Sagula has a plan — he always has —but 40 years ago, volleyball wasn’t part of it.
Not his first love
All through his childhood, middle school and high school years, Sagula was a track athlete.
It was all he knew.
“My entire life I had run track,” he said.
“I ran in the Millrose Games, I ran in the Penn Relays in high school and I had some scholarship offers.”
Accepting one of them only seemed natural for the Bronx, N.Y. native — it was what he had always wanted.
So in 1973, a youthful Sagula packed his bags and headed 90 miles north of the city to State University of New York, College at New Paltz.
“I was a sprinter,” he said.
“I was a pole vaulter as a freshman, but I got to about 8 feet and said, ‘This is crazy. No way.’ So I went and I said, ‘Can I run instead?’
Very quickly, the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes became his specialties, and he was in his element.
But just a year later, everything changed.
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His track coach, the mentor who had recruited and trained him, was leaving.
“I thought, ‘What am I going to do?’’’ he said.
Per a friend’s suggestion, he took a leap of faith.
“I never saw a volleyball,” Sagula said.
“(But) I went out for the team … I made the team. I was terrible. But I fell in love with this. I said, ‘This is really, really right.’’’
A new love
While at SUNY, Sagula’s strong, quick hands made him an impressive setter and by his senior year, he was the captain.
When he wasn’t on the court, he was in the studio pursuing his other passion — art.
“My Bachelor’s of Fine Arts was a five-year program,” he said.
“I had my thesis presentation which was in 1978. I think it was 10 watercolors, 12 oils and drawings.”
The next year he earned a certificate to teach art at all school levels.
Eventually when he began to coach at the high school level, he also began to teach.
“I taught architecture, photography, drawing, painting and ceramics,” he said.
“Those were my biggest.”
Scaling the ladder
Sagula began to coach while he was still earning his degree. He was asked to form a junior boys’ program and began to coach in New York’s Empire State Games.
In 1980 Sagula took one of his boys’ teams to an AAU national championship.
Then 1981 came.
“1981 I got asked to be the head coach at the University of Pennsylvania,” he said.
“It was the right place at the right time — 25 years old I’m the head coach at the University of Pennsylvania in the Ivy League.”
With the Quakers, Sagula clinched three Ivy League titles and was named the league’s coach of the year four times in a row.
He stayed for nine years, but one thing led to another and he chose to apply for the head coaching job at Michigan.
“There were three candidates. This guy from Southern Cal, myself and the coach from North Carolina,” he said.“The coach from North Carolina got the job at Michigan.”
Of all places, Sagula’s closet coaching companion was in Durham — at Duke. He recommended Sagula, who had been the assistant coach of the East team in the 1987 Olympic Festival in Chapel Hill, for the job at UNC.
“He’s like, ‘Hey you know this is my friend, but … he’s a really good coach.’ He helped me get here,” Sagula said.
“And I’ve never thought twice about it. I’ve never wanted to be anywhere else.”
Now in his 24th year, he’s won five ACC titles, taken his team to nine NCAA tournaments and has tallied more wins than any other ACC volleyball coach in history. He’s coached with the USA National Women’s Volleyball B Team, served as the president of the American Volleyball Coaches Association and is a member of SUNY’s Hall of Fame for his achievement.
But seniors Kayla Berringer and Kaitlyn Anderson said none of that compares to how he makes his players feel — like people.
“He’s so good at just showing how much he cares about you,” Berringer said.
“Just knowing that you have a coach that not just cares about how you play volleyball, but cares about you as a person is a big thing, and really cool.”
Whether it’s an impromptu ice cream trip, breakfast and coffee in the morning or a small gift in the middle of the season, Anderson said the team’s bond with Sagula is like no other.
“I’m in the process of applying to dental school and kind of throughout this whole process, I’ve talked to him,” she said.
“Whether it be things going on with family, or friends, or anything, he’s always been an open ear to listen.”
After 33 years of coaching, Sagula can’t imagine doing anything else.
Perhaps when he retires he’ll return to art.
“Maybe (I’ll open) a nice little shop on the beach where I’m painting and framing my things,” he said with a smile.
Perhaps he’ll take an administrative position.
“I think a lot of people had seen me as a potential at one point having administrative capability in the future,” he said.
Or perhaps he’ll stay right here in Chapel Hill — the place he began to call home 24 years ago.
“I’m still a New Yorker or a Yankee down south,” he said.
“But I am a Tar Heel. True and blue after all this time.”
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