Sam Ojie enters his second season as an assistant coach at UCF. A year ago, he served as the UCF interim head coach while Meg Colado was on maternity leave.
Ojie brings seven years of professional volleyball experience in Africa and Europe to the Golden Knights bench. Prior to UCF, he spent five years as an assistant at Tulane, providing him with first-hand knowledge of Conference USA volleyball.
During Ojie[apos]s tenure at Tulane, a Green Wave hitter earned all-league honors four times. The Green Wave averaged 15.33 kills per game under his tutelage and the team hitting percentage improved over 25 points during his time with the squad. In addition, the team[apos]s 226 service aces in 2002 were the most by a Tulane team in a decade.
Before joining the Tulane staff in 1999, Ojie played professionally in France for three years as a member of Hainuat Volleyball Club. While in France, he was a major factor in the success of the Hainuat squad that won the Division III title in 1998 and made the difficult transition to Division II in 1999. As a star for the men[apos]s team, Ojie also coached the female regional club as well as the area[apos]s under-12 boys[apos] team.
From 1994-96, he played for the Mizuno Mallory team in London. That squad did not lose a single match in two years, including an undefeated 1995 season that culminated with both an English Cup and English League Championship. Ojie[apos]s professional career began in 1992 in Africa as a member of the Ivory Coast Abidjan University Club where he was recognized by the local media as the team[apos]s most outstanding player in his first year of competition.
A native of Nigeria, Ojie graduated from Command Second School in 1985. While in school, Ojie played table tennis and was the school[apos]s high jump champion. He got his first taste of volleyball with the club team Plateau Peaks, which went on to finish second in the Nigerian Club Championship in 1990.
Ojie attended The University of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. While playing in France, he was a student at the Universite des Hainaut Valenciennes. He completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in media arts and Associates in Applied Business at Tulane University in May 2003.