Shymansky Dazzled in Return to UI

Feb. 3, 2014

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Shymansky News Conference Transcript

By DARREN MILLER
hawkeyesports.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Bond Shymansky has returned to his hometown of Iowa City, but he doesn’t plan to spend much time unpacking.

“Tomorrow night,” said Shymansky, the University of Iowa’s head volleyball coach, when asked when he would hit the recruiting trail. “My phone has been blowing up in a great way and I’m on it.”

Shymansky was introduced Monday as the ninth head coach in UI history. He takes over a program that last completed a winning season in 2000 (15-13 overall, 11-9 Big Ten Conference); the Hawkeyes are coming off an 11-win season, 2-18 in the league.

“The trappings are here in terms of the facility, but you see it in all the facilities for (UI) athletics,” Shymansky said at a news conference in Carver-Hawkeye Arena’s Feller Club Room. “I kept walking around here when I was on my interview, and every time we turned a corner I wanted to be able to say, `Oh wait, this is the problem, this is maybe why it’s not succeeding.’

“But I would turn each corner and go, `Oh wow.’ I shouldn’t be dazzled by that stuff, but I was dazzled.”

In seven seasons as head coach at Georgia Tech, Shymansky compiled a record of 172-64 with three trips to the NCAA Tournament. From 2009-13, he led Marquette to a record of 118-45 and three trips to the NCAA Tournament.

“Timing is everything,” Shymansky said. “There was a point where (UI director of athletics) Gary (Barta) and I talked a little bit the last go-around, and it just didn’t seem like the right timing. I still had some things to grow and learn and do as a coach. Now I feel I’m ready for that.”

Shymansky has a deep understanding of what it means to be a Hawkeye, as he earned a bachelor’s degree in communications in 1995 and a master’s in English education in 1997 from the UI. At various times early in his coaching career, Shymansky made stops at West, City and Regina high schools.

“I have all the bases covered here locally, and I love them all,” he said.

He also understands the talent level of volleyball in the state of Iowa and intends to lure the top student-athletes to become Hawkeyes. Five players on the UI roster are native Iowans: juniors Kari Mueller and Katie Kelley, sophomore Alli O’Deen and freshmen Alyssa Klostermann and Lauren Brobst.

“The volleyball talent in our state is awesome, it always has been,” Shymansky said. “This is still the Hawkeye state, and we’re going to beat every bush and turn over every stone. We’re going to find the talent that’s here.

“It’s not a warning, it’s a promise. We’re going to show them the best that Iowa volleyball can be and we’re going to ask them to buy into that vision. The right kid with the right guts that has that right chip on their shoulder, they’ll come be a part of it, and they’ll start doing it now.”

Middle blocker Alessandra Dietz is one of 14 Hawkeye returnees. Last season she had 220 kills and team-highs in blocks (112) and service aces (26).

“We’re excited; people in the volleyball world that I know keep saying, `Wow, you are so lucky, you have a great opportunity,'” Dietz said. “All I keep hearing is it is going to be a really bright future for Iowa volleyball.”

Shymansky has met several of the current Hawkeyes and he senses excitement and energy.

“I asked them very specifically, `What’s your identity? What are we building off?” Shymansky said. “They said work ethic. That’s the supreme foundation. I have to work really hard to help this be successful, so do they, so does the administration. Everybody is going to work really hard, so that’s a great place to start.”

The Big Ten is the strongest volleyball conference in the nation, as evidenced by the 2013 NCAA bracket. Eight league schools participated in the postseason with Penn State topping Wisconsin in the championship.

Shymansky said playing in the Big Ten is a positive, along with the facilities and people at the UI.

“It’s just going to take some tweaking, take some motivating, maybe some technical changing or system changing,” he said. “I believe what I like to do as a coach will help us win.”

Shymansky and his wife, Iowa City native Catherine (Cruikshank) Shymansky, have a daughter, Corrina and two sons, Nicholas and Bond, Jr.