Angelos Mandilaris Leaves Incredible Legacy at Barton
This is the continuation of a series of Body, Mind & Soul stories that highlights member student-athletes, coaches and administrators of Conference Carolinas.
WILSON, N.C. - When you grow up on a Greek island that was first mentioned in the Iliad in 8th Century B.C. and played a role in the Trojan War, ancient history becomes part of your DNA.
Take Angelos Mandilaris for instance. Knowing that such mythical superheroes as Hercules, Odysseus and Thor once roamed in your backyard, it’s no wonder that Angelos coveted thoughts of grandeur when he began playing volleyball as a youngster.
“There are ruins everywhere,” said Angelos. “You couldn’t help but be aware of the history. We’re very proud of our past. I knew all the stories about their super-human powers. As a kid, it was easy to play make believe.”
Born in Athens, Angelos moved with his family to the small village of Chalkida on the nearby island of Euboea at the age of eight.
“My dad wanted us to get away from city life and grow up in a small town,” said Mandilaris, who was recently voted to the AVCA All-America second team on the Division I-II Volleyball selections as Barton College’s right-side hitter. “Our town has about 3,000 people. When I moved there, I was also known as ‘the city kid from Athens!’”
He would return to Athens often, however, to play club volleyball and also visit his grandfather, uncles and cousins who lived in Greece’s capital city.
Angelos was born to parents who always supported and encouraged his dreams. His father, Costas, is a dentist and his mother, Fotini, an elementary school teacher.
“My dad took me to a few professional volleyball games,” he recalled. “Even though I was only six years old, he also took me to the Greece-USA match at the 2004 Athens Olympics. It was held at the 17,000-seat Peace and Friendship Stadium. I was just in awe.”
It inspired Mandilaris to pursue the sport, with fantasy visions of someday representing the Greek Olympic Team.
“I think it’s every kid’s dream to play in the Olympics,” Angelos said. “I know that’s not an easy goal, but I can still dream.”
In pursuit of an elite education and volleyball development as a teenager, Angelos left home for high school studies at Leaf Academy in Bournemouth, a coastal resort town on the south coast of England.
“It was a nice place,” he said. “I always wanted to study abroad. In the back of my mind, I always hoped to earn an academic or athletic scholarship to attend college in the United States. Leaf Academy allowed me to improve my English, too.”
While his Olympic dream may still be in the works, Mandilaris certainly opened some eyes with his sterling career at Barton, a small Christian college with a 1,200 enrollment in Wilson, N.C.
“When we recruited Angelos, we knew he had the athleticism and size that would give him an opportunity to be successful,” said Barton volleyball coach Jeffrey Lennox, who has steered the Bulldogs to a 38-7 combined record over the past two seasons. “He’s such a physical player. But I think the key to his success is he’s always been willing to be coached.”
A three-time Conference Carolinas Offensive Player of the Year (2018-20), the Bulldog star ranked third in the country in kills per game this year (4.43) and his .412 hitting percentage ranked in the top 15 nationally.
With Barton carving out a 13-2 overall record and unblemished 8-0 mark in conference play during the abbreviated 2020 campaign, Mandilaris finished with a team-high 217 kills and leaves Barton as the program's all-time leader in kills with 1,360.
The Greece native propelled the Bulldogs to three Conference Carolinas regular season championships, two league tournament titles and subsequent berths in the NCAA Division I-II Tournament.
Angelos was on Coach Lennox’s radar early, thanks to older brother Vasilis, who enrolled at Barton in 2015 and earned Honorable Mention All-America honors on the Bulldogs’ men’s volleyball squad. It helped pave the way for Angelos to join him at Barton in 2016.
“It would have been much harder for me to make the decision for college without him,” Angelos admits. “He played a major role because he had already experienced and liked Barton, and I trusted his opinion.”
Representing their native Greece, the two brothers played together on Barton’s volleyball team for three years.
For Angelos Mandilaris, dedication and hard work is not a sometime thing. It’s an everyday thing.
“Every day, he comes to practice wanting to get better,” Lennox said. “All the great players have that quality. I was also impressed how he was always prepared with his body and mind when he came to practice so he would be totally focused on volleyball.”
That preparation has also served Angelos well in the classroom. He graduated this spring with a mathematics degree and a career 3.82 grade-point average. He was a regular member of the Barton honor roll.
“It was just how I was raised,” he said. “My parents always told me to take care of my business and do my best. I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to play good volleyball and earn good grades at Barton. I very much enjoyed my experience here.”
He admitted, however, that he does get homesick occasionally.
“I miss the food, especially the gyros! They’re much better in Greece than here in the U.S. Lately, I’ve been trying to cook some Greek recipes at our house.”
Lennox said that Angelos is quite popular with all his teammates.
“In his own way, Angelos is a really funny guy,” the coach said. “He has a sarcastic sense of humor.”
Lennox recalls the time that Barton was playing Brigham Young University in the NCAA Tournament on the Ohio State campus. In an elimination match, Angelos served a ball into the bottom of the net.
“He looked at one of our guys and asked him, ‘Pretty good serve, huh?’ Then he smiled and asked him, ‘You want me to serve it like that again?’ He just has a knack to break the tension when we’re in a very competitive situation.”
Mandilaris marvels on how his teammates have made him feel so welcome.
“They’ve all been great. They tease me sometimes but they’re also sensitive that I’m Greek and living in a strange land. When they read about Greece’s financial problems, they asked if my family was okay. That meant a lot to me.”
Lennox predicts that Mandilaris eventually will play international volleyball professionally, making a nice living wage. It certainly remains a lifelong goal for the gifted outside hitter.
“I definitely want to play professionally,” he smiles. “It would be an honor to play for a club in my home country, but I’m open to playing anywhere. I think spending time here in the U.S. has opened my eyes. To live and play in a new place and explore a new culture would be fun, too."
But first, Angelos faces another challenge. Earning his degree this spring, he plans to pursue a Master’s Degree in the fall. Since the 2020 volleyball season was not completed due to COVID-19, Angelos has one year of playing eligibility remaining.
He hopes to transfer to a university with an advanced math program where he can also play one final college season of volleyball.
“I have a school in mind but I’m waiting to hear if my application is accepted,” he says.
With a 3.82 GPA and All-American volleyball credentials, he shouldn’t have to wait long for that outcome. After all, what school wouldn’t want a true scholar-athlete with ancient roots from a country that has spawned such mythical figures like Hercules and Odysseus that also just happens to have a superpower of his own on the volleyball court?
Bob Rose is a longtime sports public relations executive who has worked for the San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, the NFL Cardinals, Cal, Stanford and other organizations.
