Sanja Tomasevic is the Head Volleyball Coach of LOVB Houston (League One Volleyball) and a former international athlete dedicated to advancing professional women’s volleyball in the United States.
Originally from Serbia, Sanja’s journey began during a time of war, where volleyball became both a source of hope and a pathway to new opportunities. Her talent ultimately brought her to the United States, where she played collegiate volleyball at the University of Washington before building a distinguished coaching career.
Today, Sanja leads a roster of world-class athletes, including Olympians, while helping establish LOVB as a premier professional volleyball league. She is passionate about raising awareness for elite women’s volleyball, growing the sport’s fan base, and creating stronger connections between athletes and the communities they represent.
A respected leader both on and off the court, Sanja combines resilience, discipline, and a global perspective to inspire athletes and fans alike. Her mission is to elevate the game, empower the next generation of players, and help professional volleyball thrive in Houston and across the United States.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanja-tomasevic-a7293242/
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.
Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. I’m so excited to introduce you to my guest today, Sanja Tomasevic, head volleyball coach for League One Volleyball or even known as Love Houston, part of a new professional league bringing elite women’s volleyball to cities across the country, Sanja is leading a roster of world class female athletes, including Olympians and top tier talent, as the league works to grow awareness and excitement for professional volleyball here in the US, and especially right here in Houston. While the level of play is Is incredibly high. Many people still don’t realize that this caliber of professional volleyball exists in their own back yard. Which makes Sanja’s role not just about coaching, but also about building visibility and connection within the community. At the same time, she represents a growing presence of women in leadership roles in professional sports, helping shape the future of athletes both on and off the court. Sanja, welcome to the show.
Sanja Tomasevic: Thank you so much, Trisha. So excited to be here with you and to spread the awareness about our league.
Trisha Stetzel: I know, me too. So first, before we get into love, tell us a little bit more about you.
Sanja Tomasevic: Yeah, I just am a little girl from Serbia, just like, you know, started playing volleyball in Serbia in a small town of 4000 people. Um, come from I don’t know how much people know about Serbia, but we are born torn country. When I was ten, the war started and it continued throughout my. You know, until I was 20 years old. And, you know, volleyball took me to America. I went to University of Washington, graduated from University of Washington, was a part of the team that won a national championship. And that kind of opened a lot of doors for me in Europe, played professional volleyball for eight seasons. Um, and when it was time to hang up my playing shoes, I just could not imagine my life without volleyball, no matter how hard I was fighting to not be a coach, I, you know, I would get offended when my teammates would say, oh, one day you’re going to be a good coach. And I was like, I didn’t go to college to be a coach. Well, here am I right now. You know, I’m coaching and I am loving every second of it. I coached in college for ten seasons. After that, I went to play coach professional on a professional team in Turkey for two years, and I was hired here in Houston last summer and I’ve been I just finished my first year as a head coach here in Houston.
Trisha Stetzel: So exciting and I can’t wait to get into that. But first, I want to dig into League One volleyball and love. Because we don’t. I didn’t always associate the two together just because the logo is so beautiful and it says love with. It’s kind of split with a three at the end. So tell me a little bit more about League One volleyball.
Sanja Tomasevic: League one volleyball. Is this like, um, a new league that just started a couple years ago? Well, the idea started years ago, like not two years ago when the when we started competing, the idea started way back. Um, I don’t even know, maybe 2019, 2020. I have no idea. I wasn’t in those rooms at that time. But some really smart people, really passionate people got behind women’s volleyball because women’s volleyball is the most attended sport in high school. And it’s the biggest growing sport for women, for girls in high school and college. And so, um, you know, there were a lot of records broken in attendance in college, I think Nebraska Creighton match had 92,000 fans at the game. They played it at a football stadium. So all those things kind of like kind of coincided like with the with the this league being starting starting in two years ago. So 2024 was the first season that was played 2025. So last fall, last spring. And so, um, yeah, it’s just really cool that we have that opportunity right now here in America that we have people who believe in women’s sports and, you know, like there’s things that are happening in basketball and women’s soccer and softball. And it’s just so fun to see that little girls. I’m a mom of a eight year old girl, and I’m happy that, you know, she can see girls on TV. Now. We don’t turn on the TV right now. And by default, it’s men’s sports, you know, now you can turn it on like on Sunday night. And it would be women’s sports. And it’s kind of like, you know, we belong and we belong for a long time. And it’s is just about the time that people started recognizing it and the crowd started getting behind it. And so that’s what we need more. We need more people to show up at our games and for people to turn on a TV when we’re playing for these girls to, you know, what they can do is amazing. Outstanding. I mean, they’re just unbelievable athletes. And you know, they deserve to be seen. And they they deserve to be supported.
Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Oh my goodness. Okay. I do have a question about this mindset shift because you talked about moving from player to coach. So you coached at the collegiate level for ten years. You’re going to roll into your fourth season as a professional coach. What had to shift for you, your mindset shifting from player to coach, and how does that help you today?
Sanja Tomasevic: I think just knowing what is it like to be in their shoes, I think sometimes it’s maybe even too much empathy, like on like, oh my gosh, she must be so tired. You know, she must be so. You know, this hurts. That hurts. But, you know, also there’s like this part of like, you know, I look at them sometimes they like, they pity themselves or like they think it’s hard. And for me as a coach, you know, there’s no better job I’ve ever had. Well, the only the only job that I would say is better than being a volleyball player was being a mom. So being a mom is by far the best job I’ve ever had. And I love being a mom to my baby girl. But outside of that, the easiest job and the best job I’ve ever had was being volleyball player. And in the moments when you’re playing, you might think it’s hard and you have to do all the work and you might not feel like doing it. But then at the end of the day, when you think about it, you’re playing volleyball for 2 or 3 hours a day and it keeps you in unbelievable shape and you’re doing this like awesome job. It’s like, you know what else is more fun? Definitely not, you know, sitting behind a laptop and crunching up the numbers. So. So I think just, you know, for me, the understanding of being a pro, what does it take to be a pro athlete or an athlete in general? And just also, I feel like a lot of times athletes don’t know what they don’t know in those moments.
Sanja Tomasevic: They don’t know that that they cannot get that time back. You know, there’s, they they cannot get that moment in time back. And, you know, they kind of a lot of times they kind of go through the motions and they waste that moment in time. And, you know, unfortunately, like it’s kind of like, again, being a mom, like you learn all these lessons in life and you want to tell your kids, make learn from my mistakes, but they don’t. Coaching is similar, very similar. You’re like, okay, you can try to, um, explain, you know, and try to push fast, like fast forward through the learning experience. And sometimes it works, you know, sometimes it works. And usually it works with older players with younger. It’s kind of like again, again, being a mom, it’s the same thing with kids. When they get older, they kind of like, oh, mom knows what she’s talking about. When they’re young, they’re like, what? So I think that really helps with me, like just being able to understand them from that standpoint and for me to I’m always a student of the game. I always want to learn something new about volleyball. I played for some unbelievable coaches in my life. Um, whether it was in America, in Italy, in Serbia, all over the world. And I am still really still like eager to learn. And there’s so much to learn about the game and so much to learn about the mindset. And that just like for me, exciting to share with them things that I learn and things that I kind of come across.
Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. All right, you guys that are listening, if you didn’t catch it, we have a professional volleyball team in Houston, which is so exciting. You guys meet again. I’m going to go back to love it looks like LOVB. It’s just the way the logo is written. So love Houston. It’s a professional women’s volleyball league. So I want to talk about these women that you’re coaching. Sanja Olympian’s, elite athletes. Tell me more about these ladies that are playing volleyball in this league.
