Jeff Nygaard enters new phase coaching men’s volleyball

Jeff Nygaard did not always know that he would make a career out of volleyball. Named the head coach of the men’s volleyball program this past summer after five seasons as an assistant coach on former head coach Bill Ferguson’s staff, Nygaard did not grow up obsessing over the game. In fact, he only began to play volleyball in the fall of his freshman year of high school because his basketball coach required each member of the team to play another sport in the fall.

“I was too tall for track, and I didn’t like football,” Nygaard, 6-foot-8, said. “So I played volleyball.”

It turned out to be a good decision. Nygaard, who wound up winning three Olympic medals and two collegiate MVP awards in a long and successful career, quickly led his Robert M. La Follette High School squad to two state championships. Needless to say, Nygaard attracted attention from some volleyball powerhouses, including UCLA.

He accepted the Bruins’ scholarship. It was just large enough that he could afford out-of-state tuition for one year. Nygaard admitted he did not know if he would be able to stay at UCLA for more than a year because finances were an issue. He was just grateful for the opportunity to play volleyball one more year, and he hustled on the court to increase his scholarship.

“There was volleyball and school,” Nygaard said. “I wasn’t [at UCLA] to waste my family’s money.”

The ’92 season went by and Nygaard improved enough to boost his sophomore scholarship. In ’93, he was co-Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Tournament on the Bruins’ National Championship team. In ’94 and ’95, he repeated as National Player of the Year and in his senior year led UCLA to a 31-1 record and another National Championship. He finished second all-time at UCLA in kills (1,800) and blocks (658), fourth in aces (123) and 10th in digs (571). He is also first all-time in blocking average (1.88), second in kills per game (5.14) and third in kill percentage (.427).

Nygaard attributes his collegiate success to his playing at the highest levels internationally. In 1991, he tried out for the Men’s Junior National Team and was cut within the first hour, but he improved so much that two years later, he showed up and was told he already had a spot on the team. After playing abroad with the juniors, Nygaard practiced with the National B Team.

“The B Team was on one half of the gym and a curtain separated the A Team on the other half, and we were always looking over to see what they were doing,” Nygaard said. “One day someone got hurt or quit or something, and they walked over to our side and pointed at me and said, ‘You, come on, we need a middle.’”

Thus began Nygaard’s eight-year career on the men’s national team, which included the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Nygaard remembers exactly when he realized he could make a career out of volleyball. It was during his first tournament with the national team: the 1994 World Championships in Greece, where the team played 11 matches in 13 days.

“It was game five versus Cuba that I finally broke through to that other side,” Nygaard said. “From that moment forward, my game blossomed.”

Nygaard — just 22 at the time — was still awestruck by his teammates. He didn’t talk much, but as he was leaving the airport after the tournament, he received an unexpected compliment.

“[USC Hall of Famer] Bryan Ivie of all people turned to me and said, ‘Hey Nygaard. Good job,’” Nygaard said. “Having Ivie — who I still think is the greatest player I’ve ever played with — tell me that let me know that I earned the right to compete at the next level.”

In 1996, when Nygaard was in his prime, USA men’s volleyball finished a disappointing ninth, failing to qualify for the quarterfinals from Group A. In 2000, Nygaard had all kinds of ailments and only played one point for a US team that went 0-5 and tied for last with Egypt.

“The non-glorified reality of [Sydney] is I had mono, jaundice, strep, fever, night sweats,” Nygaard said. “I was a mess. I got quarantined. [All] I needed was a Z-Pak — which is a steroid — so I couldn’t take it. I just kept getting more and more symptoms. I couldn’t eat for four days. [The doctors] tried to give me an IV, but I was so dehydrated they couldn’t find a vein. Yet, I was still practicing.”

After Sydney, Nygaard had reached a fork in his career path. He was 28 — old for volleyball — and was not getting as much playing time. Furthermore, he had lost so much of his love of volleyball. In a word, he said he was “depressed.”

And then his head coach Doug Beal called him into his office.

“Thanks for your years, but you’re done here,” Beal said.

The news devastated Nygaard, but it helped him move forward and toward the next phase.

Nygaard moved back to California to contemplate an advanced degree and to transition into beach volleyball on the Association of Volleyball Professionals’ circuit.

“Life was volleyball, volleyball, volleyball,” Nygaard said. “Not that I was fanatical about it. That’s just who I was. Beach opened up the fact that I actually loved playing again. I liked competing and training.”

In his second year in the AVP, Nygaard won his first tournament — the 2002 Hermosa Beach Open — and was “hooked.” He became one of just three players since 1986 to win a title in one of his first 10 events.

