UT History Series: Rise of Tampa Volleyball

By Joey Johnston

It was 1984 — light years away from contending for a national championship or earning a spot in anybody's Hall of Fame, the well-earned rewards from a distinguished career filled with bright sunshine.

In fact, Chris Catanach was stuck in a blizzard.

Working in admissions for the University of Tampa, he was on another madcap student-recruiting road trip, somewhere in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area. Most of his belongings — along with all the UT promotional brochures — were piled in the back of a leased Toyota Tercel. Making a call home from the hotel — there were no cell phones — he heard words that would change his life.

The volleyball head-coaching job just came open.

It didn't matter that the snow was piled high and he couldn't figure out how to get the key in his car's frozen door (a local suggested splashing some hot water). It didn't matter that he had to drive straight through back to Tampa while rehearsing his pitch for the athletic director. Heck, it didn't even matter that he was just 22 and his coaching experience consisted of a few seasons as UT's volunteer student assistant.

"If you're passionate about something, you're going to be good with it,'' said Catanach, who got the UT job after the resignation of Sandi Patton. "Beyond that, I didn't have any big plan and I certainly had no clue about what was ahead. I was unaware of my weaknesses. I just worked and worked and worked.

"Such a thing would never happen today. I didn't know where it was going to lead, but I knew I loved it.''

Where has it led?

 — Three national championships (2006, 2014, 2018) and four national runner-up finishes.

 — 34 NCAA Tournament appearances in 36 seasons.

 — 27 conference titles.

 — More than 1,000 career victories.

 — National Coach of the Year honors.

"I wish I could say I saw all of this coming, that it was part of a master plan, but that would not be the case,'' said the now-retired Bob Birrenkott, the UT athletic director who hired Catanach. "I did know Chris was a hard worker and cared about doing things the right way. I believed in working hard and graduating students and he stood for those things, too.

"We didn't have a lot of money then. My thing was, 'Give me a couple of years and if you want to move on, I'll give you a good recommendation.' What Chris has built is amazing, unprecedented. He is among the great coaches in any sport.''

He entered with passion and an attention to detail. Those qualities have endured and been enhanced. With time, he learned how to be an efficient head coach. He laughs now at spending four or five hours just planning a practice. It was on-the-job training, but Catanach had a job he loved and he was determined to thrive.

"He's probably one of the most dedicated people I've ever met in my life,'' said Berkley Whaley, the 2014 National Player of the Year and a stalwart on UT's second national-championship team. "I'd also call him a 'forever learner.' He's always striving and learning. He never gets complacent, even with all his success.

"Sometimes, we wouldn't have a good game and he'd say, 'There are things I could've done better as a coach.' When you hear that as a player, it motivates you to try even harder. People want to play well for him. Is he obsessed? Yeah, that's a good word. He's obsessed, but in a good way.''

Sometimes, Catanach wonders about that.

"I still have a hard time enjoying every moment of it,'' Catanach said. "I still have a hard time saying the right things. I'm too often very straightforward and blunt. Sometimes, I'm not good at letting stuff go.

"I think I have grown a ton. I've never had any hobbies, so it's easy to pour myself into the job. I still have times when I'm thinking about the team and coaching every waking moment, but I am getting better.''

His wife can vouch for that.

Linda Hadfield Catanach, a former basketball/volleyball player who is in UT's Athletic Hall of Fame, has seen her husband's evolution take positive strides.

"Back in the day, he wouldn't sleep after a loss,'' she said. "He's playing everything back in his head. What did we do wrong? Losing just tears him up.

"He's really competitive. The only thing I can beat him at is bowling — and he won't bowl. When we played board games, things could get out of hand. At the matches, he used to take his clipboard and throw it on the ground. That's when you knew he was mad. As a joke, the players gave him a plexiglass clipboard with their names engraved. I guess he got the message. He stopped throwing clipboards.''

In 1991, with UT headed toward an apparent national championship, the Spartans faced their conference rival, Florida Southern, for the fifth time that season. In the region final, the Spartans were upset by the Mocs, losing 16-14 in the fifth.

