Steve Lamb, who has never been a head coach at the high school level, was hired Tuesday as the girls volleyball coach at Poway High.

Lamb, 37, replaces Lisa Reis, who was unexpectedly fired last month after the Titans went 14-16 last season, her 26th year of coaching at Poway.

Reis' teams won 14 league championships and 11 CIF titles. She's the county's winningest coach in girls volleyball, with a 571-155 record (.787 percentage).

"He's walking into a coaching situation at Poway just like any other year," Poway athletic director Dan Crane said. "He has a lot of credibility in the North County, and we've heard a lot of good things about him from some of our student-athletes.

"He will bring a great attitude … to our group."

Though he was hired too late to see his new team during spring practice, Lamb said he will enter the four-day tryouts that begin Aug. 13 with an open mind.

"I'm going into this thing with blinders on," Lamb said. "We'll just have to evaluate players in the tryouts.

"I don't have knowledge of all the players, so it wouldn't be fair to go into this thing having already made up my mind."

Lamb's coaching career includes four seasons as an assistant at Christian High and three as an assistant at Christian Heritage College.

For the last 10 seasons, he coached at the San Diego Volleyball Club - now called Epic Volleyball Club - in Poway. Lamb is also the director of administration at Epic.

"Poway is one of the premier coaching jobs in the county," Lamb said. "Pressure is what you put on yourself. I'm looking at this as a great opportunity.

"I'd like to continue what's been going on here. They graduate their players, and the girls are active in the community as well. We want to produce good volleyball teams and good people.

"We'll just have to go in and start playing, and that will be the best way to get past everything that's happened here."

Dave Proffitt, a club coach with high school experience, will coach the junior varsity team and assist Lamb with the varsity. Proffitt is an off-campus coach.

Tammy Kotnik, who was the head coach at Rancho Bernardo for four seasons, will coach the freshman team. Kotnik is an assistant principal at Poway.

- Contact staff writer Terry Monahan at (760) 739-6648 or tmonahan@nctimes.com.