With a combination of 24 years of professional volleyball, Oxnard College’s Women’s Volleyball team is feeling confident going into the season.

After a one-year hiatus it is up to head coach David Fischer and assistant coach Jill Changaris combined experience to pull the Condors to a winning season.

Both coaches were introduced to volleyball at two totally different times of their lives.

“I heard that Santa Barbara High school had a good volleyball team and choral program, so I jumped into volleyball and found that I was just good enough and athletic enough to continue playing volleyball ever since,” said Fischer.

Changaris, however, had a more direct path into volleyball.

“I grew up playing sports and I started tee ball in second grade,” Changaris said.

” I was a three sport athlete in high school I continued to play volleyball in college and I believe a large part of that was because my father was a volleyball coach.”

Fischer has played against the top 48 teams on the Association of Volleyball Players (AVP). Changaris has played against the dynamic duo of Misty May-Trainer and Kerri Walsh, and Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs, both teams later went on to represent the USA in the Beijing Olympics.

The coaches both understand the challenge coming up since the Condor women’s volleyball last season. They do, however, have an optimistic look on things.

“Considering we had no team last year this group has bought in to our system, and is working hard enough to make up [for lost time],” Fischer said.

The Condor team captains Ashley Lagoie and Dominique Franz, agreed on the fact that they had respect for their coaches.

“It’s easier to listen to them because you know they have been in the situation a thousand times more then you have,” said Lagoie.

“It’s good to know that we are building from the ground up because its like they [the coaches] say, we only have one way to go and that is up and to get better,” said Franz.

The Condors season is already in swing, having played in a preseason tournament that went much better then they thought, according to the two Condor team captains.

” After playing in the tournament we know now that we can compete against these girls [on other teams],” said Lagoie.

The Condors will play their first home game against Citrus College on September 23rd, starting at 6 p.m.