Gitaik Hong enters his first year as a volunteer assistant coach with the University of New Mexico volleyball program. He comes to New Mexico after a number of coaching stops in the state and a successful professional career in his native South Korea.
Hong’s first experience in volleyball came in high school, where a volleyball coach noted his height and had him play. He put in a year playing with CheongSuk High School in South Korea, and made his first national team at age 18 in 1980. While playing for the National Junior Men’s Volleyball, Hong was part of the team that won first place in the Asia National Junior Championship.
He then went on to have a standout career as an outside hitter for Sung Kyun Kwan University, taking runner-up honors a number of times at the national championships and playing on the South Korean National University team in 1983 and 1985.
After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in public administration, Hong then went on to play for the South Korean National Senior Men’s Volleyball Team from 1985-87 and the LG Professional Volleyball Team from 1985-92. Her was awarded MVP in 1985 and won third place for hitter and second place for blocker from 1984-89.
Hong then went on to coach the LG Professional Volleyball Team from 1995-99 before moving to New York.
Eventually, Hong made it to Albuquerque in 2011, when he started to coach with the Albuquerque Rebels Volleyball Club. Over the next few years, he also coached at Cibola High School, New Mexico Highlands University and with the New Mexico Juniors Volleyball Club.