Ray Bechard retires after 27 seasons as Kansas Jayhawks volleyball coach

Ray Bechard, the winningest coach in Kansas volleyball history who earned Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year five times in 27 seasons and national coach of the year after a Final Four appearance in 2015, announced his retirement Friday.

Bechard, who led KU to 13 NCAA Tournament appearances, compiled a 496-313 record at KU. His .613 winning percentage is the best by any coach in KU program history.

He is a member of the Kansas Volleyball Association Hall of Fame, the NJCAA Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and is a three-time AVCA Region Coach of the Year.

His final KU team just completed a 25-5 season with an appearance in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

“It’s been the honor of a lifetime to fulfill the role as head volleyball coach at the University of Kansas for the last 27 years,” said Bechard, 66, who coached 26 All-Americans at KU. “This professional journey was made possible by a supportive administration, a coaching staff that worked tirelessly and together and by countless young women who competed with grit and demonstrated grace, while representing the university with class.

“I’m proud of what we accomplished during my time at Kansas; we built a program that was nationally competitive and nationally respected.”

A Grinnell, Kansas native, Bechard was hired at KU in 1998 after 13 seasons at Barton County Community College.

He coached his daughter, Ashley, for four seasons at KU. His son Brennan, played for KU’s men’s basketball team and currently serves as the program’s director of scouting.

“Ray Bechard is a University of Kansas icon and has had one of the most influential and accomplished careers in college volleyball,” Kansas athletic director Travis Goff said. “We are forever grateful for the incredible impact he made on so many in our athletic department, with his student-athletes being at the forefront. Coach B enriched the lives of countless people and is the architect of a program that has flourished on and off the court throughout his tenure. We will miss him dearly and will work with the same intensity and passion he coached with to continue the legacy he built.”

Throughout his Kansas career, Bechard led the Jayhawks to the NCAA Tournament 13 times, including three Sweet 16 appearances and a spot in the NCAA tourney semifinals in 2015. Kansas also finished the season in the AVCA Top 25 rankings seven times.

Prior to his arrival, Kansas had never qualified for the NCAA Tournament. He led KU to winning seasons in 16 of his final 17 campaigns. Additionally during his tenure, Kansas opened Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena in 2019.

Bechard finished his career with 238 Big 12 victories, which ranks second all-time of all Big 12 coaches. He departs the league having coached more Big 12 matches than any coach in conference history. Bechard’s success at Kansas followed a career at Barton, where he won 92% of his matches (716-90), earned 13 conference championships and advanced to 10 NJCAA Final Fours.

“We are grateful for all coach Bechard has done for our university and our student-athletes during his remarkable career at KU,” KU chancellor Douglas Girod said. “Beyond the excellence his programs displayed on the court, Coach Bechard was a terrific ambassador for our university and always represented us well on the national stage. We wish him the best in retirement and thank him for his contributions to KU.”

Bechard coached 12 AVCA All-Americans, including first-team selections Kelsie Payne (2015, 2016) and Ainise Havili (2015) and second-team selection Caroline Jarmoc (2012) as well as third-team picks Reagan Cooper (2023) and Camryn Turner (2024). He also coached several other Jayhawks to All-America honorable mention from the AVCA including Josi Lima, Erin McNorton, Sara McClinton, Chelsea Albers, Cassie Wait, Madison Rigdon, Caroline Bien and Toyosi Onabanjo.

In his first season at KU in 1998, Bechard improved the Jayhawks’ win total by six matches from the previous season and then posted five-straight winning seasons, before leading the program to its first ever NCAA Tournament selection in 2003. That squad, led by Lima, went 22-11 and advanced to the second round of the tournament. That marked the first of three-straight postseason appearances for Bechard and the Jayhawks.

Bechard and the Jayhawks started another postseason streak in 2012 when the team went 26-7 on the season, advanced to the second round and finished the year ranked No. 25 in the final AVCA Top 25 for the first time in program history. The following season, Kansas went 25-8 and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time ever and finished second in the Big 12. Two seasons later, led by Payne and Havili, Kansas went 30-3, advanced to the Final Four and finished the season ranked No. 4 in the country.

