PAGE 8
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOLLEYBALL
Family tree meets coaching tree for Bechards
Kansas coach leads volleyball team through professional triumph, personal tragedy as family legacy grows
MATT GALLOWAY
mgalloway@kansan.com
twitter.com/UDK_Vball
Moments after Ray Bechard buried his mother, Addie, last year on Oct. 12, he drove from the site of the funeral in western Kansas to Columbia, Mo., to coach the Kansas volleyball team against Missouri.
It was a decision Bechard made
From left, men's basketball assistant Brennan Bechard and his father, volleyball coach Ray Bechard, both put their own stamp on their respective squads. The two now work in the Wagnon Student Athlete Center just 20 feet from each other.
mous approval from his family. They insisted Addie would want Ray to be with the players on his team. Ray's older brother Rich Bechard went as far as to say that their mother would have scolded Ray had he not made the trip.
CHRIS BRONSON KANSAN
"Kansas volleyball probably kept her alive more than anything else."
"Kansas volleyball probably kept her alive more than anything else," Rich said. "I don't know how many times in that last week when she woke up and asked What about Kansas volleyball?" That somber day highlighted three elements that have defined Bechard since the days of his
youth:
coach-
ing, family and the
Jayhawks.
It was not the first time he has had to deal with coaching through a
All of the Bechard boys were
RICH BECHARD
Kansas volleyball coach
Ray Bechard's brother
"There were days I'm sure where mom and dad wondered if we liked each other at all," Ray said. "But you get that many competitive people in that small of a space and that is going to happen."
everything from two-on-two pickup basketball games to who got first read of the sports section in the newspaper each morning.
But oddly enough, when Ray Bechard thinks of his time in Grinnell, the word overcrowded comes to mind.
Grinnell, Kan., is similar to several other western Kansas towns. It has a dwindling population and is an afterthought for many commuters passing by on Interstate 70, less than a mile south. Grinnell had a population of 259 in 2010 , down 21.3 percent in only 20 years.0
While coaching has strained Bechard's family at times, it has also brought it closer together than he ever could have ever imagined.
"We had bunk beds stacked up on bunk beds," Bechard said. "We didn't have a lot of resources growing up, but we didn't know it. You don't know what you don't have if you don't have it, I guess."
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS IN GRINNELL
Nine Bechards crammed into the 1,100 square foot home in the late 1960s. Bechard's parents had seven children — five of them boys — and tensions and testosterone often ran high in the house. The boys fought over
painful loss, and he will be lucky if it is his last. Such is the adversity of being a coach. As his son Brennan attempts to become the latest in a long list of coaching Bechards, that sacrifice and commitment is something Ray wants him prepared for.
competitive, but none more than Ray's older brother Don. Ray jokes that when there was a conflict in the Bechard household, it likely involved Don and someone else. Rich, the third brother, described Don as the ultimate
"I must've played against him one-on-one a thousand times and he wasn't about to ever let me win one of those matches," R i c h
competitor, especially when it came to basketball.
There was one thing that would unite the often combative Bechard brothers: the Kansas Jayhawks. Grinnell is located in the heart of Kansas State country, but the eldest brother, Harold, said the family was glued to the television on the two or three occasions each year that the boys got to see Jo Jo White, Walt Wesley and the rest of the Vietnam War-era legends of the Kansas men's basketball team.
All five brothers, including t he
youngest, Armond, quarterbacked their high school football team. Don, Rich and Ray all attended Fort Hays State University, just a mile south of I-70 in central Kansas. And the following of footsteps did not end in Grinnell.
THE ACCIDENTAL VOLLEYBALL COACH
Don was the first brother to make the foray into coaching, leading the boy's basketball team at Norton High School in northern Kansas. His first game was against his uncle, Bill Bechard, who won a 2A state championship and now has a gym named after him at
Clifton- C l y d e High School. It didn't take Don long to show his trademark competitiveness and fiery temper.
"Don, to a fault sometimes, was just overly competitive," Ray said. "In the first high school game he ever coached, he got a technical foul."
If his competitiveness was his greatest fault, it was also his greatest asset. Don became the first high school coach in Kansas history to win state championships in volleyball (Manhattan, 1987) and boy's basketball (Gardner-Edgerton, 1996). He became a crucial resource for both Rich and Ray, who followed Don into coaching boy's basketball at the high school level.
One month before starting at Lewis High School, in south-central Kansas, the superintendent of schools called about a bind he was in with the school's volleyball coaching position. Ray initially rejected the offer, but the superintendent did not take no for an answer.
But it was an unexpected and mostly unwanted coaching position that would lead Ray to call on Don the most.
"He called back a week later and said, 'Guess what? You're going to be my volleyball coach next year,'" Ray said. "I think he's taken credit for everything that has happened since then."
With only a barebones understanding of the game of volleyball, the panicked Bechard sought advice from anyone who would
field his questions. He used his old connections from his own high school to better understand the sport. He picked the brain of the iconic Nebraska volleyball coach Terry Pettit, with whom he has remained close friends. But Ray leaned on Don the most.
The Lewis volleyball team finished with a winning record that first season, and Ray was on his way to his dream position at Kansas. Be-tween those Jobs, Bechard le d Bar- t o n
Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1998, the same year he took over at Kansas.
