Volleyball New Zealand confirmed on Tuesday the appointment of Sebastian Gonzalez as the Head Coach of the Volley Blacks for the coming international cycle.

The 36-year-old Gonzalez continues in the role after leading both the senior men’s and women’s programmes in the last cycle.

The Christchurch-based Gonzalez has been heavily involved in the volleyball community since his arrival in New Zealand from Chile in 2014 coaching a range of teams in the National Volleyball League, Inter-Provincial Championships, Club Championships and school events.

Volleyball New Zealand Performance Manager Colleen Campbell congratulated Gonzalez on his appointment: “I look forward to working with him as the programme continues to evolve over the next period of time,” Campbell said.

Gonzalez can’t wait to get going in the role, once again working with the top talent in Aotearoa.

“What excites me is the opportunity to lead and inspire a team of talented athletes, working together to achieve common goals and striving for excellence on both individual and collective level,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said his approach will centre around creating an environment which provides a platform for the group to compete on the world stage.

“The volleyball community can anticipate a high-tempo team, dedicated to delivering a calibre of play aligned with international standards.

“Our approach will emphasise aggression, mastery of basic fundamentals, tactical aspects of the game, and foster a culture of strong team cohesion and athlete-centric development.”

Gonzalez’s initial focus will be building on the development of the Volley Blacks programme of the last two years.

“This will include ongoing identification of athletes who exhibit the potential to join the Volley Blacks, as well as integrating coaches who will play an important part of our programme.

“In terms of gameplay, our recent performance during the Chile tour provided valuable insights on areas for improvement to elevate our national team’s performance. We must prioritise refining our serve-receive skills and mastering hitting techniques to score points consistently, aligning with the international standards.”

Looking back on the Volley Blacks' eight game tour of Chile, coach Sebastian Gonzalez saw a lot of improvement and some fine performances from his team, all but two of whom had not played international volleyball before. 

"It was great. The boys played at an amazing level. While we didn't get that win, we had some really tight games - to play like that against the fourth best team in the world is a big achievement. That means there's a lot of talent in New Zealand, and we just need to do a little bit more work in the program to get them to that level," said Sebastian. 

While the Volley Blacks pushed Chile hard, taking many sets deep, when it came to the critical points, the hosts showed that they'd been there before and their experience told in the end. 

"We were obviously a bit disappointed not to win a match - there were many times that we did live video analysis and looked at what we could have done differently. It's a real learning curve." 

"Many of the boys hadn't been in this kind of situation, they got a little bit nervous playing with a large crowd with people screaming, so it was a good learning experience for the younger players," said Sebastian.  

The crowds were large and noisy throughout the tour, with fans allowed on the floor afterwards for photos and autographs, and would sometimes bring presents for the team. 

"So the boys were pretty happy about that. The Chilean fans show a lot of love for the touring teams. And like the total amount of people that went to the stadiums throughout the tour was about 19,000 people - the gyms were packed for every match wherever we went to play, people sitting, people standing, people not getting in, so that was really nice to see as well," said Sebastian. 

On the court, the Volley Blacks weren't afraid to go for their shots, looking to take Chile out of their usual system and apply pressure, particularly on their serve.  

"Our jump servers were really trying to start the points with some power. And so some days you can have an amazing serving day, and others you miss a few, we tried to start the points by going for it. Chile's big servers were going at 118kph, while our big servers Mana and Jacob were going at 116, 117, so there wasn't much difference between the sides, but it's about that consistency, which will come with more time together," said Sebastian.  

The next focus will be preparing for the Asian Champs in 2025, with the team missing the latest edition becuase of government warning over travelling to Iran, but Sebastian is sure the team's experience in Chile is a strong platform to build on. 

"The connection and the team environment were really good. There's always problems travelling and playing so many games back to back. But at the end, we spoke about this lifelong connection and memories, and telling grandchildren about what we'd just experienced, so that's really important as well."

"It was a full on tour, thanks to all our sponsors and management, and everyone who made the tour possible."
   
"We've shown we can compete at a high level, so we need to be at the FIVB tournaments and improve our ranking, build on the programme and aim for better tournaments," said Sebastian.  

• Game seven: Chile 3 (25-23, 25-21, 25-17) New Zealand 0 in Puerto Montt
• Watch full replay of game seven

Chile were too strong once more in the seventh tour match in Puerto Montt. 

They lead the tour series 7-0, with the last match on Monday at 12pm NZ time from Los Angeles. 

• Game six: Chile 3 (25-14, 21-25, 25-23 and 28-26) New Zealand 1 in Puerto Varas
• Watch a full replay of game six

The Volley Blacks have broken through to record their first set win on tour.  

Consistent serving and another powerful display at the net on attack and defence saw the team take the second set 25-21, then save two match points in the fourth set, when they could have easily pushed the match to a fifth. It was a statement performance in front of another noisy and partisan home crowd, promising much for the last games on tour. 

Chile lead the tour matches 6-0, with the next game scheduled for 12pm Saturday in Puerto Montt.