Meet the Team Behind MDC VOLLEY: Passion for Volleyball and Community
Denis Zhukov
Started at the age of 9 at a club in home country, Kazakhstan.
Studied/played at the University of Calgary, Canada. I was selected MVP and Volleyball Player of the Year for CIAA (Canada's NCAA) and Athlete of the Year for the University Athletics.
I played professionally for the clubs in Athens, Greece; Toulouse, France; Lausanne Switzerland; Samara, Russia; Istanbul, Turkey; Baku, Azerbaijan; Jakarta, Indonesia.
Team captain for Kazakhstan National team for the most part of the 10 years playing for it. Played multiple international tournaments and championships, with highlights of participating in the two World Championships in Argentina in 2002 and Japan in 2006.
Outdoors experience: played AVP qualifications, Vancouver Open (5th place), Seaside (3rd place in the Open) and AVA (multiple wins).
Coaching experience:
Children camps and clinics at UofC for 4 years.
Regular development clinics for young players during my professional career.
Assistant coach for Kazakhstan Junior Girls' National team for 2 years.
Oregon City Trailsend Volleyball Club 18B-Girls coach for 1 year.
My aim is to teach athletes the correct drills and exercises given to me while being a professional athlete. Everything that I was taught, I want to share these same drills I learned throughout the years while competing around the world. Help us make a difference, one athlete at a time.
Ivan Konkin
I started playing volleyball my Senior in High School. One of my best friends called me and asked if I wanted to play Beach Volleyball after school. The whole day leading up to playing I thought we were driving to the beach to go play “Beach” Volleyball. I mean why else would I think different? Turns out there is a place in SE Portland 10 minutes from where we lived called Woks Up that offered 4 beach courts right in our back yard.
After my first time playing I knew that volleyball was going to be more than just a sport for me, but a lifestyle. I quickly became obsessed and used volleyball as an outlet to help me in other challenges I was facing in my life. My first AAA partner was Roman Onishchenko. Roman became my coach and taught me everything he learned from the pros where he lived in Huntington Beach California training and competing with the top athletes.
That year we teamed up we won some big local tournaments and placed in a top three in some of the biggest tournaments in the northwest.
I was one of the fortunate ones and had a chance to be coached and played against some of the best players in the AVP (Professional beach league) as well as some players from the FIVB (International pro league). Some of those names include Dana Camacho, Derek Olson, Paul Lotman, Jeremy Casebeer, Avery Drost, Nick Lucena, Jake Gibb, and recently Todd Rodgers the 2008 Beijing gold metalist who played with his ex partner Philip Dalhausser.
My goal has always been to teach as many people the game with the training that was instilled in me and teaching the correct fundamentals and techniques on how to elevate your skills for beach, grass, indoor volleyball for those willing to put in time and effort.
