Passion is a pivotal drive to our aspirations. It fuels our soul into doing what we love most and never lets go.
For Marc Turiano, volleyball is his passion. With 15 years of coaching experience and his own playing career prior to that, Turiano devoted more than half of his life to the sport. Now, he’s been chosen as the new head coach of the Hamilton-Wenham girls volleyball team for this fall.
In taking over for Jenn Flynn, who coached the Generals for the last 11 seasons, Turiano is exciting to see what the season holds this fall.
“The kids in the program are just phenomenal and it seems like a supportive community, not just for the team but for athletics as a whole,” said Turiano. “It’s a great (Cape Ann) League as well with good competition.
“From my experience, in high school it’s more about the players, the team, and the love for the game. I’m really looking forward to diving into that, because that is what I’m most passionate about.”
Turiano first picked up the sport as a freshman at St. John’s Prep. His grandmother and mother had both played the sport and he, like they before him, soon fell in love with it.
I couldn’t have asked for a better environment to be introduced to volleyball at that time than at St. John’s Prep. If you liked competition, you couldn’t help but fall in love with the game,” Turiano said.
He then matriculated to Fordham University in New York, playing club volleyball. During his sophomore year there he wanted to further his passion for the sport and began helping Fordham Prep’s high school team. He also went on to assist at his alma mater, St. John’s, from 2009-11 while getting his Bachelor of Science degree in physical education from Salem State.
“I had a true love for the game, and I wanted to be around the game,” Turiano, who now teaches middle school phys ed at St. John’s Prep, admitted. “I started simply at (Fordham Prep) and they were very good at letting me be involved with the program. After that I went on to assist the Salem State women’s team (from 2013-17), and during that time I was told coaching was something I could potentially do for a living. That was when it dawned on me this could be my career and fulfill a lifelong passion of mine.”
Turiano leapt at the opportunity in 2017 to become the head coach for both the women’s and men’s volleyball teams at Regis College. doing so up until the pandemic hit. At the start of the 2020 pandemic he became the co-director of the Mill City volleyball club in Lowell, where he continues to coach its girls club team, directs the Northeast regional programs, gives lessons for beginners, and is a part of a recruiting program.
A great influence on Turiano has been his former volleyball coach at St. John’s Prep, Andrew Viselli.
“Andrew started the program and was a coach there for a long time. I was fortunate to be an assistant with him,” the Andover native said. “He’s always been a mentor of mine; every time I’m thinking about making a move in the coaching world, I always give him a call. He has the best volleyball mind I’ve ever been around, one of those people who really loves the game. He challenges me and my ideas, which is good because it gives me growth.
