Meet Angel Agu, Rhody volleyball’s first woman head coach.
Just five years after finishing her volleyball career at Dayton, Agu is back in the A-10, now leading the Rams. Photo Credit gorhody.com.
For the first time in the team’s 46-year history, a woman will be leading the Rhode Island volleyball team.
Angel Agu was promoted to head coach of the team two months ago, after previous head coach Nicki Holmes resigned due to personal reasons.
After a season of instilling a new culture, Agu is tasked with creating her own. With an 8-7 start with wins in six of their last seven games, it’s safe to say that her first season has gotten off to a strong start both on and off the court.
Agu’s volleyball career began as a player for Atlantic 10 powerhouse Dayton, where she won four A-10 titles, made the NCAA Tournament four times and received numerous awards for her leadership and qualities as a teammate.
After graduating from Dayton in 2016, Agu immediately jumped into coaching, becoming a graduate assistant at La Salle. There, she helped the Explorers achieve their highest win percentage in the A-10 since joining the conference.
From there, Agu spent two years as a volunteer assistant at one of the nation’s top programs, the University of Wisconsin. During her time in Madison, she had the privilege of coaching Dana Rettke and Sydney Hilley, who both were AVCA All-Americans.
In 2020, Agu joined Holmes’ staff as an assistant, helping the team reach their first conference tournament since 2017.
With no previous head coaching experience and only one year in Kingston to draw from, there was a level of uncertainty for Agu about whether or not she could handle the role of head coach.
“My first thought was, ‘can I do this?’” she said. “I just played five years ago and I feel like I am still in those shoes.”
Despite her initial hesitancy, Agu has gotten the team off to a strong start, surpassing their win total from the abbreviated spring season.
For senior captain Ella Ratzloff, who has never won more than nine games in a season during her four years with the team, she feels it is the best start to a season she has had at Rhode Island.
“This is my fourth year here, and this is the best start in my career here playing-wise, team-wise and coaching-wise,” Ratzloff said. “I am challenged every single day in the best way possible, and I am enjoying it so much.”
She also said that she is enjoying the relationships and the camaraderie that Agu has fostered among the team.
“At the beginning of the season, Coach sat us down and asked us all why we were playing and what led us to playing for Rhode Island,” Ratzloff said. “No coach has ever done that with us, and I feel like I learned and bonded a lot with my teammates.”
This sense of community has become a huge part of the “Attack the Wave” culture that Agu is trying to create at Rhode Island.
“Coach told us about impact zones in surfing,” Ratzloff said. “This is the point for surfers where the wave crashes, and you can either attack it or let it crush you.”
Agu wants to see this motto enacted throughout the team and has been pleased with their commitment to it thus far.
“The adversity we will face as a team will come in large and small scales,” she said. “The motto is something that we can turn to and think ‘this is Rhode Island Volleyball and this is what we do when times get tough.’ The girls have been absolute ballers so far and have attacked every wave.”
The next wave waiting to be attacked will occur on Saturday when the team faces off against VCU in their conference opener.