Club coach takes Belen High School volleyball reins

Belen 

Christopher Wright, the new volleyball coach at Belen High School, has big plans.  

“Our goal is to get to state and eventually win it,” Wright said, adding, “Getting to state every single year is the expectation.”  

Wright, 27 years old, was hired Friday to replace Victoria Spragg, who resigned at the end of her third season leading the Eagles.   

This is Wright’s first job at the high school level, but he has coached nine years for the New Mexico Cactus Volleyball Club of Albuquerque. Wright was raised in a volleyball family and says his teams have had a “tremendous amount of success” in regional and national competitions at the club level.  

“He’s young and energetic. He’s eager to go,” said Steven Contreras, Belen Consolidated Schools athletic coordinator.  

During the interview process, Contreras said Wright showed, “He was really eager to start a program and find success.”    

Wright says several parents of Belen players he coached encouraged him to apply for the vacancy.  

“Top to bottom, the athletic program is stable and something I’m very excited to be a part of,” the new coach said.   

Wright commits to playing “fast,” expecting the team to “have a moxie about us, a swagger about us. I want to play like we have a chip on our shoulder because I want us to have that level of confidence. 

“It’s going to be an advanced level of volleyball that I don’t think Belen has seen yet.”  

A priority for Wright is “resetting the expectations” from seventh grade on up, “creating daily habits and helping to establish consistency.”  

Contreras said Spragg, a BHS graduate, “resigned on her own accord.”  

Efforts by the News-Bulletin to reach Spragg for comment were unsuccessful.