The Salt Lake Tribune Updated: 11/29/2008 01:42:28 AM MST
| Daniel McKeehan had a plan when he took over the volleyball program at Hurricane. He wanted to turn the Tigers into a state championship team and he gave himself a five-year deadline. In his fifth year as Hurricane's coach, the Tigers won a Class 3A title with a three-game win over Carbon.
For turning a mediocre program into a championship team, McKeehan has been named The Salt Lake Tribune's Coach of the Year.
"We wanted to win a state championship and that was very clear from Day 1," McKeehan said. "We wanted kids that wanted to become champions. Not everybody wants to win. They talk about it but very few will put in the effort to be more than good. There's a big difference between good and great."
So, McKeehan and his coaching staff started a program to cultivate younger players. They established a program that kids wanted to be a part of. Many players on this year's championship team played for McKeehan when they were in junior high.
Now that McKeehan has accomplished his biggest goal, he isn't sure what is next.
"This changes things. When we got down with the game, I looked at my wife and said, 'We've accomplished the goal, we have to move on to start a new goal,' '' McKeehan said. "We will try to continue to be good and competitive but we haven't decided what the new goal is yet."
Other notable coaches
Alaina Parker, Snow Canyon: Snow Canyon has always been a strong program, but at the beginning of the season it seemed it would be a rebuilding year for the Warriors. Snow Canyon graduated the bulk of last year's championship team and this year's squad was extremely young. Despite having an inexperienced team, the Warriors found their way back to the championship match and to another state title.
Jamie Kartchner, Pleasant Grove: The first-year coach guided the Vikings to a 28-2 record and a national ranking. The Vikings were ranked as high as 25th according to prepvolleyball.com. Pleasant Grove had a key addition this year as junior Danica Mendivil returned from a knee injury that kept her out a majority of her sophomore season. |
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