The Comeback ‘Cats
I had the unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to coach NCAA Division 1 volleyball in the storied Big Ten Conference. But there was a catch: the team I was inheriting was the "Bad News Bears" of the league.
Once a top-20 program in the '80s, Northwestern Volleyball had grown accustomed to finishing at the bottom of the league throughout the '90s. I was determined to change that in the 2000s.
A Cinderella Story — in Steps
It's one thing to tell athletes you believe they can win. It's another when they believe it by actually winning.
In my first season, we won just six matches — but two were significant. We opened Big Ten play by hosting defending national champion and #3 Penn State, and pulled off a huge upset: the program's first-ever win over a top-five opponent. Big step forward.
Our chariot turned swiftly back into a pumpkin, though — we didn't win again until the season's final match. But it counted: a five-set thriller over in-state rival and Big Ten power Illinois. Not as headline-grabbing as Penn State, but ending on a win was another critical step in shifting the mindset and setting a new standard.
The Right Stuff
A major obstacle to rebuilding was scholarship scarcity — like joining a company on a hiring freeze: you want great new talent, but the headcount isn't there. The other hurdle was recruiting top talent to a program with years of losing records. We didn't have a great on-court product to sell.
But we had compelling differentiators other programs couldn't match: excellent academics (top-10 ranked), a great location (Chicago), and the sport's premier conference (the Big Ten). So I built a recruiting narrative around those differentiators, targeting the athlete profile — a persona, in marketing speak — most likely to respond to that pitch.
And it worked. We signed two consecutive top-15 recruiting classes, including four high school All-Americans and a National Player of the Year. Constraints be damned!
Coaching All-Big Ten performer Christie Gardner. A rare moment when she was listening to me :)
Dancing Shoes
In 2002 — just two years into the rebuild — we earned the program's first NCAA postseason bid in almost two decades. We fell to Missouri in the first round, but we were now a competitive program, finishing in the upper half of the Big Ten for the first time since winning the conference in 1984. The next season, we made the tournament again — proof we weren't a one-hit wonder.
But despite the turnaround, I was ready to move on. I said farewell to coaching, grateful for the rare opportunity — and for the athletes who believed in the vision and helped achieve what many thought was impossible.
We were one of 64 teams selected to the NCAA tournament in my final two seasons. Before that, Northwestern had not made the postseason in 1984.