- What are your favorite memories from back then? We'll move into more recent time, but, like, early, early on when you're trying to grow this program.
- I think getting to see kids come to campus and recruit 'em and watch their skill, but the other thing was teaching classes 'cause I got to know more than 12 kids.
- Yeah.
- You know? So I was teaching activity classes and one lecture course in the physical education, ESS or whatever it is now. But meeting more kids on campus and gettin' to know them, I really enjoyed meeting kids.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- You know, not just my volleyball players.
- Hey, Bobcats. Kelly Damphousse here, President at Texas State University. And welcome to "The Current," where we talk to faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends of the university to find out what is happening at Texas State. And today is a special day for me, because we get to hear from Coach Karen Chisum.
- Oh, bless you.
- [Kelly] Karen, thank you for joining us.
- Thank you for asking me. This is exciting. I haven't been to campus in a while.
- Oh, come on, you're on campus all the time on the other side, yeah.
- That's right. At the coliseum.
- You know, I was sitting at, I guess it was a volleyball game a couple nights ago, and I looked up and I was looking at all the banners, and I saw your name up there. And I was at 917-
- 19.
- 919. We're not leavin' any of those out.
- I read the banner also.
- 919 wins. They didn't put the losses up there, though.
- Good. It wasn't over 900.
- It was less-
- It was less than that.
- What a storied career. This morning, I was woken up with a text message by Ty Harrington, who was-
- What a guy.
- I was about to go on the radio, and he was wishing me luck, and I actually forgot I was gonna be on the radio that day.
- Thank you, Ty.
- And he woke me up and said, "Hey, good luck today." And I was thinkin' about all the great coaches that have been here. Coach Wacker, of course. Coach Franchione-
- Coach Fran.
- All the great coaches we've had here. Coach Woodard, who's still here by the way.
- She's still here.
- Over 900 wins as well. And then, of course, I thought about you.
- Oh, bless you.
- And then of course we're talkin' now this afternoon. People know about the wins and fewer people know about the losses, which is great, but they may not know the story of you. And that's why I love doing the podcast, to find out your Texas State story.
- [Karen] Yeah.
- And a lot of people may not know that you're also one of our alumni as well. So you're-
- I am.
- You're like a double-decker here. You're an alumnus and a former staff member and-
- And a friend.
- And a friend. All those things. All those things. So let's start with that. Let's start about your Texas State story. How'd you end up coming, like, where'd you grow up and then how'd you end up coming here?
- I will tell you, I was just sharing this with them. I grew up in a little town, Poteet, south of San Antonio.
- Yeah, I know Poteet.
- Poteet, strawberries. Until I was in the sixth grade, dad was in law enforcement, went to Pearsall. And that's where George Strait was two years behind me and his brother Buddy was in my class, and his dad was my math and science teacher.
- That is amazing.
- Yeah, no. Then we went out to Pecos, and I graduated from Pecos High School.
- [Kelly] Okay.
- Followed a cousin of mine up here to Southwest Texas. He was a year ahead of me, best friends and stuff. He played basketball, and I was playing tennis at that point and tried out for the tennis team, made it. No scholarships back then. I played because I wanted to.
- Yeah. No NIL money? No.
- Yeah, right. In fact, there was many times in my career that I wanted to take scholarships away from kids just to see if they'd still play.
- Yeah, that's interesting.
- But anyway, yes. Came up here, Coach Miller, Bill Miller, great guy who hired me. And I followed Karen Fredenburg, who I taught with at New Braunfels High School. Actually after I got out of school, went to San Marcos High School, then New Braunfels High School, and Karen and I taught together. And then she came up here as the basketball/volleyball coach, and she was more basketball, did not know anything about volleyball. So after a year, she called me from New Braunfels High School and said, "Would you consider coming up here?" I was goin', "Why not?" Anyway, interviewed with Coach Miller-
- Were you coaching at New Braunfels?
- [Karen] Oh yes, definitely.
- Okay.
- Coaching at New Braunfels High School.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Actually, we went to state a couple of years and great athletes at that point. Nell Fortner, who is now retired somehow, she's probably 33, not really. But she coached at Purdue, Georgia Tech, but she was the head coach of the women's Olympic basketball team in '96. So she's had a very successful career, but she helped me get to where I am.
- [Kelly] Mm-hmm.
- She played at University of Texas under Jody Conradt.
- Oh, yeah.
- Yeah, great athlete. But anyway, next thing I knew I was at Southwest Texas coaching volleyball, and I was a tennis and softball player.
- Yeah, that's funny-
- I was not a volleyballer. I was too small. And actually when I was in high school, volleyball was a spring sport and I was a tennis player. And, of course, back then girls could not play two sports. It was too strenuous.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- So I stuck with tennis. My sister played volleyball, so I followed 'em all the way. I was an athlete, so it wasn't really hard to adapt. But I had a great mentor at Goodnight Middle School here in San Marcos that was pro volleyball, and not literally professional, but just that was her niche.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And I started learning from her, and from there we just bam, bam, bam. And next thing I knew I was at the, well, at a college back then.
- Yeah, so it was a college back then.
- Oh, yeah. I came to Southwest Texas State College when I first came to school.
- Fascinating. What year was that?
- I graduated in '68. So I came up here as a student in '68, graduated in '72, and then came back as a coach in '78.
- '78.
- '78.
- Do you remember how much your first contract was?
- Yeah, my contract, $8,000 I think is what it was.
- 8,000.
- [Karen] 8,000.
- Wow.
- I started too early.
- You could make a living at 8,000, right?
- I was gonna say, look, yeah, back then.
- Yeah.
- I just started too early.
- Yeah, you weren't buying coffees at coffee shops in-
- Oh my goodness.
- And you know what?
- Gas was cheaper.
- I still don't buy coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker.
- Well, so you get here and you're, like, thrust into learning how to, not just how to coach, but how to coach a sport you never played. And the sport is not what it is today. I mean-
- Oh, not at all.
- It is unbelievable the growth and attention.
- Yeah, evolution of volleyball, big time.
- Yeah, it's unbelievable. But that must've been pretty trying times to figure out what you're doing there.
- Well, again, I had coached at the high school level, but I also had to teach. Back then you taught classes.
- [Kelly] Oh.
- So I had six hours of teaching in the physical education department and then coaching, you know? And we were AIAW then when I first came.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- 'Cause NCAA didn't allow women to participate. And then I think it was '71, '72 that they opened up the doors for women in Southwest Texas, moved into the NCAA.
- Now there was already a team here.
- Yes.
- But you have to start recruiting players. What was it like recruiting back then?
- Well, back then they could come to campus. And one, I was assistant coach for two years-
- Okay.
- Sorry, here under Chris Mayhew. But kids came to campus to try out. We didn't leave campus.
- You weren't like flying to Miami and trying to recruit a kid out there.
- I might've gone to San Marcos High School. Maybe New Braunfels High School. We did not have the money to do that. No, we had tryouts on campus.
- So they would come to campus and tryout.
- [Karen] Yes, yes.
- Our cheerleaders do the same thing now. So they come to campus, and they try out, and so on. Yeah, so that's a different deal.
