Bio

Nicasio Paquiz Jr. enters his sixth season as the Lakers' head volleyball coach in 2023.

Paquiz brings well over two decades of coaching experience at the collegiate, club and prep levels. He was most recently an assistant coach for the past three seasons at DePaul University, where he led recruiting efforts for the Blue Demons in his second stint in Lincoln Park after serving as a volunteer assistant from 2008-09. Prior to his time at DePaul, Paquiz served as an assistant coach at NCAA institutions Eastern Michigan, Michigan Tech and Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Paquiz spent nearly five years as the head coach at 1st Alliance VBC in Western Springs, Ill. He coached his squads of 17s and 18s to a variety of top finishes in national tournaments.

As head coach of the 1st Alliance 18 Silver squad, Paquiz led his team to a 2012 first-place finish in the Great Lakes Power League. His 2009 squad earned a bronze medal at the AAU Junior Nationals and a ninth place finish at the Junior Volleyball Directors Association (JVDA) Championships.

In 2011, his 17 Silver squad was ranked as high as eighth nationally while earning a gold medal at the Junior Volleyball Association World Challenge and a top-15 finish in the Great Lakes Power League 18 & Under division.

In 2015, Paquiz was selected as the head coach for the Great Lakes Lightning, a Great Lakes Region USA PVL women's team, and guided that squad to a fifth-place finish at the USA Premier Volleyball League Championships in Detroit, Mich.

Paquiz spent over eight years of coaching in Southern California prior to returning to the Chicagoland area and joining 1st Alliance. Paquiz served as head coach of boys and girls teams at the Brentwood School in Los Angeles and as head coach at Santa Monica Beach Volleyball Club (SMBC) youth sides.

Paquiz is a 1998 graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he earned a degree in architectural studies. While at UIC, Paquiz spent two years (1995-96) playing as a defensive specialist for the men's volleyball club program.