COVER STORY
A coach for all seasons
Hugh McCutcheon, who just fi nished his fi rst season as the head women’s coach at the University of Minnesota, has one of the most diverse and impressive coaching resumes in volleyball, one that includes the 2008 Olympic gold medal with the U.S. Men’s National Team and the 2012 Olympic silver medal with the U.S. Women’s National Team.
By Don Patterson
A
bent basketball rim and a quirky coach played a signifi cant role in putting Hugh McCutcheon on track to become
one of volleyball’s most notable fi gures. He was 15, playing high school hoops in his hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand, and he had just grown far enough north of six feet to be able to dunk. Not thundering, Kevin Du- rant-style dunks, but dunks that were functional and good for two points. On one play, he went up for a stuff and lost his balance in the air, so he grabbed the rim to keep from falling. The coach didn’t like that – maybe thought he was showboating, who knows? – and told Hugh that he’d have to pay for damages, even though it didn’t seem to Hugh that there were damages.
The coach didn’t let it go, kept telling him he’d have to pay, and that got old, especially considering money was tight in McCutcheon’s family. Hugh’s father, Donald McCutcheon, had died of cancer a year earlier, and his mom, Milly, was now the family’s lone breadwinner. “I fi nally just thought, ‘Enough of this – I’m not going to play for this guy, I’m going to see what else is out there,’” said McCutch- eon in December, a week after fi nishing his fi rst season as head coach of the Minnesota women’s volleyball team, which advanced to the elite eight of the NCAA tournament. “The volleyball guys seemed cool, and they had a good coach. So I started playing volleyball, and I instantly fell in love with it.” It’s a small anecdote, but telling. Beyond
underscoring that a life’s pursuit can be launched by random events, it highlights a theme threaded through McCutcheon’s career: When something doesn’t present itself in a nice, neat package, don’t panic; you can often turn it positive by preparing a counter plan and taking action.
In fact, McCutcheon, now 43, views low points as necessary building blocks. Recently, when discussing the success he had with the national teams – he coached the U.S. Men to the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the U.S. Women to the silver at the 2012 London Games – he made a point of bring- ing up his fi rst head-coaching position, which ended with him being fi red. The job was in Austria from 2001 to 2003.
“Above all, he taught me how important it is to be a great teammate. That’s the best lesson I’ve learned from him.” Riley Salmon
Gold medalist on 2008 U.S. Olympic Men’s Volleyball Team 42 | VOLLEYBALLUSA • Digital Issue at
usavolleyball.org/mag
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