smith. ‘My work ethic and my love of the sport have provided that [success] for me.’ Added Palisadian Sam Lagana, the associate vice chancellor at Pepperdine University, who spent 20 years as an announcer on the pro beach volleyball tour and was a classmate of Stoklos at Palisades High: ‘At PaliHi, Randy developed a great work ethic, instilled by his parents as he worked in the family business while he attended school and played volleyball for the Dolphins. Now as a coach, he will instill that ethic in the young men he will train for Dolphin volleyball.’ Stoklos’ son, Shane, a sophomore, will try out for the varsity team.