St. John's University Volleyball Camps
Coaching Staff
Mario Treibit
Associate Head Coach
Mario Treibit was promoted to associate head coach of the Red Storm volleyball team in February 2008 after working as an assistant coach since 2000. He is responsible for game day preparations and assisting with recruiting efforts. Treibit also serves as an on-court technician and assists with the program's film coordination.
Treibit has many years of experience coaching men's and women's national teams in the United States, Holland, Israel and Puerto Rico. In 1992, he guided the Dutch men's national team to a silver medal as an assistant coach at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. As an assistant coach of the U.S. women's national team, he helped the Americans qualify for the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, Russia, and four years later helped the U.S. clinch the silver medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Calif.
Treibit's leadership and guidance led to three of his former players becoming national team coaches themselves: Ralph Hippolyte, Jacob Hershko and Jeff Williams. Treibit is also a former head coach of the men's volleyball team at Rutgers University-Newark. Over his four-year tenure with Rutgers, the Scarlet Raiders had a winning percentage of .976 (41-1), appeared in two NCAA Division I national semifinals and won the Eastern Collegiate championship in 1977 and 1980. Treibit was also named the Division I Coach of the Year in 1980. In April 2006, Treibit was inducted into the Rutgers Hall of Fame.
Also a respected official, Treibit has refereed over 250 international matches. Those appointments included serving as the head official at the U.S. Olympic Festival in Los Angeles in 1991, and the head official at the 1994 World Military Championship in San Diego. He was also selected as an official for the Special Olympics World Summer Games in 1995, 1999 and 2003. The games featured over 7,000 participants from all over the world in a variety of events.
From 2002-07, Treibit coached the New York City women's volleyball team to four straight gold medals (2004-07) and two silver medals (2002-03) at the Empire State Games. Treibit is also in his 21st year with the New York Metropolitan Volleyball Association, where he currently serves as president and works with camps and clinics in the Northeast United States and in Europe. Interestingly, Treibit is the only person in the United States to coach and officiate at the Finals for both the U.S. Open and the NCAA. He's also the only person in the world to earn the highest international title in officiating and an Olympic medal as a coach.
Treibit earned dual master's degrees in electrical engineering and sports and physical education while in Russia. He is also fluent in five languages (English, Russian, Romanian, French and Spanish). Treibit currently resides in Flushing, N.Y., with his wife, Tatiana, and their two sons, Alexander (15) and Ronald (13).
Li Chen
Assistant Coach
Li Chen enters his fifth season with the St. John's volleyball program after being named recruiting coordinator in February 2010. He assists with practices, recruiting efforts and serves as the program's primary film coordinator. Chen is no stranger to BIG EAST volleyball as he joined the Red Storm after serving as an assistant coach for two seasons at Villanova from 2005-06.
While with the Wildcats, Chen assisted with recruiting, practice planning, scheduling, match preparation and travel coordination. He also coached the team's setters, middle and right side hitters. Before working at Villanova, Chen was a volunteer assistant at Temple University.
Chen has been involved in the worldwide volleyball scene for more than 25 years and has recently had coaching stints with club volleyball teams in the Philadelphia area. He was the head coach of the Intensity Volleyball Club age 16 team in 2004 and led the squad to a final record of 69-12 and six championships. He also has worked with Gilad Doron's Philadelphia Volleyball Academy since 2003. Chen is responsible for skill development for the 14-, 17-, and 18-year old age groups.
Before coming to the United States, Chen was an accomplished coach in China, where he served as the head coach for the Shanghai Xuhui District. While in that role, he led his teams to championships in 1985, 1986 and 1995. Chen was also an assistant coach for the Chinese Women's National teams in 1989 and 1993. The teams took second place in the World Grand Prix and finished third in the World Cup in those years.
During his collegiate career, he started for the Shanghai University of Sport men's volleyball team. He also was the captain and starting setter for the Chinese junior national team following his graduation. Chen is a 1982 graduate of the Shanghai University of Sport, where he received his B.S. in Physical Education. He also received certification for completion of the training course in the technique of TUINA massage, and completed the USA Volleyball IMPACT program in 2004.