- Oh, definitely.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And again, Division II, you know, you had eight scholarships back then and I think Division II still might have the same. But you could split 'em.
- Yeah. Oh, yeah, partial scholarships.
- They were, you know, partial scholarships and stuff. So give the setter, you know, $300 and the hitter $400, and you were good.
- That's hilarious.
- It's different.
- Yeah, who were you playing back then? What conference-
- Lone Star conference.
- [Kelly] So Lone Star Conference, and so-
- The very first year was a Gulf Star Conference.
- Okay.
- And it lasted one year. And then we went to Lone Star. So it was East Texas A&M, East Texas then, San Angelo, TWU-
- Was Sam Houston in that?
- Sam Houston and SFA have been with us forever, until we left and went to the Sun Belt.
- Yeah. Wow, that's amazing.
- They were with us forever.
- What are your favorite memories from back then? We'll move into more recent time, but, like, early, early on when you're trying to grow this program.
- I think getting to see kids come to campus and recruit 'em and watch their skill, but the other thing was teaching classes 'cause I got to know more than 12 kids.
- Yeah.
- You know? So I was teaching activity classes and one lecture course in the physical education, ESS or whatever it is now. But meeting more kids on campus and gettin' to know them, I really enjoyed meeting kids.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- You know, not just my volleyball players.
- We should get Coach Huiet to teach a couple classes.
- Yeah, right, good luck.
- It's a different deal, though.
- Totally.
- You couldn't do it-
- You don't have time now.
- 'Cause those jobs, it's a full-time job.
- And look how many assistants he has now. Here I'm gettin' off course.
- How many assistants do you have?
- I had one for a long time, and then I got two. So that's how Sean got up here, we got two.
- That's hilarious.
- But no, you know, it's just fun. We played, Kelly, our first two years, they were adding on to the, they were building the coliseum.
- Well, I was gonna ask where you played at the beginning.
- Upstairs in the gym where gymnastics is goin' down.
- Wow, so in Jowers.
- The other side. In Jowers. Yes, in Jowers.
- [Kelly] Wow.
- And one year we played out at San Marcos High School because of the construction or something. And then we got to come into the coliseum with the wall. You were never here with the wall.
- No, but I saw pictures of it, and I thought it was a gym somewhere. And they said, "No, that's where Castro room now.
- Yeah, it stopped, exactly.
- There was a wall there 'cause they ran out of money-
- That was the end of it.
- And they said, "Let's just build a wall there."
- Yes, that was the end of it.
- I can't even picture it now. I mean, I can't imagine it. I've seen pictures of it, but I just can't imagine, first, why we did it and then how it even worked.
- [Karen] Money.
- Yeah, money, right?
- Well, what's fun about the wall, student-athletes can come back now that played there and goin', "Oh my gosh, it looks so different." But the wall was a big white wall, had maroon and gold stripes on it. But one of our men's volleyball club kids at that point was into arts and Styrofoam building stuff. Anyway, he made me a SWT volleyball, big Styrofoam letters, and we put up on the wall during volleyball season, and it came down as soon as volleyball was over. But it made the wall so attractive. I don't know why they never put basketball up there.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- But one of the stories, if you don't mind.
- Yeah.
- When we had one of the floods, we've had two or three-
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- The wall, you probably heard this, came gushing into the coliseum, and it was up about 12 feet in the coliseum.
- [Kelly] Wow.
- Of course, we lost all of our equipment that was downstairs. And the floor, when it was over, it looked like a skating board world-class facility. No, we've gone through a lot of things in that coliseum that you've missed.
- Well, I'm glad to miss it and I hope it doesn't happen again.
- And the snakes and the bats, you know, no.
- There was a bird in there the other day, and it was kind of distracting.
- I believe it. Yes, no.
- I'm curious about what kinda crowds did you have back then.
- Oh, 2 or 300.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- [Karen] No-
- We had a huge crowd the other day.
- Oh yeah, no, that was great. We built up to that. But way back, what you're asking about, no.
- Now, I wanna talk about family for a second. You just made me think about this. I love volleyball, as you know.
- [Karen] I do.
- It's one of my favorite sports 'cause my daughter played it. So I grew up in the club.
- [Karen] Oh, yeah.
- We grew up together in the club environment. And I love going, but what I especially love, when Beth and I would go on the road to watch us play and tournaments and so on, all the moms and dads are there.
- Exactly.
- [Kelly] It continues-
- It's a new family.
- Yeah, and they're like best friends with all the moms and dads sitting together. And you're in a hostile environment 'cause you're going somewhere else to play, and they kinda get together and they've got cheers and they got signs and so on.
- Oh, yes.
- And it's a different kinda sport for that because the way the parents travel with the team.
- You know, and as we recruited kids, and talking about that, family vacations were always geared around wherever the volleyball tournaments were, you know? And so often I'd hear it, once their kid graduated, it was harder for the parents-
- Oh, yeah.
- than it was for the student-athletes.
- I went through withdrawal-
- You know, no, exactly.
- when Kristen didn't wanna play her senior year because she was done, right?
- Sure.
- At club, after the high school season was over, I said, "No, you're playing your senior year." 'Cause I wasn't ready-
- I wanna go. I know.
- I was a team dad.
- I know, exactly.
- I was organizing the hotel stays and going to the Battle at the Fort and so on.
- Good for you. I know, exactly.
- And I loved going to the tournaments. And then when she finally did go off to college that spring-
- [Karen] Miss it.
- I was like antsy, like I should be doing something here because it was so, essentially a big part of our lives, yeah.
- Exactly.
- Yeah, and such a great sport.
- Exactly.
- So let's fast forward a little bit. You've been here for a while. You start becoming more successful. We transitioned into the coliseum, and volleyball starts to grow in attendance-
- The sport itself.
- It's amazing. There's been some schools that have had, like, put the game in a football stadium and had, like, 80,000 people, exactly. But it's not just those one-off things. People watching it, the viewership on TV is really strong, and people are just talking about-
- The sport.
- Volleyball in the way it hadn't been talked about before. So when did you feel like this is a different thing than it was before?
- You know, I don't know if I really ever did.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- I guess I just gradually moved in with it.
- You grew with it, yeah.
- Yeah, I grew with it.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Probably one of the biggest changes when I knew that we hit big time was that locker room, my last two years. Our locker room used to be this size, not even this big. And when we got that new-
- You're dressing in the hallway and stuff like that.
- Exactly. Got into that new locker room, and it's so nice, Kelly.
- Yeah.
- That's when I knew, hey, they're puttin' some money into it and we're a legitimate Division I volleyball program.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- That was huge.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- That was huge. And our kids were just in heaven.
- Yeah. So, you know, looking back over your career, do you have, like, a favorite win, a moment that really sticks in your head?
- I knew you were there.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Well-
- You've got 'em right. It's like favorite kids maybe, but, you know.
- I can't talk about the favorite kids. That's-
- Yeah.
- When one of the NCAA tournaments, when we beat Rice up in Austin for that second round, the first time we won the second round match, or the first round, I'm sorry, first round-
- That puts you into the second round.
- Yes, that puts into the second round. 'Cause 85% of the times we were faced with Texas.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- You know? We're close to Austin, geographical, go play UT.
