An interview with new head volleyball coach Jim McLaughlin

Jim McLaughlin was announced as the new head volleyball coach at Notre Dame last January.  The only coach to win both a men’s and women’s volleyball NCAA title, McLaughlin is also a former women’s volleyball national coach of the year at the University of Washington.

As the head coach for the University of Southern California men’s team, McLaughlin won an NCAA title in 1989-90 and later led the Washington women’s team to the NCAA title in 2005.  He comes to Notre Dame on the heels of 14 successful seasons at Washington featuring four trips to the NCAA national semifinals, one NCAA title, and a 2014 season in which the Huskies set a program record for regular-season wins with a 31-3 record.

The Rover sat down with McLaughlin to discuss his experience as a collegiate volleyball coach, the greatest joys that come with the job, and the unique aspects of Notre Dame that led him to leave a successful program at Washington to lead a Notre Dame team that has struggled mightily in the last few seasons.

McLaughlin’s primary athletic interest was football, but when he sustained a knee injury requiring surgery and rehab, he began to gain interest in volleyball as well.  Growing up in Malibu, California, he spent a good deal of time at the beach, playing beach volleyball and, primarily, surfing.  A friend suggested that McLaughlin try out for the school volleyball team, and he did.  He enjoyed enough success to earn a scholarship offer to play in college, which he accepted.  McLaughlin spent two seasons at Santa Monica Junior College before transferring to UC Santa Barbara, where he was the team’s starting setter for two years, earning honorable mention All-America honors as a senior.

After college, McLaughlin decided to get out of volleyball and chose to enter the film industry.  “The day I got a really good job at a Hollywood sound lab, working on the sound side of motion pictures,” McLaughlin said, he was invited to coach at Pepperdine University.  Despite initial hesitation, McLaughlin gave it a try and enjoyed it.  After his initial meeting with the players and coaches, he thought, “I want to do this.  But even at that time, I didn’t know the level you could impact lives.  I knew volleyball, and I wanted to teach it to other people.  As I got into it, teaching became a part of me, and I really enjoyed it.”  Despite his initial hesitation to play volleyball in the first place, and to enter the coaching profession, McLaughlin said, “I’m thankful every night that this happened.  I look back and it’s a blessing.”

When asked about the greatest joys and challenges of coaching college athletes, McLaughlin said, “If you do this job right, it’s a job of service.  If you really do it right, it’s all about the kids.”  One of the most important aspects of the job is that “It’s not only about a four-year impact.  If you do it right, you’ll impact their lives for 40 or 50 years.  The life lessons you learn in a good environment with good mentors can impact a life at a very high level.”

A reporter once asked McLaughlin what his greatest accomplishments as a coach were; what were his greatest moments?  The reporter wanted to know whether McLaughlin’s best moment was when he won the NCAA title at USC or when he won it at Washington.  McLaughlin reflected that “those were great days, but as a coach, as I’ve matured, I’ve had so many great moments where a former player called me to say, ‘Hey, I just graduated from law school;’ ‘I just became a doctor;’ ‘I just got into medical school;’ ‘I just got married;’ ‘I just had a baby;’ or ‘I just made the USA Olympic Team and will compete in the Olympics.’”  More so than the number in the victories column, McLaughlin said that these moments, “seeing people become what they want to become, is the return on all the hard work, it’s the gratification for all the hard work.  You can’t put it into words.  You can’t.”

Through the long hours preparing, executing, and reviewing practices, to the long road trips, McLaughlin said, “My goals are to be a great husband, a great dad, and a great coach, and that’s it. … The thing that keeps me going is my faith.  And I have to do a better job of that, but that helps me to understand what’s really important.”

Why leave a great program at Washington to take over a struggling one at Notre Dame?

Part of the answer is that this is where McLaughlin and wife started out—McLaughlin as an Irish assistant volleyball coach in 1996, and his wife, Margaret, as a 1993 graduate of the university, former Irish women’s soccer player, and former assistant women’s soccer coach from 1995 to 1996.

Another big part of the answer was simply Notre Dame.  McLaughlin said that this was “the only place I would go.”  He continued, “When I flew here, there was a feeling.  You have to be careful with feelings; they come and go.  When I got to talk to the people who were in charge here, I was impressed.  I have my own core values in life that guide me, and to work in an institution that has the same core values, for me, is powerful.  We’re going to impact some kids for 40, 50 years, but to do it in these conditions, Catholic conditions, it’s hard to put into words, but it was something that I wanted to be a part of.”

The last part of the answer is that McLaughlin believes that Notre Dame can win.  “I’m a professional,” he said.  “I couldn’t come here just because it’s Notre Dame.  I couldn’t just come here because my wife went here.  I’m going to work hard.  I’m going to teach the game at the highest level.  I believe the kids who come here are striving for excellence, academically and athletically.  I believe that we can win.”

As he takes the reigns of a struggling program, McLaughlin is focused on the process.  “We want to move forward every day.  It’s really hard, but if you work hard in the right areas, with your mind and your heart and your body, you’re going to move forward.”  Focusing on the process, on making improvements every day, lays the foundation of a winning program, “and as we improve, the wins are going to come.”  McLaughlin is pleased with the progress he has witnessed so far, but noted that “we have a long way to go.”

“There’s nothing easy about becoming great.  But I think people at Notre Dame want to be great. … If we can stay process-driven, if we can hold course and keep grinding every day, the return will come,” he said.

McLaughlin concluded that, “Representing Notre Dame is an honor wherever I go.  We represent a lot of people; that’s a responsibility for everyone in the program.”

The job carries responsibilities, but also brings opportunities, and McLaughlin is excited to build the best program he can at Notre Dame.  “When you do something significant in life, you find out that it’s not about one person.  It’s about a number of people doing an excellent job, with great energy, and being positive.”

Tim Bradley is a senior studying economics, theology, philosophy, and Constitutional Studies, and living off campus.  Contact him at tbradle5@nd.edu.