Doug Beal Head Coach USA Men’s National Team 15th Year

The future of the USA Men’s National Volleyball Team rests in the familiar – and capable – hands of Hall of Fame Head Coach Doug Beal.

Beal, who guided the team to its first gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles in his first tour with the team (1977-85), returned to coach the men’s national team in 1997 and will remain with the program at least through the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Last season the American men posted an impressive 23-6 record and captured the gold medal at the NORCECA Zone Championships in September to qualify for the 2003 World Cup in Japan, the first of three Olympic qualifying opportunities. Team USA narrowly missed a chance to qualify by finishing in fourth place at the World Cup with a record of 8-3.

Earlier this year, Beal became the second coach in USA Volleyball history to guide three teams to the Olympics when Team USA qualified for the 2004 Summer Games by winning the NORCECA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Puerto Rico with a perfect 6-0 record.

Former women’s national team head coach Terry Liskevych was the first to coach at three consecutive Olympic Games—1988, 1992 and 1996.

Beal began his volleyball career as a player in his hometown of Cleveland. He earned conference MVP and All-America honors while attending The Ohio State University. Soon after graduating from Ohio State in 1970, Beal joined the U.S. Men’s National Team.

While playing on the National Team in 1970-71, he started and coached the men’s volleyball program at Bowling Green University. He returned to Ohio State in 1972 to become the Buckeye’s head coach. He coached OSU for three years, leading them to a 52-15 overall record and earning conference coach of the year honors twice.

At 29, Beal accepted the head coaching position with the USA Men’s National Team in 1976. He helped establish the first-ever year-round volleyball training facility in Dayton, Ohio, in 1978. The center moved to San Diego in 1981 along with the National Team program.

After finishing No. 13 at the 1982 World Championships, Beal implemented a new revolutionary offense. His two-man serve reception, innovative use of multiple back-row attackers and swing hitters transform the sport and led to a decade of dominance for the USA men.

The team won the first leg of the elusive volleyball “triple crown” in 1984 when the USA men captured the country’s first-ever volleyball Olympic gold medal. Legends Karch Kiraly, Steve Timmons and Dusty Dvorak were all part of Beal’s Olympic squad. Victories at the 1985 World Cup and 1986 World Championships capped off the American rise to the top of international volleyball. Kiraly was recently named the best player of the 20 th century, while the 1984-88 teams received special recognition in the greatest men’s volleyball team of the century category.

Beal resigned as head coach to become the organization’s National Team Center Director from 1985-87. He remained involved with the organization until 1990 when he moved to Italy to coach a top professional team.

He rejoined the national team program in July 1993 as a special assistant to the Executive Director/CEO. He worked closely with former USAV Executive Director John Carroll, and was responsible for FIVB relations and player development for the USA National Teams.

He worked in that capacity until he accepted the program’s head coaching position in 1997. Beal helped the Americans climb from No. 10 in the world in 1998 to No. 5 at the beginning of the 2000 season. Highlights of 1999-2000 seasons were winning NORCECA, finishing tied for third at the 1999 World Cup and winning their pool at the 2000 World League.

The team continued to build toward 2004 during their 2001 campaign. Beal lead the U.S. team to a silver medal at the 2001 NORCECA Championships and qualified for the 2002 World Championships. The 2001 World University Games team (coached by Ruben Nieves) captured the gold medal in China posting an undefeated record in seven matches.

In 2002 the men’s team narrowly missed advancing to the quarterfinals of the Men’s Volleyball World Championships in Argentina and finished tied for ninth out of 24 teams. The USA won its first-round pool with a perfect 3-0 record and handed eventual world champion Brazil its only loss of the tournament. The team, which featured several players making their international debuts during the season, began the year with a record of 2-10 but finished 2002 with a 19-17 mark.

Beal was elected to the Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1989 and was USA Volleyball’s first recipient of the All-Time Great Coach Award in 1995. He was named a finalist for the Federation International de Volleyball (FIVB) Greatest Coach of the Century. Beal was also recently selected to the USA Volleyball 75th Anniversary All-Era Team as a coach during the Men’s 1978-2003 era.

Beal is married to Nonie and is the proud father of Mitchell, 11, and Madeline, 8.