- That happens with a lot of our sports. Like, they do it kinda regionally-
- Yes, or A&M. That's right.
- Either A&M or Texas all the time.
- But that year, we'd had a really good year. So we were the 3-seed instead of the 4-seed. And we played Rice.
- [Kelly] Uh-huh.
- And we beat 'em, I think it might've been five. I don't know. But that win was historic for the whole university, for the volleyball program, for me. That was major. That was fun.
- So you hired this young man to come be your assistant coach.
- What's his name? Oh, no.
- Is it Sean? Does he go by Sean?
- And that was like 16 years ago. Oh, when I left, he'd been with me 16 years.
- Oh, so that's been 20 years ago.
- Yeah. 22, yeah.
- 22 years ago. So you hire Sean to be your assistant. Did you know, like, was there something about him that struck him when you first-
- His personality.
- [Kelly] Yeah, yeah.
- He and I have very similar personalities, to talk to the wall.
- Yeah.
- But Tracy Smith, used to be McWilliams, she was my number one and she was with me at least that long. She was huge. She was the technical person. She had that eye. She was great. So he was gonna be our second assistant. And I'd had a male, before I tell you, I never wanted a male 'cause I wanted to be a mentor to female coaches so they could move on. But Zach Shaver, I had one year, and he made things so much easier, puttin' up the net, moving the big boxes. Ain't that sad?
- [Kelly] No.
- [Karen] But hittin' balls-
- We need someone who's with a strong back, yeah.
- Yes, hittin' balls at the kids. And at that point I thought, "Eh, there is an advantage to having that arm and that strength." And I don't even remember who else interviewed, or other people I interviewed, but when I interviewed Sean, he just kind of grew on me.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- But his personality was a whole lot. He was a people person.
- Yeah.
- And plus, he knew volleyball.
- At some point you say, "I'm gonna step down here." What was that transition like for you?
- That was hard.
- I think people, after a certain point, and I find this even myself, you start being identified by what you do, not who you are.
- Exactly.
- And there's this fear of like, "Boy," one thing, "If I leave, this thing's gonna fall apart," and second, "What happens to me when I leave?" Talk about that transition for you.
- I will. I never worried about the program itself-
- Yeah, 'cause you knew-
- Because of who I hired. And he had already said, "Coach, come up anytime you want," and my kids were still there.
- Yeah.
- I'd have 'em another three or four years. The transition itself. And, you know, everybody, you're right, everybody knew me up here-
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- in San Marcos or around the state. And I thought, "Okay, no biggie." My partner used to say, "Karen, I don't wanna go out to dinner 'cause people know you, and you talk the whole time. We never have any," and whatever, get over it. The year after, this is 2019, that was my last season, December. I'm gonna turn 70 in June. My nephew, who basically we've raised, we consider our son, was taking his kids to Disneyland like December 9. So I decided, you know, I'm gonna take this five or six days to go. And I went to Disneyland with 'em, and I had that time to think about it. And I thought, "Dang, I'm enjoying these kids. I'm enjoying being with Ricky and the kids." And when I came back, talking it over to Erin and stuff, I just knew it was time. And I also knew that in a couple of months or so I needed to have a knee replacement.
- Ah.
- And turning 70, coaching is really a young person's sport. And I still love what I did. Trust me, I love Texas State and the Bobcats, but I figured, you know, I put 48 years in the education, 42 at Southwest Texas, Texas State, I can let go.
- Yeah.
- And that wasn't hard. I picked up pickleball, I had my knee replaced. That was hard.
- Pickleball. Yeah, yeah.
- No.
- My wife's had both her knees replaced.
- Me, too, now.
- And it is hard.
- It's not fun. But somehow along the line, New Braunfels' pickleball came along. They have a club, inside club, started playin'. And now, Kelly, I have a new group of friends, a new family, kinda my pickleball family, my Bobcat family, my Chisum family.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- But that's been great. So I play every day at 11 o'clock.
- One of the things I think is interesting is people who make the transition-
- Mm-hmm.
- Sometimes they just fade away and you never see 'em again.
- [Karen] No.
- And they go away and they say, "Hey, I worked there, but now that I'm done, I'm leaving." But you were one of the first people I met here. I was at a game and you came down and introduced yourself to me. And you were very humble-
- I remember that.
- Because you were introduced as, I used to coach here and you went away, and then later on I looked up and I saw, I think that's the lady that just said hi to me and her name is up there in the rafters. But you didn't fade away. You stayed, you kept coming back.
- I gotta tell you, football's one of my favorite sports.
- Yeah.
- And coaching volleyball, I didn't get to see a lot of our games 'cause we were gone or we were playin'. So I always said, "Once I quit, I'm gonna be in the stands for every football game, and every basketball game, and, you know, all the sports. I wanna be the best fan there is." And I've done a pretty good job with it. But, again, now, with my grandsons that I'm seeing are in high school, they're playing sports, I've gotta make decisions. "Do I go watch a family event or do I get to go back to the Bobcat?" And family normally wins it just 'cause of blood.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- But yes, I see a lot of events on campus.
- There's a little group of you guys that always sit together-
- Yeah, exactly.
- which is fun for me to watch.
- Yeah, Johnny Colmenero. Yeah, we go a lot of places together.
- No, what I love, though, is that this has become like a new little family for you, little Bobcat family, these group of-
- Mm-hmm, the retirees.
- Yeah, retirees. And you all are really a nexus of, like, you guys are so consistent at being at all the games and all the events and loving on our student-athletes and hugging our coaches.
- Oh, bless you. Thank you.
- You know how hard it is the wins don't feel as good as the losses hurt. And so when times are tough, you need someone who's got your back.
- You know, and you're right about that.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- But yeah, and Sean has, with volleyball, he opened the doors to me.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- So I'll go to practice-
- Some coaches don't want the old coach to come back, right?
- [Karen] No, exactly.
- Don't. This is my place.
- No. I feel very comfortable going in that coliseum, whether it's for practices or the, I like to watch, I go across, I sit across, I sit behind you-
- Yeah.
- And make sure Sean knows. The first year, when the challenge first came out, it hasn't been around forever. But, Kelly, I have to tell you, I was so excited when the challenge came out 'cause I thought I'd get a red flag, and I'd get to throw it on the flag. That didn't happen. That's such a true story. But anyway, there was times when in or out, he'd look up, and I'd say yes or no, you know?
- Yeah, you're like a coach in the-
- Yeah, from the other side. But, no.
- Do you ever, like, go and say, "Oh," or you're probably sittin' there like, I do this, like call a timeout. We need a time out, like... But you're like a normal fan, right?
- Yeah, no.
- You're not like, "Oh, he needs to be playing that setter."
- No.
- Yeah.
- I might think it to myself, but I would never-
- You don't text him and say, "Hey-"
- No.
- Yeah, that's good.
- It's his. It's his.
- You have to, right? And someday I hope I have the courage to let this thing go and not be texting my successor and goin', "Hey, don't forget, we start," you know? You gotta let it go.
- You do. But, again, I found something to, I hate to say replace it, but add to my life.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- I had an addition.
