When Dr. Brian Tsukimura came to Fresno State in 1994, he arrived to find two students waiting at his office door, eager to speak with him. The men weren’t there to meet their new professor, or apply to be graduate students under Tsukimura, they were there to talk volleyball and ask the newest faculty member to coach their team.
“I’m literally moving in and two kids are standing there saying ‘We heard you coach volleyball,’” Tsukimura said. Despite his denials, the gentlemen were insistent he was a coach and kept asking him to coach their team.
“They kept coming back,” Tsukimura said. “Literally those two people were the reason; they planted their butts here.”
After a few weeks, Tsukimura relented and took the volunteer position and has been coaching the Fresno State men’s club volleyball team since.
Tsukimura’s vast knowledge of the sport and leadership of the team has helped the team caputre national championships in 2004 and 2009, and has enabled him to earn his 300th win in April 2009.
Jake Wiens, 25, played outside hitter for the team in 2009 and credits Tsukimura for helping the team stay focused and properly prepared as they began their season fueled with motivation for a national title.
“We had moments where we were struggling, but he never deflated us with negativisms,” Wiens said. “He is a great coach in part because of his obvious care for the individual players on the team. He is truly there for us.”
After receiving his B.A. at UC Berkeley, Tsukimura attended the University of Hawaii to receive his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in zoology. It was there that he learned the game of volleyball by being taught how to play, view and execute the game, from several competitive collegiate athletes.
“When I was a graduate student, I actually learned how to play volleyball with people who were former national team players, or were collegiate players at some point of their life,” Tsukimura said. “They would take me to volleyball games and talk about theory, like watch this play, watch what they do, watch what these players are doing. Sometimes, we didn’t even watch the ball; we just watched how individual players moved with each other and the best positioning.”
Upon his graduation, Tsukimura had not only earned his degrees, but walked away with a wealth of knowledge about the physicality and logistics of volleyball and was told by his friends to go and teach the game to others.
That’s exactly what he did when he landed a teaching position at Illinois State University. Due to the freezing temperature forcing him indoors, Tsukimura found the men’s club volleyball team and began offering advice to a few players to help improve their game.
Tsukimura eventually took over as head coach and was sought out by the NCAA women’s volleyball head coach to be her assistant. He agreed and worked with their three rookie players turning two of them into starters, before returning to his position as the men’s coach leading them to a 13th place finish in the National Championships.
Despite urging from the women’s head coach and the tournament director to continue on as a full-time coach, Tsukimura declined, choosing to focus on where his research and teaching options might take him. His new position at Fresno State allowed him to continue his research and instruct classes however a return to volleyball wouldn’t be far off.
Since the team is officially a club, funding is always an issue with players having to raise their own flight expense costs.
With all his responsibilities as a professor, researcher and advisor, it is sometimes hard to see how Tsukimura finds time to fit coaching in. But Tsukimura does and excels at knowing just what the team and his players need.
“If I were to describe his method it would be organized,” Wiens said. “He has been running the men’s program for a while and knows exactly where we need to be and when.”
The men’s club volleyball team is off to a hot start at the midway point of the 2011 season. Tsukimura’s squad is a perfect 11-0 and will compete in the Far Westerns Tournament this weekend at UC Davis.