Head coach Brian Gimmillaro has been called demanding, tough and strict. But what could be intimidating for some, has been motivating for Long Beach State’s women’s volleyball team.
“You can’t come here wanting the easy road,” 1998 alumna Misty May-Treanor said. “If you come to Long Beach, you can’t expect to be patted on the back, and kind of everything’s okay. He expects certain things and he’s going to pull that out of you.”
Former and current players thought they knew what this program was about and what it took to play here.
“When I first came here, we did have a team meeting before and they kind of went over how Brian was and what to expect, but it doesn’t really prepare you,” senior co-captain Chelsea Cabrajac said.
Senior co-captain Tyler Jackson experienced first hand for four years all the expectations that were talked about during those team meetings.
“I almost peed my pants; I was really nervous because the team was telling us all these rules we had to do,” senior co-captain Tyler Jackson said. “We couldn’t paint our nails, we had to wear our shirts tucked in and all this [stuff].”
But Gimmillaro does more than just yell and demand.
“It wasn’t one day you get the strict coach, the next day you get the coach that wants to be your friend,” former assistant coach Debbie Green-Vargas said. “Would he yell? Would he stop practices and call people out? Yes. I don’t think I could’ve taken 23 years of that if that was all he did when he coached, but he also would praise players.
Green-Vargas mentioned that when she worked for Gimmillaro, she felt he cared for his players, and would be there for them if they needed anything.
“He’s very tough,” May-Treanor said. “I consider him very tough, but at the same time, he’s the first one to be like, ‘Hey, you did this excellent today.’ There was a good balance, but he really demands a lot.”
Players expect that when they come to LBSU, they won’t only get leadership and experience, but also success.
“I just knew that he turned players into great All-Americans and everything like that, so that’s where I wanted to be,” senior Bre Mackie said.
Now in his 30th year, Gimmillaro has led the program to its 27th NCAA Tournament appearance.
EXCELLENCE IS NOT A SINGULAR ACT
Success has followed Gimmillaro everywhere.
Before coming to LBSU, Gimmillaro was the business manager for the women’s volleyball Olympic team.
In addition to his Olympic commitments, he was coaching at Gahr High School in Cerritos.
“My friend started the program, then I joined in and we co-coached the team,” Gimmillaro said. “It was fun. We weren’t very good.”
Under his coaching, the school won four CIF Southern Section Championships. He recorded a 142-15 record in eight years and sent eight consecutive teams to the CIF Playoffs.
In 1983 and ’84, the school won Division I state championships, and in ’84, the school received a national No. 1 ranking.
“I was lucky enough to have met John Wooden one time over lunch, and he said to me the year we went undefeated in college, ‘You weren’t undefeated, how many sets did you lose?’ And he said, ‘Why did you lose them?’ And now I’m looking at those 15 [matches lost] and thought, “How did we lose those games? What’s wrong with us?” Gimmillaro said laughing.
[pullquote align=”right” speaker=”Debbie Green-Vargas”]It wasn’t one day you get the strict coach, the next day you get the coach that wants to be your friend[/pullquote]He took over the Long Beach State women’s volleyball program on Aug. 1, 1985 – when it was a program that he said was in the bottom of the league, had some bad years and really didn’t have any recruits for a few years.
“That didn’t matter,” Gimmillaro said. “All that mattered was I was hired to develop a program. That’s all I thought about. I really didn’t think about future, and I certainly didn’t think about past.”
Within the same year, he asked 1984 Olympians Green-Vargas and Rita Crockett if they would be willing to join his coaching staff. Both were living in Long Beach at the time.
“I told him, ‘Okay, I’ll coach for one year. Maybe two at the most,’” Green-Vargas joked. She went on to coach under Gimmillaro for 23 years.
In Gimmillaro’s first year coaching LBSU with Green-Vargas, the program went into the NCAA playoffs and was ranked in the top 20 for the first time in school history. Four years later, they won the school’s first NCAA championship.
“It was the first time and it was great, it was pretty exciting to do something that hadn’t been done,” Gimmillaro said. “I was lucky enough to have some dedicated, good athletes that hadn’t been successful yet, but we worked incredibly hard to be successful.”
Success for Gimmillaro started from the first practice.
After watching the 1984 Olympic team play and train, Gimmillaro wanted to adopt the idea of a faster offense to his 49er team.
Green-Vargas said it was what her and Crockett played, and it was quicker than what most college teams ran. “It was hard for [opponents] to defend because they didn’t practice against [a fast offense],” she said.
May-Treanor said Gimmillaro’s practices weren’t easy. He would pull things out of players that they didn’t know they could do.
“He demanded things physically,” May-Treanor said. “When we went into games you knew you were prepared and the games seemed easy, and that’s how it’s supposed to be. Practice is supposed to be very difficult, it’s supposed to push you beyond your limits mentally and physically, so when you get to a game you’re like, ‘Okay, this is it?’”
May-Treanor said some of the most challenging games that the ’98 team played were the ones played against themselves in scrimmages.
“He had a system, and you would go with the system,” Green-Vargas said. “Be disciplined and exact.”
“He’s very technical,” senior co-captain Chelsea Cabrajac said. “He wants everything to happen a certain way, and his technique works so you got to buy into it.”
Long Beach runs in his veins
Gimmillaro’s heart has always been in Long Beach. He’s an alumnus of LBSU. His two kids went to public school in Long Beach. This is where he wants to be.
“I’ve always liked the city,” Gimmillaro said. “People have treated me with such respect. I’ve had such a community feeling. How many places in Southern California can you feel a sense of community? It’s just too big, but I have felt that in this city. This is kind of a big, little city and all the pluses of that, and so I’ve been really lucky.”
Winning brings opportunities, but Gimmillaro has never applied for another job. He said the only other job he was interested in was an Olympic coaching job, but it was offered at a time when his kids were too young.
He’s been offered a position to coach at other colleges, but he hasn’t found a reason to leave, or isn’t interested in finding a reason.
“I think this is a special place to win – a special place to be successful,” he said. “It has all its challenges. That’s what competition is, and that’s what you want – those challenges in front of you.”
Part of the reason Gimmillaro chooses to stay is the support of the Long Beach community, which has stood behind his effort building LBSU’s volleyball program.
“That’s the Long Beach feel,” May-Treanor said. “You help each other, and I think that’s why he’s been here so long. He’s a pinnacle in this community. Who doesn’t know about Brian?”
The current seniors have said his success in coaching and the respect that he has in the volleyball world have reached levels few coaches have.
“I think he’s lasted so long because of his love and passion for the game,” Jackson said. “He’s like no other coach that I’ve been coached by. He’s so loyal and faithful to the game. We’re like his family to him.”
Green-Vargas has respected the way Gimmillaro coaches because of what he brings to the program and his passion for the sport.
“I know people say, ‘Oh my gosh. He yells, he’s this, he’s that, he’s so tough,’” Green-Vargas said. “But I know what I would tell recruits when they’d come to games. I said, ‘Watch Brian. What you see is what you get. He’s not going to be a different person on the bench because you’re here watching.’ I don’t believe all successful college coaches are great coaches. I think some of them are great recruiters, and Brian is definitely a great coach.”