- Yeah. We talked a little bit about how things have evolved here at Texas State and in volleyball, a little bit about how volleyball has grown, but what about changes in the sport itself, like rules and things like that, how has that changed things?
- You mentioned that 'cause I was gonna tell you, oh, it's tough. When I first started, you had six players on the court and they all had the same color uniform, unless somebody forgot one. And then they didn't go in. That's all there was to it. But yes, the libero position came along. And that first year, 'cause Tracy and Sean both coach club, and it went into club before it got to the university.
- Okay.
- So they understood it 'cause I was lost. When can she go in? So Sean and Tracy, I guess Tracy was in charge of the libero.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause I'd be puttin' 'em. And then the sideout. It used to be a sideout you could only score-
- When you were serving.
- When you're serving.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Yeah. And that was to speed up the game-
- Well, the games would last forever.
- That's why, TV. You couldn't get 'em on TV because they didn't know if it'd be two and a half or three and a half, or four hours long. So that was a big reason for the change in the rally scoring. The libero, to make the rallies longer, put your better kids on the back row where they can dig those big, instead of having that 6'2" middle blocker in the back that couldn't play defense-
- Yeah.
- You know, pass that hit and point's over.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- But now you had the defensive specialist, which helped. It's just exciting. And I think fans like the rally scoring because something has happened and a point was scored.
- Yeah.
- It wasn't just, "Oh, there's still no score up there."
- I will say when you're behind, I hate it, when you're ahead, it's still too slow.
- Yes, exactly.
- And so it's such a fun sport, right?
- You know, and at one point when we first changed score, we used to play till 15.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And then it went to 30, but that was too long.
- I did not know that, yeah.
- And maybe one or two years, and then back to 25. And I think they found the right timing for TV, which helped grow the sport.
- It has to be long enough 'cause you don't want it to be a 45-minute game, right?
- Bam, bam, bam, no.
- And sometimes it is when you have one team that's overpowering the other one doesn't last very long, but it is growing. And women's sports in general is growing. People's appreciation for it is changing. It's gonna be another change-
- Isn't that amazing?
- for you to see how many people wanna watch women's sports.
- Isn't that amazing?
- Yeah.
- But television, TV, you got almost any night now, you can watch volleyball on TV.
- Yeah, yeah.
- And of course, I have to go to WNBA, and Caitlin Clark, and how she helped grow women's basketball, which opened up the door for all women's sports. It's amazing.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Television does a lot.
- You're one of the Texas State super fans. I'm gonna give you an opportunity now. What's your favorite thing about Texas State?
- First, when I was here, is people.
- Yeah.
- And I guess it's still the people. But my blood is Bobcat blood.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- So-
- It's hard to get it out, right?
- You don't. I don't. I don't let it out.
- [Kelly] You don't want it, yeah.
- But I think the people, you know? Now, it's kinda sad. Actually, when I came in here today, there's two big wooden doors out there. Those wooden doors, when you come into the facility, it looked great, but I see there's a lot of remodeling goin' on.
- Well, there is. You know, those wooden doors, if you look closely at them, you remember this. When JCK was first built, it was named among the ugliest buildings on college campus-
- Cheese grater.
- as the cheese grater. So if you look at those doors when you leave, it's actually an homage to the cheese grater windows.
- Oh.
- That's the design of those doors.
- Okay, that's kinda cool, no.
- Yeah, we're always remodeling here. And so-
- Well, and I was gonna say now, it has grown such. When I first came, 8,000 students.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- You know?
- 48,000 right now as we speak.
- [Karen] Yes.
- Yeah.
- So when I walk across, when I came in here today, these kids don't know me.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- What's the deal? How do you not know me? I'm kidding.
- That's gonna happen to me someday. Like, "Who's that old guy right there?"
- Exactly.
- Remember there was a guy here, I forget, Canadian, I think he was Canadian.
- He's losing his hair.
- Yeah, exactly.
- Yeah, that guy.
- Hey, that's been happening for a long time. All right, coach, this is where you get to be the podcast hostess here.
- I love it.
- So we ask our viewers to submit questions to the podcast, and this is a question for me. I've not seen the question, so it's pretty cold, so-
- Oh, this is a good one.
- They always say that.
- It is a good one.
- And then they stump me. But get ready to answer the question yourself if it's that good.
- Well, this one's easy for me.
- Okay.
- If you could coach any sport, Kelly, what sport would it be and why?
- You know, the sport, you know, I don't think people understand how complicated volleyball is. Like, you just think, "Oh, I got six girls out there. They hit the ball back and forth. If it lands in, it's in." You don't understand. And sometimes, you know, there's rotations that are set up and there's violations when people move before they should. Volleyball is a super technical sport that I don't think I could coach it because there's so much going on. And when I first started watching it, I was a novice. I wish I was good enough to coach golf because I'd love to be a better golfer.
- Yes.
- But I think, let's see. That's a good question.
- [Karen] I know.
- Maybe... I'm gonna go back to volleyball 'cause it's, for me-
- It's fun and-
- It's a fun sport and it is super complicated, and I understand it better than other sports. You know, sometimes I watch a football game-
- [Karen] Yeah.
- And I'm so constrict, 'cause I'm a novice, never played it, and I only watch the person who has the ball. And I have a friend who says, "Oh, I never watch the ball, I watch the offensive line 'cause I know where the ball's going." And he's a former football coach. And I go, "I never watched the line." And so that's probably it, if not hockey. But anyways-
- Yeah, I can see.
- So not volleyball, which would you do if it wasn't volleyball?
- Gosh, football. And I don't know enough about it, but I love football.
- Yeah, it's a great sport.
- It is a great sport here in Texas. And I understand you're hockey up in Canada, but probably I'd pick football.
- I'm way more college football fan than hockey fan now.
- Really?
- Hockey's in the rear view mirror for me 'cause I just grew up watching it all the time.
- [Karen] Yeah.
- But I love the pageantry. I love the fans. I love being outdoors. I don't love it when it's 100 degrees out.
- Oh, you know what, that's hot.
- But when the fall finally hits and you have a night game and you have the fireworks and the band and cheer, Strutters performing at halftime, this place is magical. When things are rocking here, it's really good. So if we can just get past the heat of the first couple games, so.
- You know, Kelly, it's a great day to be a Bobcat.
- It's always a great day to be a Bobcat.
- It's always a great day.
- Karen, thank you for joining us. It's always a pleasure to chat with you and share.
- I love this place.
- And, you know, I learned a couple things about your background I didn't know before.
- [Karen] Yeah, George.
- And your connection to George Strait, which is kinda cool.
- Yep, yep, yep.
- And thank you for representing us so well over the years as a coach.
- I appreciate that.
- And as one of our alumni. And thank you for not letting Texas State out of your blood because we always want, you know, we always say once a Bobcat, always a Bobcat.
- That's right.
- And we want people to feel that, so...
- Well, they know that when the time comes, my services are in the coliseum. You spread my ashes all around this place, you know? I'm not gonna let you guys forget who I am.
- Well, that's great. We never will.
- Okay, bless you.
- And thank you so much.
- Thank you for havin' me. It's been fun.
- Absolutely, thank you. And thank you for joining us as well. It's always a pleasure to learn more about what's happening at Texas State through "The Current." Until next time, everyone. States Up.
