New volleyball coaches carefully plot path for area teams to improve

It’s maybe a foot or so by tape measure, but one of the biggest moves in the volleyball coaching profession is sliding over one seat from assistant to head coach on the bench.

It’s a significant career accomplishment that also comes with additional pressure, responsibilities and occasional restless nights.

“I do not,” responded new Eastern Washington coach Jon Haruguchi, asked if he sleeps as soundly compared to when he was an assistant. “I was up at 5 a.m. (Wednesday) and my head was already going, but it’s what I wanted. It’s what I really wanted to do with my life and I’m fortunate to have this opportunity.”

Haruguchi joins Idaho’s Chris Gonzalez and Gonzaga’s Katie Wilson as first-time collegiate head coaches calling the shots at area Division I teams preparing for season openers Friday. They come from different coaching backgrounds, but their goal is the same: Charting a path to sustainable success for three programs at different stages in the rebuilding process.

Idaho won just two Big Sky Conference matches in Debbie Buchanan’s final season before she announced her retirement. Gonzaga, 9-20 last year, is picked eighth in the West Coast Conference preseason poll with no Zags on the All-WCC team. EWU was 11-14 last season and lost in the opening round of the Big Sky Tournament.

The three coaches’ emphasis in practice provides an indication of what’s important to them and their programs.

“We’ve invested a lot of time in serve and pass,” said Martin, who spent seven seasons assisting at Notre Dame before arriving at GU. “If we win those battles, we know we’re going to win a lot of matches.”

Gonzaga’s initial workouts were dedicated to fundamentals, which Martin labeled the foundation of the program.

“The magic isn’t in the drill,” she said. “It’s in the teaching that happens within the drill.”

Gonzalez has extensive experience in the U.S. and internationally, most recently assisting a Japanese professional team that often played in front of 15,000 fans. He’s put a premium on every player being able to “handle a second ball competently, especially our nonsetters.”

Gonzalez has a specific style of play in mind, developed from two decades coaching college and pro.

“I’m trying to blend Japanese speed and precision with the power of European (volleyball),” he said. “My job (in nonconference play) is to find out what they’re capable of and balance it with what I like to do.”

EWU’s Haruguchi has stressed “excellent attitude and effort.” He was specific setting up the team’s first drill at their first practice. It’s called “don’t drop the baby” – a two-on-two drill with one player on each side of the net holding a ball (the baby) while another ball is going back and forth over the net.

“So you have to pass the (baby) ball before you can pass the (live) ball,” said Haruguchi, previously an assistant at Northern Colorado. “It’s a fun drill, but it serves a purpose. You can laugh at one another and yourself. We always need to have an enjoyment level at practice, and you really have to communicate and keep your vision broad because each side is going to put the ball where it causes the most problems.”

Gonzalez said delegating duties to his assistants might have been an issue when he was younger, but not at this point in his career.

“The first people I called (after getting the job was new assistants Bryan Bastuba and Kalisha Goree),” he said. “I knew their character and work habits. I have full trust and confidence in them.”

Wilson and Haruguchi have leaned on coaching mentors. For Wilson, it’s her former boss at Notre Dame, Jim McLaughlin, who led Washington to the 2005 national championship. She was attending McLaughlin’s induction into the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Hall of Fame in December when she was offered the Gonzaga job.

“It was pretty cool to get that call and walk into the ballroom and share the news with Jim and (his wife) Margaret,” Wilson said. “I call Jim quite a bit. He’s a great person to have in your corner. (GU assistant) Kindra Gillen played for him at Washington. I call him for everything from organizing on report day to studying film.”

Haruguchi stays in touch with head coaches at his previous stops and he hired one of his mentors, former longtime Utah State head coach Grayson Dubose.

“Grayson was my mentor through the AVCA three to four years ago,” Haruguchi said. “He’s helped me through a few things. The other day he was thinking we needed to go lighter (at practice) with so much travel (for the opening tournament in Memphis). I was thinking we’ve got to do more. It’s good to have those conversations.”

So what will success look like in Year 1? It probably won’t be as much about wins and losses as establishing program cornerstones.

“The macro goal is to get into the conference tournament (top eight),” Gonzalez said. “The time prior to that is to see formulas that work best for us that we might be able to do once we get into the conference season.”

“Success is improvement,” Wilson said. “We can control if we get a little bit better every day. We’ve got a long way to go, but we’ve had a good preseason.”