Athletics’ Mr. 49er

The Long Beach State athletic department has seen plenty of changes since 1985.

Three sports — swimming and diving, men’s tennis and football — have been cut and 49 different head coaches have been hired. The baseball team changed its name from the 49ers to the Dirtbags.

Yet, women’s volleyball head coach Brian Gimmillaro has been the one constant.

The 2009 season is the 25th year at the helm for Gimmillaro, who is only matched by former track coach Jack Rose — the man who the on-campus track is named after — for the longest tenure in LBSU history with one team.

But time isn’t on the 61-year-old’s mind.

“The only reason you think about it is because people bring it up,” Gimmillaro said.

He credited the school itself and the city’s community for influencing his decision to not chase more lucrative offers at other universities.

“It’s one of the ideal overall settings in the country,” said Gimmillaro, who graduated from LBSU in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. “Who has this location, attractiveness, academic success and community environment?”

LBSU President F. King Alexander calls him “one of the main pioneers” for women’s volleyball in the nation.

“We’re fortunate because he could have gone anywhere he wants to in the United States at any point,” Alexander said.

The legacy
Gimmillaro’s résumé and the 49ers’ accomplishments under his watch read like a separate volume for a volleyball encyclopedia.

On the national level, Gimmillaro’s teams are responsible for three of the four NCAA championships (1989, 1993, 1998) in LBSU history — including the first-ever national title. His 1998 team completed the first-ever undefeated season in NCAA Division I volleyball history.

LBSU has been selected to 23 NCAA Tournaments, including 22 consecutive trips, and the team has won at least 20 matches in 19 of the past 20 seasons.

“Brian is Long Beach State volleyball,” said former longtime assistant Debbie Green, who spent 23 years on the bench before stepping down after last season. “He’s responsible for building this program. … This is where his heart is.”

As for Gimmillaro’s No. 1 achievement at LBSU, the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Famer said without hesitation it was bringing home the school’s first NCAA title.

“I was told up until the title game — from people at the school, the public, fellow colleagues, unanimously — that we would not win,” the three-time National Coach of the Year recalled. “Until then, it was ‘they’ — Long Beach State — never could win, but I thought ‘we’ could.

“If given the chance, you could compare our reputation to anyone.”

The success of his program will forever be recognized with every glance up at the Walter Pyramid rafters. Four of the 12 retired jerseys — Danielle Scott-Arruda (No. 2), Misty May-Treanor (No. 5), Antoinette White (No. 7) and Tara Cross-Battle (No. 14) — belong to players coached by Gimmillaro.

“Obviously, he’s built a great tradition here,” said first-year assistant coach Erika Chidester, who played for the 49ers from 2001-05 including one of Gimmillaro’s eight Final Four teams.

Gimmillaro, who owns a 668-159 (.808) coaching record, is just one of 13 active coaches with at least 650 victories and entered the season ranked 20th on the all-time NCAA Division I coaches wins list.

In April, Gimmillaro signed a new seven-year contract but Alexander hinted it’s more like a lifetime contract.

“We gave him a contract that basically says, ‘You’re here with us as long as you want to be here with us,’ which is kind of a career award,” Alexander said. “He’s our Joe Paterno,” referring to Penn State’s 82-year-old football coach of the past 43 seasons.

Many of his players continue to pursue volleyball professionally, while others show up throughout the course of the season to assist in practices.

“All of his players come back,” Chidester said. “They pursue volleyball as a career, if not as a coach. He makes you love the game.”

The stories
Chidester has been in charge of contacting former players for LBSU’s alumni game on Friday.

In messages to former players, who she finds through LBSU’s alumni Facebook page, Chidester said she usually types something along the lines of: “I’ve heard a million stories about you.”

“[Gimmillaro] has a story about every player who’s been through this program,” Chidester said.

Meetings with Gimmillaro are rarely short and always due to stray off topic — but not without a story.

What might start out as an ordinary run-in can develop into anything ranging from analogies to past matches, other sports or even “the history of apples,” middle blocker Naomi Washington recalled.

“He’s one of the funniest guys I know. He knows so much about things,” Washington said.

Gimmillaro credited it to his tenure.

