University of Washington Official Athletic Site - Women's Volleyball
COACH JIM MCLAUGHLIN INTERVIEW
On August 1, 2001, Jim McLaughlin became the seventh head coach in Washington volleyball history, following the retirement of Bill Neville, who coached the Huskies for the past decade (1991-2000).
McLaughlin, fresh off a highly successful four-year tenure at Kansas State, brought 11 years of head coaching experience with him to the Seattle campus. In his first season at the UW, McLaughlin helped the Huskies to the program's best record since 1997, laying the groundwork for the journey back to the NCAA tournament and the national limelight.
Q: Coach you talk alot about living the "Husky Experience" what do you mean?
A: We talk daily about living the "Husky Experience". When a student-athlete makes the commitment to attend and graduate from the UW, it's probably the best decision of her life. Besides playing volleyball in the best facility in the PAC-10, she's attending one of the highest rated universities in the world.
We have three goals for the Husky volleyball experience. The first is that we'll win a national championship in the foreseeable future. The next is that based on our unique training system of setting, measuring, monitoring and raising daily goals, we'll build a program that competes annually for both the PAC 10 and National Championship. And the third goal is that lessons in life our athletes gain from being in the program and earning a degree, will be the foundation for a lifetime of success.
That's how I define the "Husky Experience." Living the "Husky Experience" is the opportunity of a life time.
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"You can take better care of your athletes if you coach women. Women can do what men do; we're teaching movements and mechanics. We're just trying to give athletes the opportunity to respond."
--Coach Jim McLaughlin
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Q: What is your coaching philosophy?
A: My philosophy consists of seven different tenets: improvement, proper environment, relationships, organization, training methods, team character and faith in myself.
Of the seven, one of the most important is improvement. My goal is to have all of my players improve on a daily basis. When you are improving, you feel good about yourself. At some point, you feel so good that you don't look sideways - you don't compare yourself to other players or programs. You do the things you do well and you look forward to competition. Improvement is critical.
Q: What do you look for in a potential recruit?
A: First you look for ability. You have to have some athletic ability and you have to have gifts, and then it's a matter of what you do with those gifts that is important.
I also look for competitive greatness. Kids that want to become as good as they are capable of becoming and want to climb this mountain and get to the top of it. The third thing I look at is character. You're going to win more matches and improve more with good people.
Q: What is your stance on scheduling?
A: We're going to develop a preseason schedule that will help prepare us and meet the standards of PAC-10 play. I like to schedule teams who attack well from the left side, teams that run a fast offense and teams who are strong defensively. Then we can start putting all the little things together, but first we need significant tests along the way to measure where we're at and where we can go.
The second phase of our season is PAC-10 play. If we take care of business in the PAC-10, improve, do a good job and have a winning record, we are going to prepare ourselves for making a run in the NCAA tournament.
Q: What is the difference between volleyball in the PAC-10 and in the Big 12 Conference?
A: I look at it two different ways. If you look at the top 10 teams in the country, there are more teams from the PAC-10 represented. Then you look top to bottom - the PAC-10 is the strongest conference in the country. Every night you have to be well prepared or you are going to have problems.
Looking at the standards of the game, I've measured and studied the Big 12, and I'm in the process of studying the PAC-10, but it looks like the PAC-10 has a little higher standard offensively and defensively.
Q: What are some of your goals for the volleyball program at UW?
A: My three goals are to graduate every player, win the PAC-10 (if we do that we are in striking distance of winning the national title) and develop players for the USA national team.
I believe that we can have a top 10 team at the University of Washington. We have the resources, the facilities and the academic reputation. We just have to put the things in place that need to be in place to develop a volleyball team.
Q: What will be the impact of the new libero position?
A: The new position could be one of the most important, if not the most important position on the floor. It's going to help not only the University of Washington, but it's also going to help a lot of teams play at a higher level, more so offensively, but also defensively. How we're going to use the libero at this point in time, we're not sure. As the identity of this team develops, we can answer those questions better.
Specifically, where we're going to use people (in the rotation), we won't know until the end of August. What I do know at this point is that the libero position will be a key component in our success.
Coach Jim McLaughlin
in the Seattle Times
November 7, 2002
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