Forgive Minnesota high school volleyball coaches who take a quick
glance at the Marshall Tigers this season and mutter to themselves, “Uh-oh.”
What they will see is one of the top volleyball programs in the state, led this
season by a pair of Hall of Fame coaches who combine for more than 1,000
victories and 12 state titles.
Dan Westby, who has been the Tigers head coach since 2004, began
the 2022 season with a career record of 482-102. His first-year
volunteer assistant coach is Terry Culhane, who had a mark of 519-112-1 in 18
years as head coach at Tracy, Tracy-Milroy and Marshall from 1979 until 2003.
Westby’s teams have won a record-tying seven state championships and Culhane
led his squads to five state titles.
Culhane
left Marshall to become head volleyball coach at Southwest Minnesota State University
in 2004 and Westby was promoted from assistant. Westby
also has been the Marshall girls basketball head coach since 2009.
All Culhane accomplished in 18 years on the NCAA Division II level
was take 11 teams to NCAA tournaments, including a trip to the national championship
match in 2014 and an overall record of 431-124.
Culhane
retired at Southwest State after last season, and the two longtime friends are
now reunited on the Marshall bench. Both are members of the Minnesota
Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
“We talked and I got the feeling Terry was not ready to be done coaching,”
Westby said. “I told him, ‘Terry, you’re always welcome in our gym.’ I thought
maybe initially he thought about helping with practice, but he came to a summer
tournament in Sioux Falls, sat on the bench and made lots of great
observations. The kids cornered him at the end of the tournament and said,
‘Hey, we want you with us this fall.’ It’s great for our kids and even better
for me to have him there.”
Culhane
and Westby’s relationship goes back to the mid-1980s when Dan’s wife, Deb, was
a student-teacher and assistant volleyball coach with Culhane at Milroy. Those
teams won Class A state titles in 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995 and 1996.
The
two men are happy to be reunited this season.
“I enjoyed the years I had at Southwest,”
Culhane said. “Dan and I are good friends and we’ve talked a lot. He said, ‘If
you want to help I’d be more than happy to have you.’ That’s how it happened.
It’s been fun. It’s a different world with college kids and high school kids,
and that’s not good or bad one way or the other. Dan just said, ‘Why don’t you
come join us?’ That made sense to me.”
When Westby, whose teaching and coaching
career began at Renville County West, was hired as a teacher in Marshall,
Culhane was coaching the Tigers girls basketball team. Westby was offered the
job as head volleyball coach, but he suggested that Culhane also coach that
team with Westby as an assistant. They coached together before Culhane left for
the college ranks.
“It was a great deal for me,” Westby said. “I learned a lot.”
Marshall won the Class 3A state title in 2004, the
first season after Culhane went to Southwest State, and Westby gives all the
credit to Terry.
“Terry’s fingerprints were all over that team,” he
said. “We tried not to change things, but instead do all the things we did when
Terry was there.”
The Tigers also won state crowns in 2007, 2009, 2011,
2012, 2013 and 2021. Marshall is one of
six schools to win seven volleyball championships; the others are Bethlehem Academy, Chaska, Eagan, Armstrong and
Tracy-Milroy-Balaton (which also won in 2001 and 2004 after Culhane’s departure).
Westby
said the Marshall coaches and players don’t talk about setting a state record by
winning a state championship this fall.
“After we won the championship a year ago, a
number of people mentioned that fact,” he said. “That’s not even on our radar
right now. We’re just trying to find ways to get our kids a little bit better
every day.
“The goal every year has been to end up at the
state tournament and try to figure out a way to try and win the state
tournament. It’s the same goal this year.”
--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of
Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn
and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.
Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org
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