Anchorage Daily News

When Chris Green became the head coach at Western Nebraska Community College in 1999, he had one goal in mind: Win a national championship.

In his first season, the Cougars went 35-10 and advanced to the national tournament. In his second season they went 51-3 and again played in the AJCAA national tournament.

The Cougars advanced to nationals in each of the next seven seasons. They were a Division I junior college power, routinely winning 50 games a season.

The success gave Green options. He had chances to move on. Nebraska Wesleyan, a dominant NCAA Division III program, came calling. Division I assistant positions were available.

But he stayed in Scottsbluff. His mission wasn't finished.

In 2006 the Cougars went 56-2 and finished second. In 2007, they finally took home the championship trophy.

"When I first got the job, I gave myself five years to win a national championship. It took me nine," Green said. "It was kind of my goal to try to win it all."

Having done that, Green was ready to move on. Which turned out to be a very good thing for the green and gold of UAA.

Green took over as the coach of UAA's moribund volleyball program last season, and already he's worked magic.

GREENER PASTURESIn the three seasons before he arrived, UAA was 7-45 in GNAC play and 17-58 overall.

In Green's first season, the Seawolves were 7-9 in the GNAC and 15-14 overall -- their first winning record since 2003. This season's team is 11-2 in conference and 19-7 overall after beating Saint Martin's on Saturday.

Under Green's guidance, outside hitter Rhea Caldwell last season capped a four-year career by becoming UAA's first All-American in volleyball. Other quality players have arrived and flourished under Green -- players like senior setter Calli Scott, who came up from Glendale Community College last season and was named the GNAC newcomer of the year; sophomore outside hitter Jackie Matthisen, who transferred from GNAC rival Western Oregon and leads the team in kills; and Maria Borowikow, a freshman middle hitter from Germany, whom Green recruited after seeing her on video.

In short, he's doing the same thing at UAA that he did at Western Nebraska: Turning a losing program into a winning one.

"He created a powerhouse from nowhere. And now he is doing it with you guys," said Giovana Melo, one of Green's former players at Western Nebraska who went on to play Division I volleyball at Arizona State before taking Green's old coaching job in Scottsbluff.

"He is that type of coach that can turn around programs."

JUCO TRANSFERS

Two years before hiring Green, the Seawolves reached into the junior college ranks and plucked a basketball coach from another college in the western Great Plains, Otero College in La Junta, Colorado.

The year before Tim Moser arrived, the women's basketball team went 15-14. In his first year at the helm, the Seawolves finished 23-6. His second season they were 30-5 and advanced to the Final Four of the NCAA Division II championships.

Moser's previous school was a few hours to the southwest of Green's. He was aware of Green's success -- a 453-55 record and Final Four appearances in each of his last four seasons -- and gave a positive report to UAA athletic director Steve Cobb.

"The first thing I knew about Green was that he had a phenomenal record," Cobb said. "And Coach Moser spoke highly of him."

Moser's immediate success at UAA helped Green decide to come north.

"Seeing that he was able to recruit up here, that it was do-able, that was very important to me," said Green, who added that he loves the skiing, mountain biking and hiking opportunities in Anchorage. "The resources were there, the success wasn't, but it seemed like a good place for me to come turn around. "

His impact was instantaneous.

Two seasons ago, the final season before Green arrived, the volleyball team won five matches and finished last in the Great Northwest Conference.

Now the Seawolves are riding a nine-match win streak, lead the conference standings and, if the season ended today, would be in the NCAA Division II tournament for the first time since 1990. They are fifth in the latest NCAA Division II West Region rankings and 28th in the AVCA national poll.

"He knows his stuff," said Seawolves senior libero Stacie Meisner, who played for Green at Western Nebraska and followed him to Anchorage.

"He does an excellent job of motivating and getting his teams to play well. He is so knowledgeable about what works best, and he teaches his philosophy very clearly."

Plus, said Melo, he lets his players play.

"As a setter I always loved that he let me be the quarterback," she said. "He is not a coach that is going to tell you everything to do. He kind of lets you be yourself and lets you run the show. He points out the positive strengths of players and lets them play."

CALM AND CONFIDENT

During matches, Green is often inconspicuous. He sits quietly at the end of the bench, a few chairs between him and the next coach. The placid exterior belies a ferocity within.

"He has a calm demeanor," Cobb said. "But he still has that Type A personality. He works hard and he's driven. He has the need to excel and achieve."

Occasionally that fire shows.

Threatened with a red card in a match against Central Washington last weekend after he called a timeout even though the team had no time outs remaining, Green argued passionately and successfully for a less-severe yellow card.

A night later, while watching his team get dismantled early by Western Washington, Green's frustration was obvious as he squirmed in his chair, grimacing at bad plays and yelling directions to his players.

But normally Green is calm and confident. The confidence rubs off on his players and allows them to overcome short periods of adversity.

The Seawolves have made a habit of rallying from fairly big deficits to win sets. On Thursday against Western Oregon, the Seawolves turned a 20-16 deficit into a 25-22 win and a 17-11 deficit into another 25-22 victory. Against Western Washington, the Seawolves were rocked 25-8 in the first set, but rebounded to win the next three.

"For me as an individual, he just has really helped improve my confidence factor," said UAA middle hitter Cortney Lundberg, a junior who is leading the Seawolves in blocks and hitting percentage. "He's helped with my intensity and my attitude. Everything is so positive."

PRACTICAL THEORUMS

Green, who graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1991 and played club volleyball at the college, believes in going back to basics at the beginning of each season. His teams spend the first week or two simply breaking bad habits and working on passing and serving.

Once the season is under way, he tries to let players handle the ball as much as possible in practices, running 2-on-2 drills and partner drills.

Later in the year the team does some 6-on-6 drills, often with Green playing a back row or setter position on one side, but his emphasis is always on getting everyone a lot of touches.

"If you have 12 players out there and one ball, you don't get a lot of touches," he said. "I just try to keep things as basic and simple as I can when teaching skills. If the players believe they are good at the basic skills, they are going to have the confidence to go out and perform well."

Green believes in a quick-passing attack that gets the ball to the setter fast, giving her more options and hopefully keeping the other team from getting in position to block and dig.

The Seawolves have been awesome on the attack this season, hitting at a .246 percentage, an accuracy that's the best in the conference by a wide margin (Western Washington is second at .215). UAA is also No. 1 in the conference in blocks and second in assists.

Green, who teaches calculus as an adjunct professor during the offseason, is an adept game manager.

"I'm pretty confident every night that we have the smartest coach in the gym," Cobb said.

During timeouts, many coaches spend a few seconds talking to assistants, checking their notes and deciding what exactly they are going to say to their players. Green wastes no time with such tasks. His players immediately line up like a choir, half of them sitting on chairs and the rest lining up behind them while Green crouches down in front of the row of chair.

When he talks, everybody listens.

"Playing for him was probably the best I've ever played," said Melo. "Even after moving to Arizona State, it was (for Green) that I peaked. One of the best decisions I ever made was coming to play for him."

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Green stayed at Western Nebraska for nine years waiting for that national championship. Will he do the same at UAA?

Green, who eventually aims to be a Division I coach, responded with a big smile.

"I don't know," he said. "We are ahead of where I thought we would be right now. I thought it might take another year or two to be challenging for a conference championship. They've done a great job."

"Hopefully we can continue to improve."

With Green at the helm, the chances of that are golden.

Find Richard Larson online at adn.com/contact/rlarson or call 257-4335.

ADVERTISEMENT