Sanja Tomasevic: I mean, we do have, you know, two three time Olympians in our roster. Um, we have Jordan Thompson, the league MVP, the best opposite in the league. Um, she has so so we have Micah Hancock as well. So she’s a setter. Jordan is an opposite. And both of them have been um in two Olympics and they won medals. They’re not just in Olympics. They’re winning medals consistently. And this is what I try to explain to people in America. Most of the time these American players like them, they have to go somewhere in Europe to make money, um, or Asia to make money, to be able to do what they love and earn for a living. And so finally, we have them here, but they’re not entertaining some people in Italy and Turkey, they’re entertaining our people here. So and these are not average athletes. These are top tier like these are LeBron James as a women’s volleyball you know. So we need to show up at the games. I mean and not not one person that came to my match this year like, you know, and I’m inviting friends from school, from my daughter’s school and friends from neighborhood handing out tickets, you know, and everybody’s buying more tickets afterwards. Not one person that came to a game going like, well, that was kind of it was okay. It was like, oh my God, they are unbelievable. The things they can do on the court.
Sanja Tomasevic: It’s so cool. And while these girls, the girls are like very girly and they’re very like, you know, like feminine and they like dress up cute. And if you follow them on their Instagram and social media, and I think love does a great job of like with our walk up tunnels and stuff. Like, I mean, it’s like a fashion show, you know? So like I have friends who have like, who have said things like, you know, I have one friend whose wife is a former model. So. And they own a flower shop in Houston and they’re just really, like, cute, you know? So he said he didn’t want his daughters to play sports because he didn’t want them to get like, kind of like a little bit more like masculine and whatnot. Because when you go to a gym and all that, you get more masculine. And so he was worried about that. And then he came to our game and he’s like, he’s like, he’s like, oh my God, I’m going to let her do this. I’m going to let Valentina play volleyball. This is amazing. You know, so I, you know, I think these girls, there’s so many amazing role models in these gyms. And, you know, we’re talking about these two. There’s our Olympians, but we also have national champions. We have just mercy. Who won a national championship at Penn State two years ago. You know, we have some amazing international athletes on our team.
Sanja Tomasevic: We have Jazz White. We have Kaisa from Finland. She’s been setting for Finland for years. On years we have Karin Paul, who is also retiring from Slovakia National team. Those are the girls who have played around the world, in front of the crowd all over the world and have been in the World championships, European Championships, you know, Olympic Games, you name it. And now they’re here. They’re playing in the very center. It’s like you can just pull up in the gym and see the best volleyball, you know, being played. It’s pretty amazing. And it’s just and then also there’s like girls like Logan Nikki and Maddie Wark. They just won a national championship at Texas A and M, and these are the girls that played for skyline, you know. So those are the girls that you know if you’re a young kid from Houston, you can literally look up to them and be like, oh my God. So one day I can do this with ten years ago, that was not an option. Five years ago, that was an option. That was not an option. Now that’s an option. It’s not like, oh, I go to college, play volleyball. It’s like volleyball can be my career until a certain point and I can make really good money doing what I love and spending time with my friends. And so I think that just really amazing.
Trisha Stetzel: Oh my gosh, I have chills just from having this conversation I shared with you before we started recording that I’m such a volleyball lover. And when I found out about this league, I was embarrassed that I didn’t know. And I said, Sonja, you have to come on the show so we can create some more awareness around it. It’s so important. So I want to talk about season one. Tell me how it went. I know you guys got some awards and I want to share that with the listeners.
Sanja Tomasevic: Yeah, so this was my season one, but it’s season two for love. Um, so we finished first in a regular season, which is outstanding. Um, you know, obviously we want to be in the finals, we want to win a championship, but with everything considering like we had our starting libero, she got pregnant, she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. And we’re super excited to expand our love family. Um, and then we have our starting setter, Micah Hancock, who I spoke about earlier. Uh, she had some problems with her injury before the season started and that kind of carried through most of the season. So we without two of them and with a big chunk of our roster being young players, we were able to finish first in this league. That’s pretty even. Like I said earlier, like the league is made that anybody can beat anybody. And so we have done an amazing job. Um, we ended up losing to in semifinals to Salt Lake City. Um, they have, I think their average age is probably like five years older than our team, you know, so it can mean a lot more. It’s not about age, it’s about experience, you know, it’s about experience being in those moments. Um, so they beat us and they beat us. We, we have this thing. It’s like you play two matches and if it’s two, one, two, zero for one team, that team advances to the finals. But it was one one. And then if it’s one one then you play. We call it Golden Set, and Golden Set is one set to 15. It’s like a fifth set in volleyball. And we lost that set 1917.
