Bechard celebrates 900th career victory

Photo by Ryan Waggoner

By Zach Getz

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

It took five tries, but the Kansas volleyball team was finally able to give coach Ray Bechard his 900th victory, breaking a four-game losing streak with a win against Kansas State this weekend.

“I know we kind of kept putting it off a couple of matches,” sophomore outside hitter Allison Mayfield said. “I think being the K-State match up makes it even more special for him.”

In 25 seasons of coaching, Bechard has accumulated a 900-228 record, which includes a 184-168 record during his 11 years coaching at Kansas.

“It just shows how much dedication he has shown to the sport,” Mayfield said. “Getting 900 wins is kind of unfathomable.”

Sophomore setter Nicole Tate said it was exciting to be part of such an important game.

“It’s such a great achievement for him,” Tate said. “And to be on the team that gave him that 900th win is an amazing feeling.”

Bechard was modest after the game. He was more proud of the team stepping up and beating a good Kansas State team on the road than earning his 900th victory.

“900 is good, and that was nice, but to get a road win in this league against a good team 3-0 is what we are concentrating on right now,” Bechard said. “Today it should be about our team playing extremely well on the road and doing a lot of things we feel we are capable of doing.”

Bechard got his start in coaching when he took a job at Lewis High School in Lewis, a town of fewer than 500 people in southwest Kansas in 1980. The job was supposed to entail being the boy’s basketball coach, driver’s education teacher and elementary physical education teacher.

“I think it was May or June before I was supposed to start in August, and the superintendent called and said, ‘Hey we really need a volleyball coach,’” Bechard said. “I said that’s unfortunate because that’s not me. He called me a week later and said ‘Guess what, you’re our new volleyball coach.’”

Bechard took the challenge and was the Lewis High School boys basketball coach and volleyball coach for three years. Bechard said it wasn’t an easy start, since his only previous experience in volleyball had been watching a few high school matches.

“Early on it was a lot of trial by fire, and sometimes that’s not always bad,” Bechard said.

Though Bechard said his original dream was to coach basketball, after a few years, volleyball really began to intrigue him.

“Boy’s high school basketball coach I thought would be a great job,” Bechard said. “Then I played at a community college. I thought that would be a neat place to go and coach. So I did coach basketball, and that was a really big deal, but the volleyball thing began to grow on me a bit and grabbed my attention to the point that I enjoyed it.”

After his three years at Lewis High School, Bechard was hired at Barton Community College as the assistant women’s basketball coach. After two years of being the assistant women’s basketball coach, the head coach for the volleyball team left.

Bechard took the volleyball coaching position on a trial basis. Eventually Bechard had a chance to have a more full time position on the basketball side, but by that time Bechard decided that volleyball was what he really wanted to do.

Bechard spent 13 years at Barton Community College and posted a 716-60 record. His team also placed in the top five of the NJCAA Volleyball Tournament 12 of his years coaching.

After his successful run at Barton, Bechard started interviewing at a few different schools, but he said he wanted to be the coach at Kansas.

“I was a big Jayhawk fan growing up and always thought this would be a great place,” Bechard said. “This was my dream job. I was offered the job on a Wednesday and got here on the following Monday.”

Bechard inherited a program that was coming off a 9-24 season in 1997 and had not seen a winning season in five years.

“I knew it was going to be a tall task and that there was a lot of work to do,” Bechard said. “It’s been a lot of work in a great league.”

Bechard helped get Kansas back on track and took it to three straight NCAA Volleyball Tournaments from 2003 to 2005, its first-ever NCAA Volleyball Tournaments.

Bechard said he still enjoys coaching and hopes to be able to coach for many years to come.

“I feel blessed everyday to come to work here,” Bechard said.

— Edited by Abby Olcese

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