Washington libero Lauren Bays, who will be a junior, digs against Washington State last season/Stephen Burns photo
Even if you’re the head coach of a Division I volleyball program, you find out about conference realignment news the same way as everyone else — through social media.
That’s how veteran Oregon head coach Matt Ulmer and first-year Washington head coach Leslie Gabriel learned that their programs would join the Big Ten next year.
“Twitter is where you learn everything,” Ulmer said. “At least in my experience, you don’t know until it’s done.”
The news for both coaches of the programs leaving the Pac-12 was a surprise that dropped on Friday — just four days before they opened up fall practice. However, they aren’t concerned with all the logistics and details of the move for now.
Gabriel said she was glad to hear the official news from their athletic director and put all the speculation and uncertainty to rest. Since UCLA and USC announced they were leaving for the Big Ten a year ago, rumors flew around about whether the Pac-12 would add new schools or if any current members would also depart.
“For me, once you heard it, it was like, ‘OK, good. This is our direction now,’” she said. “We can put all those questions to rest, and you’re ready for the season.”
Gabriel hasn’t spent much time thinking about the possibilities of what lies ahead because she was busy preparing for the first practices of the fall on Tuesday. She said she looks forward to seeing her former boss, Keegan Cook, who left the Huskies in the offseason to take over at Minnesota.
However, she is disappointed to see the Pac-12 fall apart after all the conference realignment moves. She’s been associated with the league her entire life after growing up outside Seattle. The former Leslie Tuiasosopo also played for the Huskies from 1995-98 and has been on the coaching staff at Washington since 2001.
“I have a lot of pride in our conference and a lot of great memories,” she said. “This is a great conference. I’ve had a lot of great coaches and a lot of great players come through and a lot of great rivalries with different teams. To know that this is the last year for them, I’m very fortunate that we do have it too to compete in and one last time.”
Ulmer said he will miss the relationships he’s formed with the other league personnel during his time at Oregon. He said college athletics won’t be the same after the league with the most overall national championships breaks apart.
“I really enjoy the coaches in our conference. I think they’re wonderful human beings,” he said. “We have made great memories together just as friendships or just competing against each other.”
He said the Oregon student-athletes are looking forward to the challenges because they want to play at the highest level that helps prepare them for the postseason. Ulmer said you don’t take a job like Oregon if you fear competition. He wants to go up against the best players and best coaches, and playing against some of the top programs in the nation more frequently brings out the best in his team.
“If I was just looking for win percentage, then I’m not sure this would be either of the conferences I’d want to be in,” Ulmer said. “If you’re just trying to do everything at the highest level, then how can you not be excited about the prospects of playing more teams like we’ve already been playing and just more frequently?”
Oregon is already quite familiar with the Big Ten teams. Last year, the Ducks faced Minnesota, Penn State and Nebraska. This season, they will play Northwestern, Minnesota and Ohio State during their nonconference slate.
Ulmer grew up in Illinois and attended Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, so he’s certainly familiar with the Big Ten. He looks forward to playing matches in Illinois’s Huff Hall and Purdue’s Holloway Gymnasium for the first time.
What’s more, Ulmer said he’s not intimidated by the potential of increased travel in the Big Ten. With so many unnowns, Oregon will figure out the best way to handle the long road trips as the schedule comes out.
Oregon is already used to long flights with its current schedule. The Ducks play non-conference matches in Hawaii, San Diego, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee this year. He said they might stay closer to home early in the season if they travel more during the conference schedule.
“Overall, I think it won’t be much of a change,” he said.
There will be plenty of time to figure out the schedule and travel for each team in January. For now, both coaches said they are looking forward to one more chance to compete against traditional West Coast rivals for the last Pac-12 title.
“You always want to do well in your conference,” Gabriel said. “But this is it for the Pac-12.
“Let’s go out with a bang.”
