Sinisa Momic Hometown: Zagreb, Croatia High School: High School for Economics Position: Head Coach Experience: First Season Alma Mater: Kinesiology-Zagreb (2000)

As the Tulane University Athletics Administration used a nation-wide search to find the next head coach its volleyball team following the Green Wave's historic 2008 season, it needed only to look in its own backyard as Sinisa Momic was named head coach of the Green Wave on March 23, 2009.

After spending the last six seasons with the Green Wave in various assistant coaching roles, Momic becomes the eighth volleyball coach in Tulane history.

"He brings a life-long journey of experiences - both as a player and as a coach - at very high levels including the past four years as top assistant in the Tulane program," Tulane director of athletics Rick Dickson said. "Sinisa has been a critical mainstay in recruiting, development and tactical game planning for our team and this continuity will afford us the greatest opportunity to continue the goal of achieving elite status with our women's volleyball program."

But while Momic begins his first year as a head coach at the collegiate level, he is no stranger to the position nor is he a stranger to the Tulane program.

Momic came to Tulane midway through the 2002 season and served the latter portion of that year and all of the 2003 season as a volunteer assistant under then-head coach Betsy Becker. He became the team's second assistant in 2004, and when Kritza took over the program in 2005, Momic was tabbed the team's No. 1 assistant and recruiting coordinator. In that capacity, he was responsible for overseeing all aspects of player development, practice design and implementation as well as expanding Tulane's recruiting base.

Over the last four years as the top assistant and recruiting coordinator, Momic was responsible for successfully recruiting the bulk of the 2008 roster that helped the team go 26-8, win the Conference USA regular-season and tournament titles and advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

His recruits have gone on to rewrite the Tulane volleyball record book, including Sara Radosevic - who completed her career as the Green Wave's career leader in service aces (197) and kills per set (4.73) - Luna Rebrovic - who finished the 2008 season third in Tulane career assists (3,359) - and Bridget Wells - who whose 1,211 kills and 261 blocks rank 10th and 12th in Tulane history, respectively.

"Obviously, this is a great honor and I am grateful that people here at Tulane University considered me and are appreciative of what I've done for the last six years," Momic said. "I've invested six years here, starting here as a volunteer assistant, working as the second assistant and serving as the top assistant for Liz over the last four years. New Orleans is a home away from home for me and this has worked out great for me.

"I'm happy that I get to stay with the team, keep working for them and with them, and continue recruiting for the program. I believe I have a clear picture of what needs to be done not only to keep this program where it is now, but stabilize it and keep it there every single year. I feel that I know what it took to get the program to this level and I know what it takes to stay here."

A native of Zagreb, Croatia, Momic has been able to open the international pipelines of recruiting to the Tulane program which helped land four stars on the 2008 C-USA Championship Green Wave team. Radosevic and Rebrovic both hail from his hometown, and Radosevic became the first player in Tulane history to claim C-USA Player of the Year honors in 2008 and was a four-time All-America selection by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.

In addition, Momic was able to land Ksenija Vlaskovic (Pozarevac, Servia) and Visnja Djurdjevic (Zitiste, Serbia) who claimed AVCA Midwest Region and C-USA Freshman of the Year honors in 2006 and 2008, respectively. His first recruiting class as a head coach, meanwhile, produced another pair of international standouts as former Serbian Junior National Team members Milica Jovic and Marija Milosavljevic.

During Momic's tenure at Tulane, the Green Wave have seen their front-row hitters earn AVCA All-America honors in each of the last four years and a total of eight times since 2003.

While Momic's collegiate coaching experience is limited to his time at Tulane, he brings a wealth of knowledge both as a player and a coach in his native land.

During his professional career, Momic helped his teams win the Croatian Championship and Croatian Cup four times. First breaking into the professional ranks at age 17 for VB Club Mladost in Zagreb, he joined their First Team which competed in the former Yugoslavian League and, later, the Croatian League. Momic competed there until 1994, helping the squad win the Croatian Championship and Croatian Cup three times each.

From there, he played in different Croatian and Austrian teams until 2001 when he came back to Mladost to help the team win the championship again as a player/assistant coach in 2002. He later joined the Men's Junior Croatian National Team as an assistant coach and went on to help the program qualify for the European Championship and finish in the Top 10.

In addition, Momic played professional beach volleyball from 1994-2001 where he won the Croatian Championship in 1994 an finished in the Top 4 in the majority of his 37 tournament appearances.

Momic graduated from The High School for Economics in 1993 and earned his bachelor's degree from University of Kinesiology-Zagreb in 2000, where he received certification as a senior volleyball coach - the highest volleyball coaching degree where he learned from some of the best coaches in Russia, America and China.

Momic comes from a family rich in volleyball tradition. His brother Sasa, who played for the Croatian National Team and continues to play professionally in Europe, was often a beach volleyball partner. His father, Slobodan Momic, has been involved in the sport in Europe for decades, including a stint as general secretary of the Croatia Volleyball Federation. He organized and planned the competition and training aspect of the team's 17-day excursion to Croatia in the summer of 2008, as the Green Wave barnstormed his native country playing club teams and national teams.

Momic is married to the former Lacey Vicknair, whom he met while both were playing for their respective men's and women's teams on the same professional volleyball club in Austria. After moving to Croatia, Vicknair's team went on to win the Croatian national championship.

Vicknair helped lead the Tulane women's basketball team to the NCAA Tournament from 1996-99 before turning her attention to volleyball where she lettered for the Green Wave squad in 1999 before turning professional.