Trisha Stetzel: Wow.
Sanja Tomasevic: So it is it was very painful that day for the next day. The day after, like it took like it took a minute for me to be like, okay, I can be sad, but I can also be grateful. Like, you know, I am super proud and grateful for the team that I had this year and how hard we pushed and where we started off the season with oh and three, we lost three matches and we started zero and three and ended up winning the season. So a lot of growth, a lot of grit throughout the season and so much to be proud of. And, um, yeah, it’s just, you know, it wasn’t our day. You know, it really came down to like, it was not our day that day we lost 1917. And it’s so unfortunate because it would be like nice little cherry on the top. But we sweep the awards. We had the best setter of the year. I got a center of the year. We had a best middle. Amber Igiede was the best middle. We had Jordan Thompson get two awards. She was the best opposite and the and the MVP of the league. And I was awarded with the head coach of the year, which, um, of course when the team is doing well, coaches kind of get rewarded too. Super happy about that too. But, um, yeah, so many individual achievements and again, really, really happy with the growth we had as a team this year.
Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Fantastic. All right. I know some folks who are listening today are very interested in learning more about love generally, but especially love. Houston, where’s the best place for them to either connect with you or to connect with the team and learn more about the season next season?
Sanja Tomasevic: Yes, I think the best place would go to go to our Instagram. I mean, that’s where all we have amazing posts all the time. Our girls are doing amazing job. Like the awareness and social media is crazy. So it’s LOVBHTX. That’s our name on Instagram. And so also@l.com. You can find a lot of information about league in general. And then our Instagram handle for the league is just at LOVB. Um, you can find a lot of cool videos, a lot of amazing women, a lot of amazing stuff. I mean, of course, Houston women are the best, but you can find information about other teams on that Instagram handle as well.
Trisha Stetzel: Fantastic. Congratulations on your award. And it’s not something to take lightly. Yes, the team did an amazing job, but you’re an amazing coach and you led them to where they landed this year and that’s awesome. So congratulations to you and the team.
Sanja Tomasevic: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Trisha Stetzel: All right. On to. I know that the Houston team has a new owner. Can we talk a little bit about that and then tell us more about where you guys are playing?
Sanja Tomasevic: Yes. So we played this season in a barycenter and epicenter. So we split time based on availability of facilities. Being a new team in the city, you know, you’re fighting a lot of other events and things that are happening around the city. It’s a big city. A lot of things going on in Houston. So, um, this year we split time between Barycenter and Epicenter. I will say that we had a better crowd in the barycenter. I think it was a lot easier to for people to come around. I don’t know if it was just like the following in Cyprus was bigger or whatnot, but that gym was it really like we played in other cities too? That gym was packed, like in Nebraska and Salt Lake City. They have a small gym, so it feels pretty full, but this was just different. The vibe of Houston crowd in that very center is just amazing. I mean, and you know, it was just like you could feel the home court advantage. And I’m like, oh my God, it’s a year or two and we have a home court advantage. It’s pretty cool. Um, so yes, and our new owners, I mean, not new anymore.
Sanja Tomasevic: It’s been announced, I think like in November or December, but McNair family, uh, with Houston Texans. Um, they have been amazing, super supportive. Hannah, Kyle, Mike Tolman, just the whole crew. They have been just, you know, they’re not like taking over the team fully because I don’t know how those contracts work out. It’s way above my pay grade. But I do know that we feel their presence and we feel super supported. And Hannah’s fire for women and for, you know, women in sports. And she’s just like, you know, just kind of what we need, what we want and what we need. And it kind of matches really well with our energy because as a league, we want people to see women as capable and to see us as somebody who can be dominating the sports, entertaining in sports. And you know, why not us? And Hannah is just like the backbone of all of that. She’s like, seriously, why not? You know, so she is leading the way and, you know, just the vibe that she brings around all the time is super cool. And so we’re really excited to see where they take us down the road.
Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I love that. There was one new announcement as well around the new CVO. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?
Sanja Tomasevic: Yeah, I mean, we got a new CVO. Her name is Lisa Walker. Um, I don’t I haven’t met her yet, but I heard great things about her. She’s been instrumental in growing sports in general in college. And she, you know, she has a little bit of a, like a, I would say just maybe she’s biased a little bit towards volleyball because her daughter plays volleyball as well. So that’s what I heard. So we always love that. We know she’s got a she’s got she has to make this work, you know kind of deal. But she, you know, I talked to Mike Tomlin a little bit about her and he spoke amazing things about her. I’m really excited to get to know her and you know, drive this forward with her. You know we need to build the awareness before the next season starts. We need to pack the barycenter or wherever we end up playing next year, but it is going to be instrumental for us to continue to grow as the league. I mean, this year our games were on USA network. Um, and it’s just it’s really cool. Like we made it to like a prime time network. It’s like, whoa, you know, it’s not anymore ESPN plus it’s like, you know, I mean, even though we love to be on ESPN plus too, don’t get me wrong, we’ll get anywhere.
Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Well, and especially for female athletes, oftentimes we, uh, the female, uh, athletic games aren’t always broadcast on the bigger channels or networks. So what a wonderful thing for you guys to be on USA this year. Yeah. Awesome.
Sanja Tomasevic: Really amazing. We got we got quite a bit tonight. The finals are going to be on USA network and it’s like, what is it Thursday, Thursday at 7 p.m. central time. We’re going to watch finals. I mean, it’s just, I don’t know, like we we like the times have shifted in a way that we, we wouldn’t have even imagined ten years ago. And it’s really exciting to be part of it in, in, in a small way, you know, it’s really cool.
Trisha Stetzel: It is. Absolutely. And you’re really part of a growing number of women leading these high level professional sports. What is that responsibility mean to you, Sanja?
Sanja Tomasevic: I mean, it’s a visibility. You know, if you see it, you can be it, you know, and kind of deal like I, I’ve never had a female coach. Um, I don’t think I even had, I think maybe I had one assistant female coach and my whole career. Um, so it’s really cool to. Well, I have, I had one in college and that’s it. You know, in pro volleyball, I’ve never had a female coach. And so we have them more in the United States and college level. And um, we have more of us here and in love. We had 50% of the league was female head coaches. So six teams, three female, three male coaches. Um, in Europe, you don’t see that at all. Like in Europe there are like two head coaches that are females like at the high level. So it’s really unusual. And I just want to be able to show that, you know, I would like volleyball was my first love and it’s volleyball has given me so much in my life. And there comes a time where as a woman, you have to give it up because you want family and you want, I don’t know, like you want stability and whatnot. And I want to show that we can still continue to live our best lives because I feel like as a mom, it’s also my responsibility to show my daughter that you don’t have to like, take a side road and like, do something that you’re not happy about just so you can be a mom. I want her to have a family and live a life that she wants to live, but also be happy. And so we talk about that a lot. Sometimes she’s like, mom, why do we have to move? And I’m like, well, I love this job and I’m going to be happy doing this job.
Sanja Tomasevic: And you’re going to be just fine. You’re going to find friends. And so it was tough at first, but you know just now, now that she has moved twice because of my job, it made me also realize that I’m doing her a huge favor because her eyes are like this. She’s not just, you know, living in this small world. She’s she’s way mature, like way more mature than kids her age. And I think it’s like she says she plays, she, she does theater and Brazilian jiu jitsu. And so like, not too long ago, we were in the bed and she goes, mom, theater is my passion. And I’m like, we’re using the words such as passion. I was like, yes, I’m winning. You know, like, those are the things that I want her to feel that I want to demo that not only to my daughter, but to girls around, to young women volleyball, female volleyball players, to older female volleyball, like female volleyball players in general to be like because a lot of them get to the point where they’re like 33, 35 and they’re like, what am I going to do after this? And they’re scared and they’re ready to retire, but they’re postponing it because they’re afraid what after? And I just want them to see me and be like, all right, I can do that. So that’s, you know, that’s why on the top of the fact that I just love it. I just love my job. I enjoy every day going to like, I’m so sad these days because I don’t have jobs to go to. Like I’m at home and I’m like depressed because I don’t have to run.