Afterward, torn up with emotions, Catanach wept bitterly.

When Catanach won his second national championship, back in the hotel, he couldn't sleep.

"I was like, 'What's the matter?' and Chris said, 'I'm worried about next year,' '' Catanach's wife said. "I'm like, 'Look, you have to get over yourself. Your team was dominant. You've got to enjoy this moment.' ''

After some soul-searching, Catanach eventually made his peace with the torment. When the Spartans won it all in 2018, Catanach did enjoy the moment with no regrets and no thoughts of the future.

"One thing I really respect about Chris — although he has an ego that wants to win — is how he's very humble,'' Catanach's wife said. "He's always doubting himself, trying to figure out how to get better.

"I think that's why he has been successful. He's open-minded and he'll try new things. Thirty-some years later, he's still growing as a coach.''

Catanach has considered the so-called brighter lights of Division I volleyball. Once, he was offered the job at the University of Virginia. Ultimately, though, Catanach loved what he had at UT — stability, a program that could annually contend for national titles, a good working environment and a great town to raise a family.

With all of Catanach's accomplishments, the lights have been plenty bright at UT.

"Chris Catanach is a big, big name in the volleyball world,'' said Tusculum University coach Danielle Faggion-Marante, a former UT player. "Everybody knows him. Everybody respects him.

"Some people, when they get success, they can kind of get big-time. But Chris always has time for everyone. He's just a genuine, sincere person. He has really built — for lack of better words — a volleyball empire at UT.''

But in the beginning …

"As part of getting the volleyball position, I was also the men's and women's tennis coach for three years,'' Catanach said. "He (Birrenkott) gave me this 10-item contract and the last one was 'Any other item or duty as assigned by the athletic director.' I agreed.''

And the first summer, Catanach found himself organizing the cleanup for a campus carnival fundraiser.

"I had a budget of people to hire, but it was cancelled by rain,'' Catanach said. "The event didn't happen. But I remember going around, picking up the cigarette butts from all the carnival workers.

"Then we had professional wrestling on Tuesday nights at the Martinez Center. I learned how to set up a wrestling ring from scratch. It was wild. Ric Flair and all these guys were here. I cleaned up my share of chew and spit.

"Finally, when Fran Curci was the AD, I told him, 'Look, cut my salary if you have to, but I don't want to coach tennis or do other stuff anymore. I just want to do volleyball.' He said, 'OK, we'll get somebody else.' That was a great day. I was putting in a ridiculous amount of hours.''

For years after that, Catanach still put in a ridiculous amount of hours — but it was all volleyball.

 "Chris does have a tremendous attention to detail, not so much for getting the garage cleaned, but certainly for volleyball,'' Catanach's wife said. "All the great coaches know how to develop their kids. I've seen him take some very raw kids and turn them into All-Americans. He knows how to push the buttons. He wants each kid to be the best they can be.''

"I would occasionally get frustrated with him, but mostly I was frustrated because I knew he was right,'' Whaley said. "Deep down, you knew he was right. He pushed you to motivate yourself, to never misplace blame and to own up to your mistakes. He shaped me as a person, not just in volleyball, but by being a great role model and a good-hearted person. It was a privilege playing for him.''

It began with a blizzard.

It led to an avalanche of success — national titles, All-American players and a legacy beyond compare.

After Catanach graduated from UT in 1983, he got the job in admissions.

One day later, he was offered a teaching job at St. Paul's.

"Had St. Paul's come first, I probably would've taken it,'' Catanach said. "Who knows where I'd be now? The right things happened to put me in position for this life and I have loved it. I still love it.

"Somehow, I think it was all meant to be.''

Joey Johnston has worked in the Tampa Bay sports media for more than three decades, winning multiple national awards while covering events such as the Super Bowl, World Series, Final Four, Wimbledon, the U. S. Open, the Stanley Cup Finals and all the major bowl games. But his favorite stories have always been about Tampa Bay Area teams and athletes. A third-generation Tampa native, he was a regular in the Tampa Stadium stands at University of Tampa football games.