The following season, Kansas went 15-1 in Big 12 play and won the program’s first-ever Big 12 title and finished the season ranked No. 12 in the country. Bechard finished his career on a four-year NCAA Tournament streak, including another Sweet 16 appearance in 2021.

“I’m thankful for the support of Chancellor Girod, director of athletics Travis Goff and sport administrator Nicole Corcoran,” Bechard said. “They will find the right person to elevate this nationally prominent program to even greater heights. This decision, though a difficult one, won’t change my devotion to this athletic department and volleyball program.

“I’m looking forward to the time it will allow for a more consistent presence in the lives of my wife, children and grandkids who all have supported me in my coaching career. Thank you, Jayhawk Nation!”

In 1995, Bechard was an assistant coach for the USA Volleyball Youth National Team, which won the Slovakian Cup Championship in Zilina, Slovakia. As the only non-Division I coach on staff, Bechard coached alongside TCU’s Sandy Troudt and Penn State assistant Erin Tomblin as Team USA competed against youth teams from Poland and Slovakia.

Bechard began his coaching career as the head coach of girls volleyball and boys basketball at Lewis High School in Lewis, Kansas, from 1980-83. There he coached LHS to a pair of conference titles in volleyball.

“Winning the Big 12 with a 15-1 record and qualifying for the NCAA Final Four were extraordinary times,” he told the Great Bend Tribune in a recent article. “We’ve enjoyed a lot of success. I appreciate that Kansas hired me.”

Of Bechard, Terry Liskevych, AVCA Hall of Fame Class of 2009, said: “Coach Bechard has created a consistent national powerhouse at KU and has done so with integrity, dignity and class. He has mentored scores of athletes and coaches, and has given back to our sport by contributing his time, energy, insights and wisdom at all levels of volleyball.

Former KU player Jill Dorsey-Hall (2001-04) said: “Coach B is Kansas volleyball. His loyalty, passion and love for KU, the sport and his players is unmatched. He brings a calm intensity. He genuinely cares about this team, this program and you as a player and person, on and off the court.”

From former KU assistant and Texas A&M head coach Laura Kuhn: “On a daily basis I learned from Coach B through natural interactions and life skills of how to deal with day to day management of a program. From 2011 to 2017 we built a culture of diversity and experiences I will forever remember and keep with me. He is a calming voice of reason when it comes to any topic or life challenge. He will always be someone I look to for advice!”

Former KU basketball player Scot Pollard has said of Bechard: “Coach and I started out as neighbors. We quickly became friends and watched each other’s families grow. Over the years I have been in and out of town and moved around, but our connection is as strong as ever. I even had the honor of introducing his oldest daughter Ashley and her husband Erik to the gathering at their wedding! He is an amazing family man and has definitely affected how I am with my own family. I’m lucky to call him one of my best friends.”

The native Kansas has been a big basketball and football fan through the years and supporter of all KU sports.

“I’m a basketball guy at heart, but I was enamored by the grace, energy and enthusiasm of volleyball,” he told the Great Bend Tribune, explaining his becoming a volleyball coach. “I told myself to go that direction. I enjoyed the organization and communication and developing technique and game plans.”

Kansas Athletics indicated in a release it will now begin a national search for its next coach. Bechard had one year remaining on his contract that he signed in April of 2023.

Bechard, the son of Adeline and Armond Wilford Bechard, grew up in a family with six siblings in Grinnell, Kansas.

“When you grow up in a family of nine with one bathroom, you learn to problem-solve and cooperate,” Bechard told the Great Bend Tribune. “It was competitive, starting with who got to read the paper first in the morning.”

Don Bechard, his brother, coached Gardner-Edgerton to the 1996 state basketball title and Manhattan to the 1987 state volleyball title. His brother, Harold Bechard, worked as a longtime sportswriter at newspapers in Salina and Hutchinson. His mother was a teacher and his father was a WW2 veteran who served in Normandy.

KU Athletics contributed to this report