Coach settling in
Although Bert Fuller, in his first semester as the USU women’s volleyball coach, has spent his last seven years in the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles as an assistant coach for the University of California at Los Angeles, he feels confident that the transition to Logan will be a smooth one.
“I’ve always said give me an ocean or coast, or give me mountains,” Fuller said. “Here, you have a beautiful valley and you have a team that finished 22nd in the country last year.”
Fuller was appointed head coach in January, when former head coach Tom Peterson took the same position at the University of New Mexico. While life in Cache Valley is a far cry from life in the city, Fuller said the chance to coach at a school like USU was too enticing to pass up.
Besides the aesthetics of living in Cache Valley, Fuller said the opportunity of coaching in the Big West Conference – consistently one of the best volleyball conferences in the country – is very appealing. In addition to that, it’s a lot easier to make the transition from assistant coach to head coach when you enter a program that has 12 available scholarships and is fully funded, he said. USU has that.
Traditionally, USU has done a lot of recruiting in the state of California. Because Fuller is from Southern California, recruiting there will be to his advantage, he said.
“The relative closeness [to California] lends itself to recruiting,” he said. “We recruit a lot of kids from Southern California. I’ve got a lot of ties in California.”
Not only is the short distance from Utah to California advantageous to recruiting players, Fuller said belonging to the BWC gives Californians on the team plenty of opportunities to play in front of family and friends.
Fuller said he is anxious to take over a program on solid footing. Many coaches take the helm at programs that have struggled, he said. It usually takes two or three years to begin successfully rebuilding the program, he said. Also, it’s a lot easier to make the transition when you go to a place where people are supportive, he said.
“Everyone up here had made it real easy for me, especially [assistant coach] Shay [Goulding-Clemenson],” he said.
Fuller comes to Utah State with coaching experience at both the collegiate and professional level. In addition to spending the last seven years as an assistant at perennial national power UCLA, Fuller spent five years at Pierce Junior College (also in Los Angeles) – first as an assistant before taking over as the head man. Fuller has also coached women’s pro-beach volleyball, serving as a coach for the “Paul Mitchell” team.
As an assistant coach at Pierce, Fuller said he was taught the importance of teaching his players to be fundamentally sound. As a result, that has been a trademark of his ever since, he said.
When asked what to expect from Aggie volleyball next season, he said to expect a team with an “infectious” desire to win.
“We’re going to be relentless,” he said. “We’re going to work hard and we’re going to play with emotion.”
“I’ll tell you this: We’re going to be fun to watch, so I hope people come out and support us like they have in the past,” he said. “It really makes a big difference when you have a good fan base.”