This year, volleyball coach Chris Catanach is starting his 30th season as head coach. Catanach has made a huge impact at UT throughout these 30 years. Not only has he constantly put out top notch teams, but he has also lead the volleyball program to 22 Sunshine State Conference (SSC) titles, 28 NCAA Tournament appearances, 15 Elite Eight appearances, four national runner-up finishes and the 2006 NCAA II National Championship. Catanach averages 31.2 victories per season and his winning percentage ranks third among the active NCAA coaches, plus his 906 total career victories rank him second among NCAA active coaches. Catanach has been a huge asset to the Tampa community and his development as a coach is noteworthy.
“I came to Tampa originally as a student from 1980 to 1983,” Catanach said. “I had been a (volleyball) player, not collegiately, and I enjoyed athletics in general and I thought I wanted to be a P.E. teacher. I had the opportunity to be a student assistant and was able to climb up the ranks and eventually an opportunity opened so I jumped at it and the rest is history.”
This opportunity Catanach accepted is what lead him to be a successful coach today, but it was not easy from the beginning.
“When I think back now to how I coached when I first started, obviously I didn’t have a clue. I thought I did but I didn’t,” Catanach said. “My goal has always been to improve a little bit each year. If I stop improving then it’s probably time to retire.”
Catanach has continued to improve year after year, which has been displayed through the success of his teams. This improvement has been achieved through trying new and old things on the court.
“I’ve tried to do a lot of networking, attend clinics, study the game a little bit here and here and try new things,” Catanach said. “I’ve changed a lot of different things that I’ve done in the years so I’m not stuck in the old ways, but some of the things I’ve gone back to and said, ‘okay lets keep doing this.’”
One specific thing that Catanach stresses every year is how the team needs to approach each upcoming game. There is nothing that should factor into how the team thinks about the opposing team.
“With each team we emphasize that we respect (them) and take every opponent like they can beat us,” Catanach said. “It’s critical. We don’t usually get upset and you don’t hear of us getting upset because I really want them to focus on each opponent individually.”
A lot of Catanach’s success also comes from the players he works with. Catanach stresses how lucky they have been with attracting good, strong players, but when recruiting, he looks for more than just athletes.
“They’ve got to be a good athlete, an explosive athlete. Size isn’t number one. If they are a good jumper then size isn’t as important to me,”Catanach said. “I’m also very focused on finding athletes that are good people too. At this level, it is just as important to be a great person as it is a player. We are looking for how they act with their teammates, how they act with their parents, how they act when they lose and win. Pretty much all around good kids.”
After their close opportunity of winning the national championship, Catanach has, for himself and for the team, one specific goal in mind.
“We’ve set a goal that we want to win the national championship. We lost last year in the finals. We had a shot and sometimes the memories dredge up, especially on how close we were and how we didn’t take care of business, and we are hoping to do that this year,” Catanach said. “That is what I’d like to accomplish this year as a coach.”
Even though the team has set a strong goal this season, they still want to make sure they do not only focus on that aspect of the season.
“I’m really working hard at this year and trying to enjoy the process, not being stressed over the wins and losses but enjoy the process of developing this team,” Catanach said. “Too often we get caught up with the ‘got to win’ mentality and we don’t enjoy the progress the kids make and the progress you make and where we started and where we finished. So that is something I also want to focus on and enjoy this season as a coach.”
Paige Shallcross can be reached at paige.shallcross@spartans.ut.edu.