After a long and successful career as the head coach of the Irvine Valley College's men's and women's indoor volleyball, as well as the women's beach volleyball team, Tom Pestolesi will be in his third season with the Cerritos College volleyball coaching staff in an assistant coaching role. The father of Falcons head coach Kari Hemmerling, Pestolesi has retired from both teaching and women's indoor volleyball with the Lasers in 2020, while his final season with the men's indoor team was in 2018.

Pestolesi, who has captured two state titles with the women's indoor team and three with the men's indoor team, will continue as the head coach of the Lasers women's beach squad in the  spring. His squad captured the inaugural California Community College Athletic Association state title in beach in 2015. He is the only coach in California Community College state history to win a state championship in men's indoor, women's indoor and women's beach volleyball and has more than 500 wins combined for men's and women's indoor volleyball at Irvine Valley.

Pestolesi guided the women's volleyball team for 21 seasons and had an amazing overall record of 377-105.

The Irvine Valley women's program has had its best stretch over his final three years (2017-19) under his guidance. The team went 75-3 over that span, won three straight Orange Empire Conference titles and made three trips to the CCCAA State Championships. The 2017 team won the program's second state championship, finishing with a perfect record of 27-0. The squad lost just eight sets all season. And in Pestolesi's final season with the women's indoor program in 2019, the Lasers went 27-1 with the only loss coming in five sets in the state championship match. Irvine Valley won its other state title in 2014 with another perfect mark of 27-0. The squad dropped just seven sets all season and just five total to community college opponents.

Pestolesi has been named the Orange Empire Conference coach of the year eight times and the conference's overall women's sport coach of the year twice. He was also chosen as the regional coach of the year for community colleges by the AVCA in 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2019.

He started the men's volleyball program at Irvine Valley in 1991 and was hired full-time in 1998 to coach both the women's and men's volleyball teams. He has led the men's program to state titles in 1993, 2007 and 2008 and the women's team to state championship appearances five times. The women's team finished second in the state in 2003, third in the state in 2009 and also third in the state in 2013. The 2013 team finished with a record of 24-2 overall after opeing the season by winning their first 24 matches of the season. The Lasers also won their fourth Orange Empire Conference title in program history in 2013.

Pestolesi was the head coach of the men's program at Irvine Valley for 17 seasons and finished with a career record of 194-105. His final season on the men's side was in 2018. Pestolesi led the program to state titles in 1993, 2007 and 2008. He was honored by being named to the California Community College Men's Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in the spring of 2016.

The women's beach volleyball program has been a success under Pestolesi from the very start at Irvine Valley. The Lasers started playing as a club program in "sand volleyball" in 2012, taking on four-year schools. And in the spring of 2015 when beach volleyball became an official CCCAA sport, IVC captured the inaugural championship and all three pairs titles on its home courts. Irvine Valley reached the state championship in both 2018 and 2019, finishing tied for third in 2019.

But he has done just as much off the court in leadership and with student-athlete success at Irvine Valley.

Pestolesi's women's teams have compiled a cumulative grade point average above 3.00 in 20 of the last 21 semesters and have been named IVC Scholar-Team of the Year six times. His men's teams achieved the 3.0 mark 12 times in 17 terms through 2018. He has also had four student-athletes named the Orange Empire Conference Character Champion, the most of any coach, at any college in the OEC. He is the founder and driving force behind the CCCAA Beach Volleyball Championships. Pestolesi has served in leadership positions in both the Men's and Women's volleyball coaches association and was the Founder of the men's association and President and Treasurer for the first 26 years of its existence.

And Pestolesi is a staunch supporter of professional development. He is regularly the lead technician at coaching clinics, and has created and led the only Beach Volleyball Summits and Clinics in CCC history in 2012 and 2016. Pestolesi has also been a liaison with Kathy DeBoer and the AVCA on all issues related to beach volleyball in the CCCAA.

Pestolesi, who plans on continuing to be a volunteer assistant with the IVC women's indoor team, began his volleyball career at Huntington Beach High School, graduating in 1978. He then attending Long Beach State, majoring in Physical Education and competing in volleyball. He transferred to the University of Hawaii and earned his degree in Physical Education in 1983. Pestolesi  was a 3rd Team AVCA All-American in 1983 and two-time 2nd Team All-California Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (CIVA) in volleyball at Hawaii in 1982 and 1983. He earned his Master's Degree from Long Beach State in 1989.

Pestolesi coached girls and boys volleyball for 15 years at the high school level at Estancia High and then Newport Harbor High before starting the men's volleyball program at Irvine Valley in 1991. He was hired full-time at IVC in 1998 to coach both the women's and men's volleyball teams.

Pestolesi has also coached professionally on the four-player pro beach tour where he coached players such as Kim Oden, Stephanie Cox, Joy Makenzie, Antonette White, Janet Cobbs and Wendy Stammer. He has worked with the women's national team as the squad's Head Resident Coach and was part of the Pan American Games Staff for the United States in 2015 that won a gold medal.

Pestolesi is married to the former Diane Sebastian, who was a three-time All-American for the Rainbow Wahine volleyball program and they have three children; Tommy, Kari and Danny. Tommy was a star player at Long Beach State and played overseas and Kari was an All-American player at UC Irvine.