NVASeasonThe Dallas Tornadoes Uncover the Gold Mine of Volleyball in the Heart of Texas

The growth of the NVA this year has taken significant steps to increase its size, as professional volleyball works to reach the scale of leagues like the NBA, NFL, and MLB that hold 22 teams. For the core teams that helped start the NVA’s revamp back in 2019, many were grassroots teams who had been together for years before their debuts. The Stunners have been the league’s home base team in Costa Mesa, carrying over many players from their days with Blizzard Volleyball. Or groups like Team Freedom have been together since 2013 or the Utah Stinger who consists of all BYU Alumni players. The Tornadoes have instead brought volleyball to Dallas, tapping into the hidden wealth of talent and fans that the area has.

The team’s two co-owners, Andres DeJesus and Andres Quinones, moved to the Dallas Fort Worth Area in the last decade. They join the many other individuals who came to the fast-growing metropolis pursuing their careers. Jordan, a Florida Native who played club volleyball at the University of Central Florida, and Andres, who moved to Dallas from Puerto Rico in 2006, attended school at Graceland University in Lamoni, IA. The two had solid volleyball backgrounds and quickly became involved in the weekly indoor and beach volleyball, where they saw the potential of starting a legitimate championship-caliber team. After watching the 2020 NVA Championships, Jordan and Andres bid to join the NVA and went hard to work to develop a Texas powerhouse team.

Choosing their home base to be with Texas Assault Volleyball, the Dallas Tornadoes pick a volleyball hub in which to pick up young fans and their families. TAV has topped the Triple Crown National list at #1 for seven straight years and the number one girl’s club in Texas for 15 consecutive years! Partnering with such a dominant club will push the possibilities for professional careers for these young players. It will also help to grow the popularity of boys’ volleyball in Texas.

https://www.tavvolleyball.com/home

Along with gaining a home to train with at TAV, the Tornadoes have picked up their Assistant Coach, Jonathan Daclison. He is a tenured coach at TAV with a proven record of qualifying teams to USAV Nationals and producing Division 1 Athletes. He joins the team with over 25 years of playing and coaching experience with deep involvement within USA Volleyball as both a High Performance (HP) Pipeline Coach and a retired USAV National Level Official. He’s no stranger to coaching elite adult teams as he previously owned and coached Men’s and Women’s Volleyball Teams in PVL and USAV AA levels.

Paired with Jonathan is the head coach, Andres’s father, Gilberto Quinones, who will be sure to bring some of Puerto Rico’s playing style to the team. Gilberto has already had coach experience at the professional level with Chicas de San Juan and the Playeros de San Juan and an assistant for the Puerto Rican National team. Today he has continued his efforts to grow the juniors game in the North Texas region, coaching with the distinguished Tejas Volleyball Club and Excel Volleyball Club. In his career, Gilberto has developed hundreds of athletes, many of whom will play at the collegiate and professional level.

These individuals’ intense passion for the game will surely help get elite volleyball the exposure it needs. By bringing Texas’s players together, they hope to take on the best that the NVA, the United States, and the world has to offer. Make sure to stay up to date with the Tornadoes this season by following them on Instagram (@dallastornadoes) and seeing live stream coverage of all of them playing this season on the NVA’s YouTube page. Equipped with high flyers, power, and finesse, this Dallas team will battle and leave it all on the court this 2021 season!