Community College to a record of 716-60 in 13 seasons. His .923 winning percentage is the highest all-time among junior college coaches, and he was acted into the National Jollies Athletic Association
inducted into the National Junior College Athletic Association
"When I got deeper into my career at Barton, there was no doubt that there was one job I hoped and praved I might have a chance to do at some point.
Don was diagnosed with pleomorphic liposarcoma, a soft tissue tumor that develops in fat cells most often among people aged 50 to 65, according to the Mayo Clinic. Don was 51 when he was diagnosed.
"Growing up, and maybe it was because of our age being so close, he was always the one I wanted to run like, shoot like and throw like. If I could be like Don, I knew I'd be pretty darn good." Rich said.
"He could do everything, and I think I maybe thought a little bit like that when I first heard he had cancer."
and that was the Kansas job," Bechard said. "It is just so gratifying to think that you're at least making part of Jayhawk nation proud by doing things a program has never done before."
As Don fought through chemotherapy in early 2008, the chance to see his Jayhawks play in the Final Four presented itself. Privately, Don told Rich he did not know how many Final Fours he had left. No matter how weary his siblings were of the idea, Don was
adamant about not missing the opportunity to see his nephew Brennan, a senior walk-on with Kansas, and the team of his youth win its fifth national championship first-hand.
Unfortunately, a rare disease would soon rob Ray of his most trusted confidant.
"I've now lived longer than he has, and that is hard for me to understand."
And so Don tagged along with his brothers on the nearly 800 mile journey to San Antonio. He slept in a makeshift bed in the back of a Chevy Suburban, throwing up at virtually every rest stop. He spent the Jayhawks' off day on April 6 in a San Antonio hospital with leg swelling. But he was back in the Alamodome less than 24 hours later for the title game against Memphis. When Mario Chalmers made his miracle 3-pointer with only 2.1 seconds left in regulation, Don even jumped several feet in the air.
"I thought the whole time it was a mistake," Rich said. "But now looking back on it, it is one of my most cherished memories. I'm so glad we ended up going."
If there was anyone that could defeat a rare form of cancer, it was Don Beachard. His brother Rich was sure of it.
COACHES VS. CANCER
RAY BECHARD Kansas volleyball coach
Even as his health failed him, Don readied to coach the 2008-09 boy's basketball team at Gardner-Edgerton High School in eastern Kansas. However, just before the season began, his health took a turn for the
worse. He was admitted to a Kansas City, Mo., hospice care center where he was inducted into the Gardner-Edgerton Hall of Fame in an impromptu and emotional surprise ceremony at the facility's outdoor greeting area.
"He would've been in it eventually if he was in good health, but we sped up the process," said Tim Brady, principal at Gardner-Edgerton and family friend of the Bechards.
Don died at 9 a.m. on Sept. 5, 2008, a game day for the Kansas volleyball team. Ray didn't tell any of his players or anyone on his staff and struggled internally with whether or not he should coach. A call from Don's wife, Jan, put Ray's mind at ease and gave him the strength to coach the game only three hours after Don died.
1
"I can't really think about it too much without getting emotional," Ray said. "I've now lived longer than he has, and that is hard for me to understand. He's missed out on so much in life."
Pressing through personal loss is one of the many sacrifices some coaches must make, and it is one of the reasons Ray is somewhat wary of his son Brennan getting into the profession.
BECHARD COACHING LEGACY
CONTINUIES
Coaching and chance have brought Ray and his son Brennan
BECHARD SIBLINGS BY AGE
(Name, date of birth)
Charla, Oct. 9, 1951
Harold, Jan. 8, 1953
Don, Oct. 2, 1955
Rich, Nov. 22, 1956
Ray, June 2, 1958
Armond, July 6, 1960
Mary Beth, March 23, 1962
closer together than ever,
literally.
Ray also thinks his son would be sharp at coaching, which Brennan has hopes of doing some day. Ray has jokingly warned his son about getting into the profession, but both understand the sacrifices that coaches must make in their personal lives to be successful. After all, they have both witnessed it firsthand. Ray has missed the last 30 Thanksgivings and was unable to attend several important moments in his children's lives.
Working as the assistant director of men's basketball operations for Kansas coach Bill Self, Brennan works about 20 feet from his father's office at the Wagnon Student Athlete Center near Allen Fieldhouse. He is responsible for editing video of opposing teams for scouting sessions. It is a role that Ray thinks fits his son well.
"I expect to have long days and miss a lot of stuff. That just comes with the territory," Brennan said. "There are so many upsides that it kind of outweighs all of that."
"He's pretty sharp with the electronic age and he likes that kind of thing," Ray said. "Obviously he's getting an in-depth view of what it is like at the highest level by working with the best coaching staff in America every single day."
A picture of the Kansas volleyball team's come-from-behind victory against Baylor during the 2003 season hangs in the Horejsi Family Athletics Center. The Jayhawks rallied from a 14-10 deficit in the final set, scoring the last six points to seize the victory. Behind the celebrating bench in the photo is a shot of nearly a dozen members of the Bechard family, all throwing their arms in the air in jubilation.
It is a constant reminder to Ray Bechard that while coaching takes personal sacrifices, it may have brought his family closer together than it ever would have been without it.
- Edited by Ian Cummings
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