If you don’t know the name Karch Kiraly, shame on you. He’s one of the most successful volleyball players to have ever lived.
I’m a couple of days late on this news, and shame on me for that, but Kiraly was announced this week as the new head coach for the USA women’s national team. He replaces Hugh McCutcheon, who made no secret that he was taking the job only for the 2012 Olympic cycle. Kiraly will remain in the position through at the least the 2016 Rio Olympics.
I actually wasn’t aware of this during the London Olympics earlier this summer, but Kiraly actually served as an assistant coach under McCutcheon. This is his only previous coaching experience, but he brings an amazing resume to the table.
Playing NCAA volleyball from 1979 through ’82, Kiraly won three men’s volleyball national championships at UCLA during his four years there, including an undefeated season in his freshman year of 1979. A true once-in-a-lifetime talent (and even now at 51, he’s still spry enough for full-speed practices with the team), Kiraly’s Bruins amassed a jaw-dropping 129-5 won-loss record during his time there.
He joined the USA national team in 1981. A thunderous outside hitter, it was behind his leadership (he was designated the team captain) that the team won Olympic gold in Los Angeles in 1984 and in Seoul in 1988. He quit the national team after 1988 and took up the burgeoning sport of beach volleyball. He won an amazing 148 AVP tour titles. And then a funny thing happened — it was added to the Olympic program as a full medal sport in 1996. In what was always likely to be his only opportunity (being that he was 36 at the time), Kiraly won the inaugural Olympic gold in Atlanta with partner Kent Steffes. He remains the only person to win an Olympic medal (of any color, it just so happens they’re all gold in Kiraly’s case) in both indoor and beach volleyball and one of only a few to have even played both forms at the Olympic level.
Kiraly retired from competition altogether in 2007 (and if you’re keeping score at home, that would have made him 4o-freaking-6 at the time) and was part of the broadcast team for the Beijing Olympics. This is actually where I last remember seeing (hearing?) him. He was an excellent broadcaster (makes sense, since he knows the game so incredibly well). One of his nicknames in his playing days was “Karch the Computer” because he analyzed every inch of the game with such exacting perfection to find winning strategies. What better trait for a coach!
Obviously it’s the players who win matches, and he does have some mighty big shoes to fill taking over for Hugh McCutcheon, but I can’t think of anyone better suited for the job. If anyone’s gonna be the guiding force to getting the team over that silver medal hump they’ve been stuck at for the last two Olympiads, Coach Karch is that man. And he’ll command respect easily from even the most hardened veterans on the team. Which reminds me….
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