“I think it’s just the experience,” he said. “Each young person that you come across paths with has something in particular to offer [and] out of that comes unique stories.”

Right on cue, Gimmillaro was reminded of a story at the beginning of practice, when an ex-player contacted the team. He even gave the story a name: “The Miracle of Santa Barbara.”

Four players who had experience at the setter position on his 1996 team all went down with injuries, including May-Treanor, and her back-up was at home.

“Just think who would be playing quarterback at USC,” Gimmillaro said, alluding to yet another analogy.

He recalled a timeout, looking around the bench for a replacement, and simply asked, “Has anybody ever set?”

“And this girl raised her hand — a back row player — and said ‘I went to your setters camp,'” Gimmillaro said laughing.

The player was 5-foot-7 junior defensive specialist Shawnee Hayes — who “didn’t know where to go” but found a rhythm, “was cocky and throwing it around” — and led the 49ers to victory.

According to a Los Angeles Times story published Nov. 6, 1996: Hayes was selected Big West Player of the Week after recording 10 digs, 21 assists and two aces at Cal Poly, and finishing with 12 digs, 61 assists — third-highest in an LBSU match that season — and three kills against No. 18 UC Santa Barbara in five sets to remain undefeated that season.

“She never asked to set a ball, she never set another ball, we never talked about it [again],” Gimmillaro said. “That was truly a miracle.”

The coach
Gimmillaro doesn’t exactly possess the Zen-like personality of Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson, and certainly isn’t one to just sit and watch.

The fiery demeanor is carried on to the court by his players — past or present — and that isn’t restricted to just game day.

White and May-Treanor were in attendance Sept. 4 to watch the current ‘Niners, and both remembered how Gimmillaro’s “practic
es were tougher than the actual games.”

“The games were easy,” two-time Olympic gold medalist May-Treanor said.

Washington said she can “see why he demands so much from us.”

“He wants you to be focused both mentally and physically,” the fifth-year senior said.

Once the lights go on, Gimmillaro’s animated expressions on the sideline ride on each kill, each mistake. Against then-No. 2-ranked Texas earlier in the season, he was at his best; screaming, jumping out of his shoes, high-fiving his players coming off the floor after timeouts and enjoying the success of a 2-0 lead.

“Why tell [the players] to fight if you’re not going to fight?” Gimmillaro said.

But he also was quick to openly groan, look back at his bench dumbfounded and publicly coach players who made errors in judgment, were out of position or not quick enough to the net.

The 49ers lost to the Longhorns that night in five heartbreaking sets, but that didn’t stop Gimmillaro from finding his smile as quickly as the postgame interview session.

It’s that ability to flip the switch, Washington said, that separates Gimmillaro’s coaching “alter ego” from the person.

Green agreed, adding with a laugh, “Brian the person is much mellower. Brian the coach is very intense … very competitive, wants to win every point.”

The person
Washington reminisced about her days as a redshirt-freshman transfer from New Orleans who couldn’t get in touch with her family for a month and a half after Hurricane Katrina.

But there was Gimmillaro, who she said is always willing to help with a player’s “life situation.”

“He’s really one of the nicest guys,” Washington said. “He even invites players over for Thanksgiving.”

Gimmillaro prides himself on being a family man, which is a reason he’s never coached an Olympic team despite once applying for the opportunity.

With his wife, Dania, and two children — 20-year-old son Stefan, who is a junior at MIT, and soon-to-be 18-year-old daughter Lauren, a senior at Long Beach Poly High School — he said the option of moving his family “just wasn’t for me.”

“I’m lucky to have a profession that makes me a better family man,” Gimmillaro said, adding that he tries to relate to his players like he would his children.

“I think I know what music each player likes,” he added before smiling.

And it’s his players that he finds most rewarding about his job.

“That’s simple. To watch young people grow and see them mature,” Gimmillaro said.

While Gimmillaro has earned every accolade on the NCAA level, he isn’t ready to call it a career, just yet, and hopes “other moments are still to come.”

“I don’t have any idea,” Gimmillaro said about retirement, adding that becoming an administrator is not in his plans. “But I do like the idea that no matter your age, you’re on your way to do the next job.”

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