Lourdes’ Pedro Penate, St. Brendan’s Jorge Perez are Dade volleyball coaches of the year
MIami Lourdes Academy has been a solid program for some time in girls’ volleyball. But this season, Bobcats coach Pedro Penate guided them on a breakthrough season.
Meanwhile, over at Miami St. Brendan — another program with a long history of playoff appearances but not a lot of postseason success — changed that tune under coach Jorge Perez.
For those reasons, Penate and Perez are the Miami Herald’s girls’ volleyball coaches of the year.
Penate wins the award for Classes 7A-5A after leading Lourdes to its first trip to the regional finals before falling to perennial state powerhouse Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas.
Perez is the winner for Classes 4A-2A after the Sabres made it all the way to the state final four for only the second time in the past 42 seasons.
Making the season that much sweeter was a remarkable comeback win in the Class 4A regional finals over rival Miami Gulliver Prep after having lost two games to the Raiders twice earlier in the season.
St. Brendan, which finished with a 19-8 record after losing to Tampa’s Academy of the Holy Names in the state semifinals, won the five-set match against Gulliver in dramatic comeback fashion.
“I have no words,” Perez said at the time. “This is my first trip as a head coach to state, and it’s all because of these kids.”
Perez learned about coaching high-level volleyball at his previous stops, which included a stint at Miami Palmer Trinity where he was part of a program that advanced to the state semifinals four times in a decade.
Perez is hoping to build such consistency at St. Brendan, which has made two such trips since 2019 and won its lone state title in 1976.
Perez might just have the roster to make it happen as the Sabres will return a strong core of juniors led by first team All-Dade players Annelise Alvarez and Ana Sofia Tobar as well as Jordan Medina.
It’s a similar outlook at Lourdes where Penate recorded his 200th career victory this year during what was his 12th season coaching the Bobcats. Penate, who also coaches the boys’ team at Miami Columbus, is a Southwest Miami alum and member of that school’s 2003 undefeated state championship squad affectionately remembered as the “Bald Eagles.”
Lourdes loses two key seniors in Carmen Rionda and Sofia Santamaria, but will look to continue climbing behind a strong core of rising juniors led by Olivia Guzman coming off a 21-8 season.
