Goshen College Names Jim Daugherty Head Men’s Volleyball Coach
GOSHEN, Ind. — After more than 30 years as a coach at the club, high school and college levels, Jim Daugherty will become the first varsity men’s volleyball head coach at Goshen College when the Maple Leafs launch the new program in the 2018-19 season.
Daugherty, who finished his third season as an assistant coach for the Maple Leaf women’s program in 2016, previously served as head volleyball coach at Culver Community High School and Argos High School. The Plymouth, Indiana, native began playing the sport in 1973: after eight years of club volleyball from 1977-84, he became an assistant coach at Plymouth High School, where the team finished as state runner-up in 1984 and 1985.
After founding the Marshall County Volleyball Club in 1986 and serving as a board member for seven years, he was instrumental in starting the North Central Indiana Power Volleyball League. More recently, he has worked with the Dunes Volleyball Club’s 17- and 18-year-old national travel teams, coaching in each of the past seven national championships.
“I am very excited and looking forward to starting and building the men’s volleyball team,” Daugherty said. “Men’s volleyball is exciting to watch and the power and speed of the game will excite fans.”
Thirty-one NAIA schools are sponsoring NAIA men’s volleyball in 2017, including six in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference and three in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference. The collegiate season runs from January to April, culminating with the NAIA men’s volleyball invitational.
“JD is passionate about the sport of volleyball and especially about the opportunity to grow the men’s game at Goshen, as well as in the broader community,” said athletic director Josh Gleason. “He has already hit the ground running with recruiting efforts throughout the region and beyond and will do an excellent job of bringing in quality athletes, students and people to build our future program the right way. He has a long history in the game, is a student of it at every level, and has a tireless work ethic that will serve him and our program well in developing it from scratch.”
Indiana boasts more than 70 high-school boys volleyball programs, but Goshen will be just the fifth college and second NAIA institution in the state to sponsor the sport. Among the top seven states by high school boys volleyball participation, three (Illinois, Michigan and Ohio) border Indiana, while two more (Pennsylvania and Virginia) represent regions from which Goshen has historically had high enrollment.
“We have already traveled to volleyball clubs throughout the Midwest and have found a lot of excitement from players and coaches,” Daugherty said. “We hope to recruit several athletes for the 2017-18 school year and host a men’s volleyball demonstration match during Homecoming Weekend in October.”
Goshen College is an affordable, nationally-ranked Christian liberal arts college in Northern Indiana known for leadership in intercultural and international education, sustainability and social justice. The Maple Leafs sponsor 13 current varsity sports, which compete in the NAIA and the Crossroads League while continuing a history of intercollegiate athletics that dates back to 1956. Goshen’s intercollegiate athletic offerings for women predate the passage of Title IX by nearly a decade.