- I think getting to see kids come to campus and recruit 'em and watch their skill, but the other thing was teaching classes 'cause I got to know more than 12 kids.
- Yeah.
- You know? So I was teaching activity classes and one lecture course in the physical education, ESS or whatever it is now. But meeting more kids on campus and gettin' to know them, I really enjoyed meeting kids.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- You know, not just my volleyball players.
- Hey, Bobcats. Kelly Damphousse here, President at Texas State University. And welcome to "The Current," where we talk to faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends of the university to find out what is happening at Texas State. And today is a special day for me, because we get to hear from Coach Karen Chisum.
- Oh, bless you.
- [Kelly] Karen, thank you for joining us.
- Thank you for asking me. This is exciting. I haven't been to campus in a while.
- Oh, come on, you're on campus all the time on the other side, yeah.
- That's right. At the coliseum.
- You know, I was sitting at, I guess it was a volleyball game a couple nights ago, and I looked up and I was looking at all the banners, and I saw your name up there. And I was at 917-
- 19.
- 919. We're not leavin' any of those out.
- I read the banner also.
- 919 wins. They didn't put the losses up there, though.
- Good. It wasn't over 900.
- It was less-
- It was less than that.
- What a storied career. This morning, I was woken up with a text message by Ty Harrington, who was-
- What a guy.
- I was about to go on the radio, and he was wishing me luck, and I actually forgot I was gonna be on the radio that day.
- Thank you, Ty.
- And he woke me up and said, "Hey, good luck today." And I was thinkin' about all the great coaches that have been here. Coach Wacker, of course. Coach Franchione-
- Coach Fran.
- All the great coaches we've had here. Coach Woodard, who's still here by the way.
- She's still here.
- Over 900 wins as well. And then, of course, I thought about you.
- Oh, bless you.
- And then of course we're talkin' now this afternoon. People know about the wins and fewer people know about the losses, which is great, but they may not know the story of you. And that's why I love doing the podcast, to find out your Texas State story.
- [Karen] Yeah.
- And a lot of people may not know that you're also one of our alumni as well. So you're-
- I am.
- You're like a double-decker here. You're an alumnus and a former staff member and-
- And a friend.
- And a friend. All those things. All those things. So let's start with that. Let's start about your Texas State story. How'd you end up coming, like, where'd you grow up and then how'd you end up coming here?
- I will tell you, I was just sharing this with them. I grew up in a little town, Poteet, south of San Antonio.
- Yeah, I know Poteet.
- Poteet, strawberries. Until I was in the sixth grade, dad was in law enforcement, went to Pearsall. And that's where George Strait was two years behind me and his brother Buddy was in my class, and his dad was my math and science teacher.
- That is amazing.
- Yeah, no. Then we went out to Pecos, and I graduated from Pecos High School.
- [Kelly] Okay.
- Followed a cousin of mine up here to Southwest Texas. He was a year ahead of me, best friends and stuff. He played basketball, and I was playing tennis at that point and tried out for the tennis team, made it. No scholarships back then. I played because I wanted to.
- Yeah. No NIL money? No.
- Yeah, right. In fact, there was many times in my career that I wanted to take scholarships away from kids just to see if they'd still play.
- Yeah, that's interesting.
- But anyway, yes. Came up here, Coach Miller, Bill Miller, great guy who hired me. And I followed Karen Fredenburg, who I taught with at New Braunfels High School. Actually after I got out of school, went to San Marcos High School, then New Braunfels High School, and Karen and I taught together. And then she came up here as the basketball/volleyball coach, and she was more basketball, did not know anything about volleyball. So after a year, she called me from New Braunfels High School and said, "Would you consider coming up here?" I was goin', "Why not?" Anyway, interviewed with Coach Miller-
- Were you coaching at New Braunfels?
- [Karen] Oh yes, definitely.
- Okay.
- Coaching at New Braunfels High School.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Actually, we went to state a couple of years and great athletes at that point. Nell Fortner, who is now retired somehow, she's probably 33, not really. But she coached at Purdue, Georgia Tech, but she was the head coach of the women's Olympic basketball team in '96. So she's had a very successful career, but she helped me get to where I am.
- [Kelly] Mm-hmm.
- She played at University of Texas under Jody Conradt.
- Oh, yeah.
- Yeah, great athlete. But anyway, next thing I knew I was at Southwest Texas coaching volleyball, and I was a tennis and softball player.
- Yeah, that's funny-
- I was not a volleyballer. I was too small. And actually when I was in high school, volleyball was a spring sport and I was a tennis player. And, of course, back then girls could not play two sports. It was too strenuous.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- So I stuck with tennis. My sister played volleyball, so I followed 'em all the way. I was an athlete, so it wasn't really hard to adapt. But I had a great mentor at Goodnight Middle School here in San Marcos that was pro volleyball, and not literally professional, but just that was her niche.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And I started learning from her, and from there we just bam, bam, bam. And next thing I knew I was at the, well, at a college back then.
- Yeah, so it was a college back then.
- Oh, yeah. I came to Southwest Texas State College when I first came to school.
- Fascinating. What year was that?
- I graduated in '68. So I came up here as a student in '68, graduated in '72, and then came back as a coach in '78.
- '78.
- '78.
- Do you remember how much your first contract was?
- Yeah, my contract, $8,000 I think is what it was.
- 8,000.
- [Karen] 8,000.
- Wow.
- I started too early.
- You could make a living at 8,000, right?
- I was gonna say, look, yeah, back then.
- Yeah.
- I just started too early.
- Yeah, you weren't buying coffees at coffee shops in-
- Oh my goodness.
- And you know what?
- Gas was cheaper.
- I still don't buy coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker.
- Well, so you get here and you're, like, thrust into learning how to, not just how to coach, but how to coach a sport you never played. And the sport is not what it is today. I mean-
- Oh, not at all.
- It is unbelievable the growth and attention.
- Yeah, evolution of volleyball, big time.
- Yeah, it's unbelievable. But that must've been pretty trying times to figure out what you're doing there.
- Well, again, I had coached at the high school level, but I also had to teach. Back then you taught classes.
- [Kelly] Oh.
- So I had six hours of teaching in the physical education department and then coaching, you know? And we were AIAW then when I first came.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- 'Cause NCAA didn't allow women to participate. And then I think it was '71, '72 that they opened up the doors for women in Southwest Texas, moved into the NCAA.
- Now there was already a team here.
- Yes.
- But you have to start recruiting players. What was it like recruiting back then?
- Well, back then they could come to campus. And one, I was assistant coach for two years-
- Okay.
- Sorry, here under Chris Mayhew. But kids came to campus to try out. We didn't leave campus.
- You weren't like flying to Miami and trying to recruit a kid out there.
- I might've gone to San Marcos High School. Maybe New Braunfels High School. We did not have the money to do that. No, we had tryouts on campus.
- So they would come to campus and tryout.
- [Karen] Yes, yes.
- Our cheerleaders do the same thing now. So they come to campus, and they try out, and so on. Yeah, so that's a different deal.
- Oh, definitely.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And again, Division II, you know, you had eight scholarships back then and I think Division II still might have the same. But you could split 'em.