In 2003, he won an AVP-high three events, took in the most prize money and won AVP Most Valuable Player. He teamed up with gold-medalist Dain Blanton who had approached him about winning gold in Athens in 2004. Together they won AVP Team of the Year and two tournaments internationally (in the FIVB), but fell short of the podium in Greece (finishing 19th).

“Of the three Olympics, that was the hardest one to earn,” Nygaard said. “It was an about-face, and I had to go all-in to make it.”

Athens may have been the toughest, but all three Olympic experiences were special for Nygaard.

“In 1996, we lost and our hearts were broken,” Nygaard said. “Some of the veterans put the loss [in perspective], and I realized realistically there are worse things. Two-thousand wasn’t storybook, but I obtained that goal [of making the team]. After 2004, it was way easier for me to detach [because of all I had learned].”

Nygaard continued playing in the AVP through 2010, racking up more wins in 2004, 2005 and 2009. His seven career wins rank him 50th all-time. Around the same time, shoulder problems were holding him back and he was about ready to step away from the game as a player. So he considered coaching.

“The longer you play, the more you end up mentoring the younger guys,” Nygaard said. “Then you just put yourself in those situations where you do end up coaching more and more. As you get older, the pool of the older wiser guys gets smaller and smaller. Eventually, you’re just it.”

Nygaard had a lifetime of volleyball wherewithal and wanted to “give it its due.”

“I had to try [coaching] for at least two or three years to see if I took to it,” Nygaard said. “I also saw far too many of my contemporaries finish volleyball and have nothing. I vowed to not be one of those guys. I had too many responsibilities — a mortgage, a wife, a kid — I was not about to just quit playing volleyball and have nothing.”

The AVP was going bankrupt, Nygaard’s body was breaking down, and he was looking to coach — but he had no coaching experience. But perfect timing enabled Nygaard to wind up at USC as an assistant to Bill Ferguson.

“I told Bill if someone was to offer me a job here and now, I would take it without a second’s hesitation,” Nygaard said.

Indeed, Ferguson gave him an interview and subsequently the job. Hence began Nygaard’s sojourn into coaching.

Nygaard has only played volleyball five times since he retired. He doesn’t miss it.

“I’ve mentally decided not to do it,” Nygaard said. “I’ve got three kids and a wife and a demanding job. I don’t see very many windows for me to compete and have fun, nor do I make those opportunities available. There is laundry to do, food to be cooked, dishes to be cleaned, the yard to mow and recruiting opportunities. I’m all in with this.”

The people he has met and his accomplishments throughout his career is enveloped in his coaching methodology.

“I think I am a collaboration and collection of everyone who taught me the game,” Nygaard said. “Even if the coach was terrible, that guy still somehow taught me patience.”

Nygaard also has quotes from Doc Rivers and John Wooden hanging in his office, but his main role model was UCLA Hall of Famer Al Scates.

“Scates didn’t deal in emotions,” Nygaard said. “He just expected you to compete.”

Nygaard’s style is similar: “dry and point blank.” If something needs to get done in practice or in game, Nygaard tells it to his players straight. He expects accountability and communication from his players and wants to foster those values in the volleyball program.

This season, his first at the helm, both accountability and communication have been operating “around 10 percent” of what he wants to build in his program.

“This year, we’ve simplified a lot of the messages and made them digestible,” Nygaard said. “Now, we’re competing at an acceptable level.”

As a first-year head coach, Nygaard’s thinking about his team and his program has had to change a lot throughout the course of the year. USC started ranked No. 12 nationally but quickly exited the NCAA poll for the first time since 2013. The rest of the year has been rockier. The team has two matches remaining at No. 1 BYU and a 7-17, 5-15 MPSF record to date. No one expected the Trojans to perform this poorly, and the swing of emotions has certainly made an impact on the head coach.

“I don’t think I’ve grown more in a year in my life, or experienced the human condition — the spectrum of emotion, feelings and experiences — on such a deep level every single way that I could imagine,” Nygaard said. “I can take one look at most of the guys on the team and know exactly where they are.”

He acknowledges that his style is different than Ferguson’s, and because of that, the program is in transition. However, by implementing a culture that “sustains accountability and communication,” Nygaard wants to recreate national championships for USC — a school with a tremendous volleyball legacy, including four national titles, but none since 1990.

“USC demands excellence [and] I have always expected to win every match of my career,” Nygaard said. “I do believe that we can recreate a winning culture here. There’s momentum, energy, untapped potential.”

In doing so, Nygaard would be adding to the long and storied legacy of USC athletics.

“There’s a long path ahead of us,” Nygaard said, before pointing at a “Fight On!” lettering hanging over his head on his office wall. “But with the powers that be at ’SC, it’s definitely possible.”