Egyptian Pro Makes Move to Cambridge

Some professional athletes are introduced to the sport they come to love before they can even speak.

But Harvard assistant men's volleyball coach Ahmed Ibrahim does not fall into this category. In fact, his path to Harvard is far from ordinary.

Ibrahim’s journey, which included playing 13 years of professional volleyball in Egypt, did not start until he was in high school.

Having to travel home with a friend who practiced volleyball after school, Ibrahim was forced to stay and watch.

“I was sitting there watching the team practice, and the coach turned around and asked me, ‘What are you doing here?’” Ibrahim said. “I said, ‘Oh, I’m just visiting with my friend who’s right there, and I’m just watching. Is that okay?’ ... And then he starts asking me some personal questions like, ‘Have you played sports before? What height are you?’ Things like that. And he said, ‘Well, jump in.’ And I said, ‘Oh, no, I’m good. Thank you.’ He said, ‘No, jump in.’ He kind of ordered it. I was like ‘Ehh, ok.’ So I put my sneakers on. ... I started from there. I took it day by day.”

Fewer than three years after starting to play volleyball seriously, he earned a spot on the Junior Egyptian National Team as a setter. After a few years, Ibrahim was getting a lot of attention from professional Egyptian club teams.

In 1997, Ibrahim began to play for the Semoha National League team. When he first joined the team, the squad was in the third division, Division C.

But just three years later, Ibrahim helped his team make the move up to Division A.

But his list of accomplishments was hardly complete.

He graduated with honors from Suez Canal University, where he majored in physical education with a specialization in volleyball coaching. Ibrahim graduated top 10 in his field, meriting recognition by Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt at the time.

Ibrahim also decided to transfer to the Sharkia National Team in Cairo in 2001, where he stayed until 2006.

After more than a decade in the sport, Ibrahim decided to settle down. As a newlywed with an American wife, Ibrahim ended his professional volleyball career in Egypt to move across the Atlantic to New Jersey.

For two years, Ibrahim worked at Princeton, coaching the women’s club volleyball team and serving as the director of the development of volleyball skills at the Central New Jersey Volleyball Academy.

The acceptance of his wife into Harvard’s Divinity School finally brought Ibrahim to Cambridge.

“When I came here to the school, of course the first thing I looked for was volleyball,” Ibrahim said.

Through a series of contacts, Ibrahim was able to get in touch with the head men’s volleyball coach, Brain Baise. Baise didn’t have a position available for Ibrahim, but he was more than happy to have Ibrahim attend practices.

Ibrahim only ever expected to play a minor role on the team. But in the fall of 2010, Baise asked Ibrahim to help out with the team as a volunteer coach.

Besides family and volleyball, Ibrahim also works as a Quality Control Supervisor for Securitas.

But more people than just the men’s volleyball team know about Ibrahim. One member of the women’s club volleyball team caught wind of his expertise and asked him to fill in the position as head coach for their team. The former Egyptian pro accepted the offer, seeing it as an opportunity to be around the sport he grew to love.

“[Ibrahim’s] methods are kind of different than other coaches’, but he gets the job done,” sophomore middle Justine Plaut said. “But I think we’ve definitely grown as a team since adding [Ibrahim] to our team. He’s really fun, but if we don’t act a certain way he’ll definitely put us in line.”

Currently, Ibrahim coaches two volleyball teams, works for Securitas, and has a wife and daughter to come home to.

“It is a lot of stress doing everything together at one time,” Ibrahim said. “But when you love something, you find the time to do it.”