Morgan Wijay is approaching her new job as the Harvard-Westlake girls volleyball coach with a growth mindset.
The decision to join the Wolverines comes after spending the last 10 years at Bishop Alemany and creates a full-circle moment. Harvard-Westlake is where Wijay began her coaching career.
“I love my Alemany family so much and the players and my administration and the community,” she said. “It was a really hard decision for me, but I just felt like this is a good place for growth. What better place to change than the place you started, your roots?”
Wijay, whose hiring was announced Monday, Dec. 30, was part of a Harvard-Westlake staff that won a CIF State championship in 2008. She wants to build the program into a nationally recognized team in her return to the Wolverines.
Under coach Mitch Kallick, Harvard-Westlake finished in fourth place in the Mission League in 2024 with a 13-15 overall record and 2-8 league record. The Wolverines were fifth in league in 2023 and went 9-18 overall.
“They have the resources, they have the ability to really pull some really great talent and I’m excited to be a part of that,” she said. “When I used to coach there, it was a very elite program and it was the school you went to for girls volleyball. And I’m excited to get it back to that place.”
Wijay won back-to-back CIF Southern Section championships with Alemany in 2021 and 2022 and was named a CIF Coach of the Year in both seasons. It was the first time in school history that the Warriors had won consecutive championships in volleyball.
She also coached at Sierra Canyon for four years and reached three CIF-SS finals with the Trailblazers. Wijay is the club director at Supernova volleyball, as well, but still takes pride in high school volleyball.
“I want to bring that ‘hey, we’re at a really great school,’” she said. “We need to be proud and really locked in on accomplishing and being proud of our school and representing it in the best way.”
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Wijay’s daughter, London, prepped at Alemany and is now a sophomore outside hitter on USC’s women’s volleyball team. She was a four-time Pac-12 Freshman of the Week in her first season with the program.
She’ll likely be involved in some capacity with Harvard-Westlake. Wijay anticipates London and possibly other college players talking with and offering advice to the high school team.
“London will always show her face,” Wijay said. “That’s really powerful when you have kids that are aspiring to be those athletes and then you have those athlete coming back that are not too far removed on what those challenges are that high school girls go through.”