STARKVILLE — David McFatrich knows how to build a winning program.
When Steven McRoberts hired McFatrich as an assistant volleyball coach at Central Arkansas in 2007, McFatrich knew a foundation needed to be laid to help the Sugar Bears become competitive in the Southland Conference and relevant on the national scene. In four seasons as an assistant coach, McFatrich helped UCA adjust to life at the Division I level and overcome provisional status and postseason limitations until 2010. In four seasons as a head coach at UCA, McFatrich helped elevate the program to another level, guiding it to two NCAA tournament appearances, two Southland Conference regular-season titles, and two conference tournament championships.
McFatrich knows he and his staff will have to go through a similar construction process at Mississippi State. He made that sentiment very clear Tuesday when he was introduced as MSU’s new volleyball coach in a news conference at the Bryan Building.
“I think it can be done here or else I wouldn’t be here, to be honest with you,” McFatrich said. “I feel like the ingredients are here. It just has to be the right mix. You have students and an athletic administration that are behind sports here. I think they are really behind volleyball because it just hasn’t been happening. It just feels like it is time to happen.”
McFatrich replaces Jenny Hazelwood, a former MSU volleyball player, who went 55-129 in six seasons as coach. In December, Hazelwood was reassigned to an administrative position in the MSU Athletic Department.
MSU went 7-26 this season. In six seasons, Hazelwood won 20 of her 116 Southeastern Conference matches. MSU has had only eight winning seasons in the 40-year history of the program. Six of those seasons came earlier than 2001. MSU’s last winning season was 2006 (17-13).
In four years at UCA, McFatrich went 96-36 and won 57 of his 68 Southland Conference games. McFatrich also had the Sugar Bears competing on a national stage, as UCA finished 2014 with an Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) of 44. McFatrich will inherit a roster with nine of 16 team members as sophomores or younger. This season, Payton Harris earned All-SEC freshman honors and ranked second nationally in digs and digs per set. She set the school record for digs in a season and finished second on the SEC single-season list.
McFatrich said he will examine everything associated with the program to find a way to reverse its fortunes.
“It’s not going to be an overnight thing,” McFatrich said. “Program-wise, we have some work to do, not just as a team, but we have work to do as a program. This is a program-build, and we want it to happen as quickly as possible, but we realize it can’t happen fast enough.”
McFatrich said he and McRoberts, who moved on to Tulsa before becoming the volleyball coach at Ole Miss prior to last season, went through a “program-build” at UCA, too. He said he initially didn’t want to get into coaching. A member of the Canada Masters Volleyball Team (2009-present), McFatrich has been a part of squads that have won three gold medals and two silver medals. Once he joined the building process, though, things came together in a relatively short amount of time. He said he had an offer to leave UCA with McRoberts and go to Tulsa, but he declined to stay and try to take the program to another level.
“(UCA) has been a good program,” McFatrich said. “We started winning divisions. They went away from divisions, so the next task as to win the conference. We were able to do that, so then we had to win the conference tournament to get a chance to go to the NCAA tournament. It was a build. It started out as a build or a maintain, or get better.
“I think the same model can be applied here. It has to start out as a build and then let’s maintain it. You can make big jumps early, but as you get into it the jumps are going to be smaller and smaller, but you still have to keep making the jumps.”
MSU Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin said McFatrich isn’t afraid to do things differently, which he feels fits the mold of coaches at MSU. He said in a press release that McFatrich has the “vision” to be great. He said he also has ” an aggressive style with high energy that connects well with his student-athletes.” He said McFatrich agreed to a four-year contract.
“I don’t know if another program has dominated their league the last eight years the way Central Arkansas has done it in the Southland Conference,” Stricklin said. “Looking at where they were before David became an assistant there as part of the process with Steven McRoberts, you see what happened is pretty remarkable. It wasn’t something that was just handed to them. That is something that was developed and created, and that is a huge credit to them.”
Stricklin believes McFatrich’s mind-set will help him affect a change. He said McFatrich understands the work ethic he and everyone in his staff will need to have to change MSU’s trajectory.
“You do have to be different here to be really good,” Stricklin said. “In my conversations with him, he broke down stylistically on the court things they do that are totally different than what other people do, but there is a rhyme and a reason and a method to it. You have to be confident enough in what you are doing to be different.
“He doesn’t just want to come in her and be good. He wants to be great. Who would have ever thought our football team would be No. 1 in the country? That was our goal, to have a football team that could compete for championships. Dan (Mullen) used to say that and everybody would laugh at him. We want a volleyball team that competes for championships. We’re a long way from that right now, but that is going to be our vision and our goal. He has won championships at Central Arkansas. The SEC is different, but the game is the same. I have a lot of faith he is going to be able to put us in position to compete for championships.”
McFatrich said he will approach that task as a “grinder,” or someone who isn’t outworked or who doesn’t let obstacles or excuses stand in his way. He said he had a good feeling as soon as he stepped onto the campus. That sense continued in each meeting he attended and increased as he felt a momentum at MSU that pleasantly surprised him. His goal is to bring that same enthusiasm to the volleyball program.
“We don’t see any reason Mississippi State can’t be as successful as the top half of the conference,” McFatrich said. “There is no reason. We do have rebuilding to do. To b quite honest, it is not just rebuild. To be quite candid, some of it is just plain building, so me and my staff are in it for the long haul. We are grinders. We are aggressive. We want to go for it.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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