Pasco-Hernando State College volleyball coach Kim Whitney has been named Coach of the Year.
While that’s an impressive accomplishment, it’s not a surprising one.
In fact, it happens all the time.
(Courtesy of Pasco-Hernando State College)
The National Volleyball Coaches Association named Whitney the Two-Year College Northeast-Southeast Regional Coach of the Year for 2014. They did the same thing in 2011. And in 2010, and in 2006, too.
She was named the District P Division II Volleyball Coach of the Year in 2014 as well, just like in 2011 and 2010. Going back in her career, the Suncoast Conference named her Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2007, and District H Division I Volleyball gave her the same honor in 2004 and 2005.
Then, there was the time she was named Coach of the Tournament for the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II national volleyball tournament. PHSC won the national championship that year.
With a career record of 316-119 at the school, 11 straight regional tournament appearances and five national tournament appearances, it might be more newsworthy if she didn’t win a Coach of the Year award from somebody. Everybody thinks she deserves frequent praise and recognition.
Everybody, that is, except the coach herself.
“For me, it’s strange to take an award for what your team accomplished,” Whitney said. When a team does well, it tends to follow that the coach will be seen as doing an exemplary job.
Her most recent team reached the NJCAA Division II national tournament and finished eighth in the country despite having 11 freshmen on the team.
But with several accolades throughout her 11-year tenure at PHSC, it’s not one team or one tournament run that’s getting her recognized for outstanding coaching. She attributes those accomplishments to getting better organized and prepared for success over her career.
“The planning part of it, the organizing part of it, the managing part of it — over the years I think that’s something I’ve gotten better at, and I just know what it’s going to take,” she said.
Whitney, 37, knows what it takes both as a coach and as a player. She played for the United States Women’s National Volleyball Team, as well as professional stints in the U.S. and Spain. That experience has helped her coaching career, she said. Being around great players and teammates and competing at a high level provided a blueprint for how the teams she coaches should perform.
Having a coach whose teams perform at a high level year-in and year-out is a valuable asset to Steve Winterling, the college’s athletic director.
“It makes my job a lot easier,” Winterling said. “She’s a very organized person. She’s a good team player, and I depend on her a lot because she’s also my assistant athletic director.”
Whitney is a talented recruiter, Winterling said. She is able to size up her team’s needs each year and find the talent necessary to keep them competitive. That’s a particularly important skill at a two-year college, which naturally has a lot of turnover from year to year. Good recruiting is essential for a coach to remain successful over the long term.
Whitney’s accomplishments also motivate her fellow coaches.
Winterling coaches the team’s successful baseball program, and has fallen behind the volleyball team in national tournament appearances.
“She went back again (to the tournament), so I’ve got to play catch-up,” he joked.
There’s a good chance Whitney will be keeping the pressure on with more tournament appearances. Her team will have a good mix of experienced sophomores and incoming freshmen, along with a high level of expectations to continue the success of the program. For Whitney, it’s the players that will determine that success.
“You have to have the right people to make that work. I’ve been very fortunate to have athletes who are able to buy into that system and to do well with the way that we run things here,” Whitney said.
With the way she runs things at PHSC, there might be another opportunity in the future.
Winterling sees a time when the assistant athletic director might not have the word “assistant” in her title.
“I’m trying to throw more stuff at her (in assistant athletic director duties) where she could one day, after I do retire (become the director),” Winterling said. “She would be a great replacement for the college.”
Published March 4, 2015
