Volleyball coach makes grade

It would seem that Washington State University has hired a new volleyball coach who is as deeply committed to academic excellence as he is athletics.

In fact, Brian Heffernan couldn’t make it to his own introduction ceremony on Thursday because he didn’t want to cut one of the classes he is taking at the University of Minnesota as he finishes up his master’s degree in applied kinesiology.

So the 33-year-old associate head coach for the Golden Gophers checked in via conference call right after his class was finished and said he was looking forward to becoming part of the Cougar family and building on the accomplishments of his predecessor, Cindy Fredrick, who left to become the head coach at the University of Iowa.

Heffernan, who has served as a Minnesota assistant under Mike Hebert for the past four seasons, will finish his master’s requirements on June 11 and plans to catch the first plane he can to Pullman later that afternoon.

WSU senior associate athletic director Marcia Saneholtz, who headed the search for Fredrick’s successor, said Heffernan, who has never held a collegiate head coaching job, will sign a multiyear contract that will pay an annual salary “commensurate for a person of his experience in the Pacific-10 Conference.”

Saneholtz and WSU athletic director Jim Sterk are both in Arizona, attending the Pac-10’s annual meetings and also commented on Heffernan’s hiring via Thursday’s conference call.

“I’m just very pleased to announce that Brian Heffernan is our new volleyball coach,” Sterk said. “He knows about winning, and he has a great pedigree of coaching and a lot of experience.”

Heffernan was named an associate head coach under Hebert two years ago. Minnesota won the Big Ten Conference championship last fall and advanced to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament before losing to top-ranked Southern California.

In addition to his coaching duties at Minnesota, Heffernan assisted Hebert and the U.S. National Team in their training for the 2003 Pan American Games.

Heffernan is a 1993 graduate of Penn State University, where he played in three NCAA men’s volleyball national semifinals. He was an assistant coach with the Penn State men’s volleyball team in 1994 and helped the Nittany Lions to the NCAA championship.

He said he welcomes the challenge of keeping WSU competitive in the Pac-10 Conference.

“My experiences within the Big Ten Conference have really prepared me for the rigors of a conference like the Pac-10,” said Heffernan, who said he has harbored a passion to become a head coach for some time. “I see this as a step in (my) evolution and in the direction I was already headed, where you have to prepare for a nationally competitive opponent every single night.”

Saneholtz said she received more than 40 applications for the vacant position Heffernan will fill. She said she also contacted several potential candidates on her own and admitted that several said there were not interested in pursuing the job.

“What I was looking for was someone who was either a sitting head coach who had been very successful in a good conference, or an assistant coach or associate in the big six conferences.

“I wanted somebody who had the experience of facing that kind of competition week in and week out. And in the assistant ranks, Brian’s name kept surfacing.”

Saneholtz said the decision to announce Heffernan’s hiring at this time rather than wait for him to free up his class schedule and appear in person was based on timing and the need to let Heffernan address his returning players and new recruits and begin assembling his staff.

The Cougars finished 9-20 last season and went 5-13 in the Pac-10 Conference. They open the 2004 season at UNLV on Sept. 4.

Heffernan and his wife, Carol, have two daughters, 2-year-old Kate and 3½-month-old Jane. All are expected to be present next month when WSU will host a reception for the media and volleyball boosters to meet Heffernan.