Trisha Stetzel: Oh, you’re like, what’s next? What’s next? So that’s, that’s the final question here is what is it’ll be the third season for love, Houston and your second season as the head coach. So what is season three for Love Houston look like?
Sanja Tomasevic: So the cool thing about love is cool. And like for coaches, kind of like a little bit stressful is that we don’t know what the team is going to look like. So we have no like we have no, they don’t ask for any insight who we want to keep, who we don’t want to keep. Again, they want to make the whole league even. So, like they want all the games to be fun and competitive. And um, they talk to players, they talk to agents. And you know, who I get on day one is who I get to train. And I have no doubt that those are going to be amazing volleyball players in general, just because our league is not signing, not good volleyball players. So I’m really excited to see what the mix is going to be like in the gym next year. I did hear some rumors that we’re getting our core back, so I think we’re going to get Jordan Thompson back. We’re going to get Micah Hancock back. So Justine Wong-orantes the one who just had a baby. She’s going to be back in the gym with the baby. So we get like we get the Olympians back and then we’re going to, you know, I think get around them. Um, really good group. I think Amber is coming back and yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see who else they’re going to be able to build around the team. But really exciting, um, to just get back in the gym with them. And it’s, it’s so far away from now. We’re like, this is what April 16th. And I don’t get to be in the gym with them until November. I don’t know, I mean, I just kind of, I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself. Trisha. Check on me, check on me.
Trisha Stetzel: I will, I’m going to check on you. And this is how we’re going to spread the word while you’re bored. We need to band together to go get people excited about the season this winter, right? Uh, yeah, it’s going to be amazing. So how can we do that? How can we get more people in the stadium when it’s time for you guys to play.
Sanja Tomasevic: I mean, they just gotta show up. They got I mean, I think it’s just a lot of people don’t know. It’s kind of like you. They didn’t know. They don’t know. And then when they find out, they’re like, oh my God, I have to put it on my calendar. And so hopefully we’ll have a schedule early enough where people can put it in a calendar on their calendars early enough, so where they can show up and support, um, these unbelievable volleyball players. I mean, I’m telling you, you’re going to leave speechless from the gym when you come and see what these women are capable of doing. It’s really cool. And the best part is for like, it’s entertaining for like for kids and adults. Like it’s not like kids don’t get bored here because it’s a fast paced, paced sport. So there’s something happening all the time. And so, and then after the games, our players stay in the gym until the last person leaves. Like they will sign the autograph, they will take a photo, they will be with. They will talk to every kid in the gym. They’re just truly amazing humans, and they just are better at volleyball than most people. So that’s why they’re at.
Trisha Stetzel: Oh my goodness. All right, you guys, we have a professional women’s volleyball team in Houston. Love Houston. It’s League one volleyball. Please go check it out. Get prepared to show up wherever they happen to be playing this winter. And bring all your friends, for gosh sakes.
Sanja Tomasevic: Yes, please.
Trisha Stetzel: Sanja, thank you so much for spending time with me today. This has been so much fun. I can’t wait to tell everyone that I know. Number one, they need to listen to this conversation that you and I had. But number two, we got to show up for love. Houston.
Sanja Tomasevic: Yes. Awesome. Please guys, come check us out. It’s going to be a fun time, I promise you.
Trisha Stetzel: And Instagram LOVBHTX. You guys go there or you can go to lovb.com to get more information about the bigger league. Thank you again.
Sanja Tomasevic: Thank you so much.
Trisha Stetzel: All right, you guys. That’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that Sanja and I had, please share it with a fellow sports fan, an entrepreneur, a veteran, or someone in Houston that, you know, be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business. Your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve. And go watch some volleyball.
Sanja Tomasevic: Oh, I love that.