- Yeah. Oh, yeah, partial scholarships.
- They were, you know, partial scholarships and stuff. So give the setter, you know, $300 and the hitter $400, and you were good.
- That's hilarious.
- It's different.
- Yeah, who were you playing back then? What conference-
- Lone Star conference.
- [Kelly] So Lone Star Conference, and so-
- The very first year was a Gulf Star Conference.
- Okay.
- And it lasted one year. And then we went to Lone Star. So it was East Texas A&M, East Texas then, San Angelo, TWU-
- Was Sam Houston in that?
- Sam Houston and SFA have been with us forever, until we left and went to the Sun Belt.
- Yeah. Wow, that's amazing.
- They were with us forever.
- What are your favorite memories from back then? We'll move into more recent time, but, like, early, early on when you're trying to grow this program.
- I think getting to see kids come to campus and recruit 'em and watch their skill, but the other thing was teaching classes 'cause I got to know more than 12 kids.
- Yeah.
- You know? So I was teaching activity classes and one lecture course in the physical education, ESS or whatever it is now. But meeting more kids on campus and gettin' to know them, I really enjoyed meeting kids.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- You know, not just my volleyball players.
- We should get Coach Huiet to teach a couple classes.
- Yeah, right, good luck.
- It's a different deal, though.
- Totally.
- You couldn't do it-
- You don't have time now.
- 'Cause those jobs, it's a full-time job.
- And look how many assistants he has now. Here I'm gettin' off course.
- How many assistants do you have?
- I had one for a long time, and then I got two. So that's how Sean got up here, we got two.
- That's hilarious.
- But no, you know, it's just fun. We played, Kelly, our first two years, they were adding on to the, they were building the coliseum.
- Well, I was gonna ask where you played at the beginning.
- Upstairs in the gym where gymnastics is goin' down.
- Wow, so in Jowers.
- The other side. In Jowers. Yes, in Jowers.
- [Kelly] Wow.
- And one year we played out at San Marcos High School because of the construction or something. And then we got to come into the coliseum with the wall. You were never here with the wall.
- No, but I saw pictures of it, and I thought it was a gym somewhere. And they said, "No, that's where Castro room now.
- Yeah, it stopped, exactly.
- There was a wall there 'cause they ran out of money-
- That was the end of it.
- And they said, "Let's just build a wall there."
- Yes, that was the end of it.
- I can't even picture it now. I mean, I can't imagine it. I've seen pictures of it, but I just can't imagine, first, why we did it and then how it even worked.
- [Karen] Money.
- Yeah, money, right?
- Well, what's fun about the wall, student-athletes can come back now that played there and goin', "Oh my gosh, it looks so different." But the wall was a big white wall, had maroon and gold stripes on it. But one of our men's volleyball club kids at that point was into arts and Styrofoam building stuff. Anyway, he made me a SWT volleyball, big Styrofoam letters, and we put up on the wall during volleyball season, and it came down as soon as volleyball was over. But it made the wall so attractive. I don't know why they never put basketball up there.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- But one of the stories, if you don't mind.
- Yeah.
- When we had one of the floods, we've had two or three-
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- The wall, you probably heard this, came gushing into the coliseum, and it was up about 12 feet in the coliseum.
- [Kelly] Wow.
- Of course, we lost all of our equipment that was downstairs. And the floor, when it was over, it looked like a skating board world-class facility. No, we've gone through a lot of things in that coliseum that you've missed.
- Well, I'm glad to miss it and I hope it doesn't happen again.
- And the snakes and the bats, you know, no.
- There was a bird in there the other day, and it was kind of distracting.
- I believe it. Yes, no.
- I'm curious about what kinda crowds did you have back then.
- Oh, 2 or 300.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- [Karen] No-
- We had a huge crowd the other day.
- Oh yeah, no, that was great. We built up to that. But way back, what you're asking about, no.
- Now, I wanna talk about family for a second. You just made me think about this. I love volleyball, as you know.
- [Karen] I do.
- It's one of my favorite sports 'cause my daughter played it. So I grew up in the club.
- [Karen] Oh, yeah.
- We grew up together in the club environment. And I love going, but what I especially love, when Beth and I would go on the road to watch us play and tournaments and so on, all the moms and dads are there.
- Exactly.
- [Kelly] It continues-
- It's a new family.
- Yeah, and they're like best friends with all the moms and dads sitting together. And you're in a hostile environment 'cause you're going somewhere else to play, and they kinda get together and they've got cheers and they got signs and so on.
- Oh, yes.
- And it's a different kinda sport for that because the way the parents travel with the team.
- You know, and as we recruited kids, and talking about that, family vacations were always geared around wherever the volleyball tournaments were, you know? And so often I'd hear it, once their kid graduated, it was harder for the parents-
- Oh, yeah.
- than it was for the student-athletes.
- I went through withdrawal-
- You know, no, exactly.
- when Kristen didn't wanna play her senior year because she was done, right?
- Sure.
- At club, after the high school season was over, I said, "No, you're playing your senior year." 'Cause I wasn't ready-
- I wanna go. I know.
- I was a team dad.
- I know, exactly.
- I was organizing the hotel stays and going to the Battle at the Fort and so on.
- Good for you. I know, exactly.
- And I loved going to the tournaments. And then when she finally did go off to college that spring-
- [Karen] Miss it.
- I was like antsy, like I should be doing something here because it was so, essentially a big part of our lives, yeah.
- Exactly.
- Yeah, and such a great sport.
- Exactly.
- So let's fast forward a little bit. You've been here for a while. You start becoming more successful. We transitioned into the coliseum, and volleyball starts to grow in attendance-
- The sport itself.
- It's amazing. There's been some schools that have had, like, put the game in a football stadium and had, like, 80,000 people, exactly. But it's not just those one-off things. People watching it, the viewership on TV is really strong, and people are just talking about-
- The sport.
- Volleyball in the way it hadn't been talked about before. So when did you feel like this is a different thing than it was before?
- You know, I don't know if I really ever did.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- I guess I just gradually moved in with it.
- You grew with it, yeah.
- Yeah, I grew with it.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Probably one of the biggest changes when I knew that we hit big time was that locker room, my last two years. Our locker room used to be this size, not even this big. And when we got that new-
- You're dressing in the hallway and stuff like that.
- Exactly. Got into that new locker room, and it's so nice, Kelly.
- Yeah.
- That's when I knew, hey, they're puttin' some money into it and we're a legitimate Division I volleyball program.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- That was huge.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- That was huge. And our kids were just in heaven.
- Yeah. So, you know, looking back over your career, do you have, like, a favorite win, a moment that really sticks in your head?
- I knew you were there.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Well-
- You've got 'em right. It's like favorite kids maybe, but, you know.
- I can't talk about the favorite kids. That's-
- Yeah.
- When one of the NCAA tournaments, when we beat Rice up in Austin for that second round, the first time we won the second round match, or the first round, I'm sorry, first round-
- That puts you into the second round.
- Yes, that puts into the second round. 'Cause 85% of the times we were faced with Texas.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- You know? We're close to Austin, geographical, go play UT.
