The face of UCLA women’s volleyball, Andy Banachowski, announced his retirement Monday afternoon, leaving the Bruins with some serious coaching questions.
The Bruins’ head man for the past 43 years broke the news to his team in an emotional, tear-filled meeting after the Monday workout. The 64-year-old Banachowski will retire upon the expiration of his contract on June 30.
The announcement came on the same day of Lauren Cook’s announcement to transfer to Nebraska, leaving the women’s volleyball team and the rest of the Athletic Department in a state of shock.
“It’s just time,” Banachowski said. “It just felt like it was a good time to start anew. I told the team we’re starting a new decade, and they’re going to have the first step in a new era.”
This year’s squad has been especially close, Banachowski added, given its youth and all the adversity it overcame throughout the season.
“It’s tough to say goodbye to this group because they have shown a tremendous closeness, and it was very hard for me today,” he said.
The Athletic Department has not yet begun its search for a replacement, with the position of women’s volleyball coach coming on the market for the first time since 1970, but Banachowski said top assistant Kim Jagd is not a likely candidate.
“I think that they will hire from outside,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll conduct a search, and I’m sure they’ll get a lot of interested parties.”
Banachowski, the winningest women’s volleyball coach in NCAA history, has been considering retirement over the past few seasons and said he made his decision this weekend after the team performed its annual evaluation of its past season.
“Since I hit the 40 mark … I started thinking about when it would be a good time to retire,” Banachowski said. “I don’t know if there’s ever necessarily a good time to retire, because you always have to say goodbye to the team that you’re working with. It was extremely difficult this afternoon for me to do that.”
Men’s volleyball coach Al Scates, who coached Banachowski during his playing days in the mid-1960s and has been a long-time colleague (their offices are only a few yards apart), said he had no idea of Banachowski’s announcement and found out Monday afternoon while getting some coffee before heading to the Student Activities Center gym for practice.
“I didn’t know anything about it,” Scates said. “He thanked me and shook hands for giving him his start in volleyball, and it was a pretty emotional experience for me and for Andy too.”
“I didn’t think he’d retire before I did,” the 70-year-old Scates added.
Banachowski was the first coach for the women’s program upon graduating from UCLA in 1968. He also spent time as an assistant under Scates.
From 1972 to 1977, he was Scates’ top assistant and helped lead the men’s team to NCAA titles in 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1976.
Banachowski led the women’s program to six national titles of its own, three of which came under NCAA affiliation.
His retirement, however, comes 18 seasons removed from its last national title and 10 seasons from its last conference crown.
His most recent trip to the Final Four came in 2006.
The result? A 3-1 semifinal loss to Nebraska.
With the retirement, Banachowski said he will take time to do all the things he has delayed in life.
“I have good health so it gives me some opportunities to pursue things I’ve put off,” he said. “I have some free time to give some attention to my grandchildren.”
Given the security of retiring at 65, Banachowski said he is unlikely to immediately pursue another career.
“I don’t have a passion right now that I’m going to jump into,” he said. “It’s not like I’m going to have a new job right away. I don’t have to. I’ll be making just as much money not working as I would working.”
An avid racquetball player who often plays in the John Wooden Center with Jagd, Banachowski said he will remain around UCLA until the end of the school year, helping the Bruins rebuild after the loss of former starting setter Lauren Cook, who transferred to Nebraska.
Banachowski noted that Cook’s transfer was not caused by his plans on retiring, as he did not tell his team until Monday afternoon, when Cook was wearing a Nebraska sweatshirt in a press conference in Lincoln, Neb.
With a number of recruits having already made verbal commitments to UCLA, Banachowski ruled out any effect his retirement will have on UCLA’s recruiting.
“UCLA’s commitment is going to remain strong to them, so I hope that they will remain true to their commitment as UCLA will remain true to them,” he said of the verbal commitments.
As for what he hopes to be remembered for?
“I’m a person who loves coaching, loves work every day, looking forward to the challenges every day,” Banachowski said.