Beerman builds on intensity

Pitt volleyball coach Chris Beerman has always known he wanted to be around the sport. He just… Pitt volleyball coach Chris Beerman has always known he wanted to be around the sport. He just didn’t think it would involve coaching.

“I had just been so into playing, and I thought since I was a gym rat I would go ahead and [teach physical education],” he recalled. “So I student-taught and when I student-taught, I hated it and then was a little panicky because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I really didn’t think of coaching because I didn’t have a coaching demeanor at that time.”

Then, while referreeing a club volleyball match one summer, a coach from South Florida offered him a position as an assistant on the Bulls’ staff. After a tough transition from player to assistant coach, he eventually found his coaching legs and landed the head coaching job at James Madison.

Ten years and two revived programs later, Beerman now has Pitt in one of the golden eras of the program’s history. Pitt has become one of the perennial forces in the conference, winning the Big East Championship in 2003 and posting 26 wins in 2004. The Panthers also advanced to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments for the first time in program history in 2003 and 2004.

While the 2005 season ended last weekend on a sour note – his team lost four of five down the stretch, including a first-round stunner to Syracuse in the Big East tournament, to finish 17-13 and miss out on an NCAA Tournament berth -his predominantly young team has a promising outlook, one that stems from the competitive environment he has worked so hard to foster in his six seasons at Pitt.

“He’s an intense coach, but I think you need intensity,” said Gini Ullery, one of Pitt’s best outside hitters of all time, who just finished her career this year. “Your team feeds off it and your team is like who your coach is. He’s intense, outgoing-he’s about winning, and I think that follows onto the team with what we want to be like.”

“He’s so competitive,” freshman setter Nicole Taurence said. ” He recruits all competitive people so it makes it so much more fun playing with competitive people.”

“There’s not a level of intensity like his,” added libero Megan McGrane, who, like Ullery, finished an illustrious career last weekend, ascending from walk-on her freshman year to landing amongst the top four in NCAA history for digs in a season.

An intense and fiery attitude is what Beerman says he looks for in his players, frowning on the idea of complacency amongst modern student-athletes.

“The ones I like the best are the ones that care the most about getting better,” he said. “They’re not just satisfied with being here at Pitt and being on the team. They want to get better, and that’s kind of a rare trait nowadays it seems-complacency and just being on scholarship and just being happy and satisfied. I like kids that are completely unsatisfied.”

McGrane, whom Beerman quickly refers to as one of those players, said she admired Beerman’s desire to squeeze every ounce of potential out of every player in his program.

“He’s going to do everything in his power to accomplish those goals and help you to be the best player that you can be,” said McGrane, Pitt’s all-time leader in digs. “I think that’s something I was really attracted to, that he is going to do everything to make you the best player that you can be. When you leave here after your four years, you’ll walk out here thinking ‘I did everything and the coach pushed me as hard as I can be pushed to be the best player I can be.'”

With all of his accomplishments -he owns eight Ball State records – Beerman still wishes he could have echoed McGrane’s statement upon the conclusion of his playing career at Ball State in 1990.

“I think that’s one thing that if I had to go back in my career, I wish people would have pushed me harder,” he said. “They knew I was competitive and self-motivated, but nobody was constantly there telling me, ‘You’re not good enough.’ I only kind of reached a certain level and I think when I coach, I try to get these kids to their absolute potential by the time they leave, and that’s my goal with every single player that comes through here.”

Regardless, his success at Pitt, when combined with an open personality, makes Pitt volleyball an increasingly enticing sell, one that has made a profound impression on the outgoing seniors.

“He’s honest. He’s always willing to tell you the truth,” Ullery said. “He wants to see you succeed, he wants to see you be the best player you can be by the time you leave. and no matter what, if it’s day number one or the last day you’re in the gym with him, he’s going to keep pushing you to be the best player you can be.”

“He genuinely cares about each person and that once you are on this team he has a vested interest in you as a person and in your future,” McGrane said.