Tiffany Molinar thought she had a full plate in life, until she was offered something shed enjoyed before but never tasted at the highest level coaching high school volleyball.

When Justin-Siena athletic director Michael Fisher offered her the position of varsity head coach, Molinar had to not only think about it for a few days, but make a list of the pros and cons.

The cons included the time it would take away from raising her 3-year-old daughter Raine, and doing homework for a full-time class load at Sonoma State, where shes pursuing a bachelors degree in liberal studies. It would also mean she would have to leave a great job as hostess at The French Laundry, one of the top restaurants in the world, in her hometown of Yountville.

But the pros won out for the 2007 Justin-Siena graduate and former Napa County Volleyball Player of the Year.

Fisher announced her hiring last Friday, June 22, in an email.

We are very excited to have Coach Molinar join the Justin-Siena community, he wrote. We are always so proud to have an alumnus return to join our coaching family!

Molinars experience made her Justin-Sienas top choice: two unbeaten Bay Valley Conference campaigns as a setter for Napa Valley College, one season of co-coaching the under-16 Evolve club team with NVC head coach Kelly Van Winden, another season of coaching the Evolve U-14 team, and coaching Justin-Sienas freshmen two years ago and its junior varsity last year.

I already know the girls because Ive coached them for two years, she said. It will be a young team, with no seniors, mostly juniors and sophomores and probably some freshmen, and I felt bad stepping away. I didnt want to leave them hanging. I also enjoy coaching, and this is a great group of girls. I know what its like being their age and playing volleyball, and I know how much I love the game. Its a passion of mine, and I hope to see that through them when I coach.

She also figured she belonged at Justin-Siena as a coach instead of a spectator, watching her boyfriend and daughters father, Blaize Boles, when he returns to assist JV boys basketball head coach Guiles Particelli.

Molinar enjoyed being the first face seen by diners at The French Laundry, where reservations must be made many months in advance. It was a job she said kind of fell into my lap because Boles is a manager at another Yountville restaurant, but one that fit well her high-energy personality and ability to work under high stress.

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