John Chang was named the fourth head women's volleyball coach in Felician College/University history in July 2014. His recent teams have been the most succesful in the history of the program.
Chang was voted the 2019 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Coach of the Year after leading Felician to its first regular-season division championship and its first appearance in the league semifinals. The Golden Falcons (16-18, 13-6) established overall and conference school records for victories for the second consecutive season, capturing the CACC North crown after having never before finished higher than fourth. Felician saw four players named all-CACC, more than the program's first 15 years combined, and CACC Defensive Player of the Year Sierra Gallagher became the first Golden Falcon to ever be named All-Region, earning D2CCA First Team honors at libero. Felician reached the CACC semifinals again during the repositioned Spring 2021 campaign coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, upsetting Caldwell University in Caldwell, N.J., in the opening round of the playoffs.
Chang had guided the 2018 Golden Falcons to school standards of 13 victories and eight CACC wins. Felician reached the league playoffs for the first time since 2013 and extended eventual champion Holy Family University to five sets in its quarterfinal loss.
Early in Chang's first season of 2014, Felician swept a tri-match for the first time in program history, defeating Goldey-Beacom College and Bowie State University at home on Sept. 20. Chang's 2015 Golden Falcons won seven matches, the school record to that point. During the 2017 campaign, he became Felician's all-time leader in coaching wins.
Chang spent the 2017 men's season as the head coach at Sarah Lawrence College, delivering the Gryphons' first victory in four years. He has previous collegiate experience at Polytechnic University, guiding the Blue Jays' women's and men's squads from 2005-06 to 2007-08. He inherited a women's program that had won one match in 2004 and posted a three-year won-lost record of 46-33. He was named the Skyline Conference Coach of the Year in 2007 after his team went 22-8.
Chang won 26 matches in three years leading the Blue Jay men. He was a women's assistant at Kean University in 2009 and 2010.
Chang came to Felician following two seasons as the head girls' coach at Cranford High School. More recently, he spent one year each as a girls' assistant at West Orange High School and Golda Och Academy before taking over the head coaching position at Rutgers Preparatory School during the 2020-21 academic year. During his first season, he led Rutgers Prep to the sectional finals.
On the boys' side, Chang was the head coach of the GOA varsity from 2005-18, winning two division championships, and since then has been an assistant at West Orange High. With Chang on staff, the Mountaineers won the Super Essex Conference championship and earned a state tournament berth during their inaugural season of 2019.
Chang established the Conquest Elite Volleyball Club in Cranford in August 2013 and was its director for six years.
Chang began his undergraduate studies at Rutgers University-Newark in the mid-1990s before earning a bachelor's degree in social science from Ashford University in 2009. He is tri-lingual (Korean, Spanish), and is certified by IMPACT USA Volleyball. He resides in Cranford with his wife, Jaclyn, daughter, Rachel, who attends Rutgers University, and son, Evan.
Year | School | Record | CACC | Comments |
THE CHANG FILE2005 | Polytechnic | 9-13 | - | Team won one match in 2004 |
2006 | Polytechnic | 15-12 | - | - |
2007 | Polytechnic | 22-8 | - | Skyline Conference Coach of the Year |
2014 | FELICIAN | 5-19 | 3-16 (T-5th North) | School-record 3-match win streak 50th career victory 10/1 |
2015 | FELICIAN | 7-24 | 5-14 (5th North) | School-record seven victories |
2016 | FELICIAN | 0-30 | 0-19 (7th North) | - |
2017 | FELICIAN | 4-22 | 2-17 (6th North) | School-record 14th victory at Felician 9/27 |
2018 | FELICIAN | 13-18 | 8-11 (4th North) | School-record 13 victories School-record eight CACC victories School-record four-match win streak CACC Quarterfinals |
2019 | FELICIAN | 16-18 | 13-6 (1st North) | School-record 16 victories School-record 13 CACC victories (first winnng season)} School-record 10-match win streak School-record four All-CACC honorees First First-Team All-CACC selection (Sierra Gallagher) First CACC major award winner (Gallagher DPoY) First All-Region selection (Gallagher) CACC Coach of the Year CACC North Regular-Season Champion CACC Semifinals |
2020 (Spr. '21) | FELICIAN | 2-6 | 1-5 (T-5th) | Season abbreviated and moved to spring due to COVID-19 pandemic CACC Semifinals |
7 yrs. | FELICIAN TOTAL | 47-137 (.255) | 32-88 (.267) | Felician all-time wins leader Six All-CACC selections One All-Region selection 12 CACC All-Academic honorees |
10 yrs. | Total | 93-170 (.354) | - | Does not include 27-93 MEN'S Record at Polytechnic (26-72, 2006-08) and Sarah Lawrence (1-21, 2017) |
last updated 8/23/21