- That happens with a lot of our sports. Like, they do it kinda regionally-
- Yes, or A&M. That's right.
- Either A&M or Texas all the time.
- But that year, we'd had a really good year. So we were the 3-seed instead of the 4-seed. And we played Rice.
- [Kelly] Uh-huh.
- And we beat 'em, I think it might've been five. I don't know. But that win was historic for the whole university, for the volleyball program, for me. That was major. That was fun.
- So you hired this young man to come be your assistant coach.
- What's his name? Oh, no.
- Is it Sean? Does he go by Sean?
- And that was like 16 years ago. Oh, when I left, he'd been with me 16 years.
- Oh, so that's been 20 years ago.
- Yeah. 22, yeah.
- 22 years ago. So you hire Sean to be your assistant. Did you know, like, was there something about him that struck him when you first-
- His personality.
- [Kelly] Yeah, yeah.
- He and I have very similar personalities, to talk to the wall.
- Yeah.
- But Tracy Smith, used to be McWilliams, she was my number one and she was with me at least that long. She was huge. She was the technical person. She had that eye. She was great. So he was gonna be our second assistant. And I'd had a male, before I tell you, I never wanted a male 'cause I wanted to be a mentor to female coaches so they could move on. But Zach Shaver, I had one year, and he made things so much easier, puttin' up the net, moving the big boxes. Ain't that sad?
- [Kelly] No.
- [Karen] But hittin' balls-
- We need someone who's with a strong back, yeah.
- Yes, hittin' balls at the kids. And at that point I thought, "Eh, there is an advantage to having that arm and that strength." And I don't even remember who else interviewed, or other people I interviewed, but when I interviewed Sean, he just kind of grew on me.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- But his personality was a whole lot. He was a people person.
- Yeah.
- And plus, he knew volleyball.
- At some point you say, "I'm gonna step down here." What was that transition like for you?
- That was hard.
- I think people, after a certain point, and I find this even myself, you start being identified by what you do, not who you are.
- Exactly.
- And there's this fear of like, "Boy," one thing, "If I leave, this thing's gonna fall apart," and second, "What happens to me when I leave?" Talk about that transition for you.
- I will. I never worried about the program itself-
- Yeah, 'cause you knew-
- Because of who I hired. And he had already said, "Coach, come up anytime you want," and my kids were still there.
- Yeah.
- I'd have 'em another three or four years. The transition itself. And, you know, everybody, you're right, everybody knew me up here-
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- in San Marcos or around the state. And I thought, "Okay, no biggie." My partner used to say, "Karen, I don't wanna go out to dinner 'cause people know you, and you talk the whole time. We never have any," and whatever, get over it. The year after, this is 2019, that was my last season, December. I'm gonna turn 70 in June. My nephew, who basically we've raised, we consider our son, was taking his kids to Disneyland like December 9. So I decided, you know, I'm gonna take this five or six days to go. And I went to Disneyland with 'em, and I had that time to think about it. And I thought, "Dang, I'm enjoying these kids. I'm enjoying being with Ricky and the kids." And when I came back, talking it over to Erin and stuff, I just knew it was time. And I also knew that in a couple of months or so I needed to have a knee replacement.
- Ah.
- And turning 70, coaching is really a young person's sport. And I still love what I did. Trust me, I love Texas State and the Bobcats, but I figured, you know, I put 48 years in the education, 42 at Southwest Texas, Texas State, I can let go.
- Yeah.
- And that wasn't hard. I picked up pickleball, I had my knee replaced. That was hard.
- Pickleball. Yeah, yeah.
- No.
- My wife's had both her knees replaced.
- Me, too, now.
- And it is hard.
- It's not fun. But somehow along the line, New Braunfels' pickleball came along. They have a club, inside club, started playin'. And now, Kelly, I have a new group of friends, a new family, kinda my pickleball family, my Bobcat family, my Chisum family.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- But that's been great. So I play every day at 11 o'clock.
- One of the things I think is interesting is people who make the transition-
- Mm-hmm.
- Sometimes they just fade away and you never see 'em again.
- [Karen] No.
- And they go away and they say, "Hey, I worked there, but now that I'm done, I'm leaving." But you were one of the first people I met here. I was at a game and you came down and introduced yourself to me. And you were very humble-
- I remember that.
- Because you were introduced as, I used to coach here and you went away, and then later on I looked up and I saw, I think that's the lady that just said hi to me and her name is up there in the rafters. But you didn't fade away. You stayed, you kept coming back.
- I gotta tell you, football's one of my favorite sports.
- Yeah.
- And coaching volleyball, I didn't get to see a lot of our games 'cause we were gone or we were playin'. So I always said, "Once I quit, I'm gonna be in the stands for every football game, and every basketball game, and, you know, all the sports. I wanna be the best fan there is." And I've done a pretty good job with it. But, again, now, with my grandsons that I'm seeing are in high school, they're playing sports, I've gotta make decisions. "Do I go watch a family event or do I get to go back to the Bobcat?" And family normally wins it just 'cause of blood.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- But yes, I see a lot of events on campus.
- There's a little group of you guys that always sit together-
- Yeah, exactly.
- which is fun for me to watch.
- Yeah, Johnny Colmenero. Yeah, we go a lot of places together.
- No, what I love, though, is that this has become like a new little family for you, little Bobcat family, these group of-
- Mm-hmm, the retirees.
- Yeah, retirees. And you all are really a nexus of, like, you guys are so consistent at being at all the games and all the events and loving on our student-athletes and hugging our coaches.
- Oh, bless you. Thank you.
- You know how hard it is the wins don't feel as good as the losses hurt. And so when times are tough, you need someone who's got your back.
- You know, and you're right about that.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- But yeah, and Sean has, with volleyball, he opened the doors to me.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- So I'll go to practice-
- Some coaches don't want the old coach to come back, right?
- [Karen] No, exactly.
- Don't. This is my place.
- No. I feel very comfortable going in that coliseum, whether it's for practices or the, I like to watch, I go across, I sit across, I sit behind you-
- Yeah.
- And make sure Sean knows. The first year, when the challenge first came out, it hasn't been around forever. But, Kelly, I have to tell you, I was so excited when the challenge came out 'cause I thought I'd get a red flag, and I'd get to throw it on the flag. That didn't happen. That's such a true story. But anyway, there was times when in or out, he'd look up, and I'd say yes or no, you know?
- Yeah, you're like a coach in the-
- Yeah, from the other side. But, no.
- Do you ever, like, go and say, "Oh," or you're probably sittin' there like, I do this, like call a timeout. We need a time out, like... But you're like a normal fan, right?
- Yeah, no.
- You're not like, "Oh, he needs to be playing that setter."
- No.
- Yeah.
- I might think it to myself, but I would never-
- You don't text him and say, "Hey-"
- No.
- Yeah, that's good.
- It's his. It's his.
- You have to, right? And someday I hope I have the courage to let this thing go and not be texting my successor and goin', "Hey, don't forget, we start," you know? You gotta let it go.
- You do. But, again, I found something to, I hate to say replace it, but add to my life.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- I had an addition.
- Yeah. We talked a little bit about how things have evolved here at Texas State and in volleyball, a little bit about how volleyball has grown, but what about changes in the sport itself, like rules and things like that, how has that changed things?
