ALPINE, Texas (KOSA) - The Sul Ross State volleyball team has a new head coach, but the players and supporters will still be talking to Coach Canaba. That’s because Annika Canaba is taking over from her father, Troy Canaba.

“I think she has a lot of potential and I think she has a lot of– she coaches volleyball really well, she knows the game really well, so I’m excited to see what she can do with the team,” said Troy Canaba, Annika’s father and Sul Ross’s head volleyball coach from 2017 to 2023.

Troy Canaba has led the Sul Ross Volleyball team since 2017. His daughter, Annika, was a player on the team from 2018 to 2022, before helping as an assistant last season.

Annika was a great player for Sul Ross. She is the program’s all-time leader in career kills.

Now two years removed from playing, Annika takes over as her team’s head coach.

“I’m super excited for it. I think that it kind of gives me an advantage here because I did play with a few of them, so I’ve already grown that trust and that relationship with them that maybe some others don’t have. Also, I’ve been in their shoes so I know exactly what it’s like to play here, I know what it’s like to be on this team– a part of this team and just the culture that’s been built here,” said Annika Canaba, the new head volleyball coach at Sul Ross and a player from 2018-2022.

This means the players will still be coached by Coach Canaba.

Annika takes over the program after Sul Ross jumped up to Division II Athletics for this upcoming season. Sul Ross became a Division III school in 1996.

“I definitely think it’s going to be a challenge everybody across the board, but I think it’s a good one and something that we’re all looking forward to. I think that our team is very capable of being successful and it’s just going to be a matter of us taking control and just showing people that we are capable of doing so,” Annika Canaba said.

Annika makes her head coaching debut with the Sul Ross volleyball team on September 12 in a tournament hosted by UTPB in Odessa.