- You mentioned that 'cause I was gonna tell you, oh, it's tough. When I first started, you had six players on the court and they all had the same color uniform, unless somebody forgot one. And then they didn't go in. That's all there was to it. But yes, the libero position came along. And that first year, 'cause Tracy and Sean both coach club, and it went into club before it got to the university.
- Okay.
- So they understood it 'cause I was lost. When can she go in? So Sean and Tracy, I guess Tracy was in charge of the libero.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause I'd be puttin' 'em. And then the sideout. It used to be a sideout you could only score-
- When you were serving.
- When you're serving.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Yeah. And that was to speed up the game-
- Well, the games would last forever.
- That's why, TV. You couldn't get 'em on TV because they didn't know if it'd be two and a half or three and a half, or four hours long. So that was a big reason for the change in the rally scoring. The libero, to make the rallies longer, put your better kids on the back row where they can dig those big, instead of having that 6'2" middle blocker in the back that couldn't play defense-
- Yeah.
- You know, pass that hit and point's over.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- But now you had the defensive specialist, which helped. It's just exciting. And I think fans like the rally scoring because something has happened and a point was scored.
- Yeah.
- It wasn't just, "Oh, there's still no score up there."
- I will say when you're behind, I hate it, when you're ahead, it's still too slow.
- Yes, exactly.
- And so it's such a fun sport, right?
- You know, and at one point when we first changed score, we used to play till 15.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And then it went to 30, but that was too long.
- I did not know that, yeah.
- And maybe one or two years, and then back to 25. And I think they found the right timing for TV, which helped grow the sport.
- It has to be long enough 'cause you don't want it to be a 45-minute game, right?
- Bam, bam, bam, no.
- And sometimes it is when you have one team that's overpowering the other one doesn't last very long, but it is growing. And women's sports in general is growing. People's appreciation for it is changing. It's gonna be another change-
- Isn't that amazing?
- for you to see how many people wanna watch women's sports.
- Isn't that amazing?
- Yeah.
- But television, TV, you got almost any night now, you can watch volleyball on TV.
- Yeah, yeah.
- And of course, I have to go to WNBA, and Caitlin Clark, and how she helped grow women's basketball, which opened up the door for all women's sports. It's amazing.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Television does a lot.
- You're one of the Texas State super fans. I'm gonna give you an opportunity now. What's your favorite thing about Texas State?
- First, when I was here, is people.
- Yeah.
- And I guess it's still the people. But my blood is Bobcat blood.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- So-
- It's hard to get it out, right?
- You don't. I don't. I don't let it out.
- [Kelly] You don't want it, yeah.
- But I think the people, you know? Now, it's kinda sad. Actually, when I came in here today, there's two big wooden doors out there. Those wooden doors, when you come into the facility, it looked great, but I see there's a lot of remodeling goin' on.
- Well, there is. You know, those wooden doors, if you look closely at them, you remember this. When JCK was first built, it was named among the ugliest buildings on college campus-
- Cheese grater.
- as the cheese grater. So if you look at those doors when you leave, it's actually an homage to the cheese grater windows.
- Oh.
- That's the design of those doors.
- Okay, that's kinda cool, no.
- Yeah, we're always remodeling here. And so-
- Well, and I was gonna say now, it has grown such. When I first came, 8,000 students.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- You know?
- 48,000 right now as we speak.
- [Karen] Yes.
- Yeah.
- So when I walk across, when I came in here today, these kids don't know me.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- What's the deal? How do you not know me? I'm kidding.
- That's gonna happen to me someday. Like, "Who's that old guy right there?"
- Exactly.
- Remember there was a guy here, I forget, Canadian, I think he was Canadian.
- He's losing his hair.
- Yeah, exactly.
- Yeah, that guy.
- Hey, that's been happening for a long time. All right, coach, this is where you get to be the podcast hostess here.
- I love it.
- So we ask our viewers to submit questions to the podcast, and this is a question for me. I've not seen the question, so it's pretty cold, so-
- Oh, this is a good one.
- They always say that.
- It is a good one.
- And then they stump me. But get ready to answer the question yourself if it's that good.
- Well, this one's easy for me.
- Okay.
- If you could coach any sport, Kelly, what sport would it be and why?
- You know, the sport, you know, I don't think people understand how complicated volleyball is. Like, you just think, "Oh, I got six girls out there. They hit the ball back and forth. If it lands in, it's in." You don't understand. And sometimes, you know, there's rotations that are set up and there's violations when people move before they should. Volleyball is a super technical sport that I don't think I could coach it because there's so much going on. And when I first started watching it, I was a novice. I wish I was good enough to coach golf because I'd love to be a better golfer.
- Yes.
- But I think, let's see. That's a good question.
- [Karen] I know.
- Maybe... I'm gonna go back to volleyball 'cause it's, for me-
- It's fun and-
- It's a fun sport and it is super complicated, and I understand it better than other sports. You know, sometimes I watch a football game-
- [Karen] Yeah.
- And I'm so constrict, 'cause I'm a novice, never played it, and I only watch the person who has the ball. And I have a friend who says, "Oh, I never watch the ball, I watch the offensive line 'cause I know where the ball's going." And he's a former football coach. And I go, "I never watched the line." And so that's probably it, if not hockey. But anyways-
- Yeah, I can see.
- So not volleyball, which would you do if it wasn't volleyball?
- Gosh, football. And I don't know enough about it, but I love football.
- Yeah, it's a great sport.
- It is a great sport here in Texas. And I understand you're hockey up in Canada, but probably I'd pick football.
- I'm way more college football fan than hockey fan now.
- Really?
- Hockey's in the rear view mirror for me 'cause I just grew up watching it all the time.
- [Karen] Yeah.
- But I love the pageantry. I love the fans. I love being outdoors. I don't love it when it's 100 degrees out.
- Oh, you know what, that's hot.
- But when the fall finally hits and you have a night game and you have the fireworks and the band and cheer, Strutters performing at halftime, this place is magical. When things are rocking here, it's really good. So if we can just get past the heat of the first couple games, so.
- You know, Kelly, it's a great day to be a Bobcat.
- It's always a great day to be a Bobcat.
- It's always a great day.
- Karen, thank you for joining us. It's always a pleasure to chat with you and share.
- I love this place.
- And, you know, I learned a couple things about your background I didn't know before.
- [Karen] Yeah, George.
- And your connection to George Strait, which is kinda cool.
- Yep, yep, yep.
- And thank you for representing us so well over the years as a coach.
- I appreciate that.
- And as one of our alumni. And thank you for not letting Texas State out of your blood because we always want, you know, we always say once a Bobcat, always a Bobcat.
- That's right.
- And we want people to feel that, so...
- Well, they know that when the time comes, my services are in the coliseum. You spread my ashes all around this place, you know? I'm not gonna let you guys forget who I am.
- Well, that's great. We never will.
- Okay, bless you.
- And thank you so much.
- Thank you for havin' me. It's been fun.
- Absolutely, thank you. And thank you for joining us as well. It's always a pleasure to learn more about what's happening at Texas State through "The Current." Until next time, everyone. States Up.
