Can UCLA men’s volleyball three-peat? Q&A with new coach John Hawks

Some people thought following John Wooden was tough.

John Hawks’ predecessors as UCLA men’s volleyball coach include John Speraw, who just won back-to-back NCAA championships, and Al Scates, whose 19 titles nearly doubled Wooden’s total as the legendary men’s basketball coach.

Speraw’s departure in September to become president and CEO of USA Volleyball opened the door for Hawks, who doesn’t need a primer on the history of the program.

Hawks was an assistant under Speraw for seven years before becoming head coach at Loyola University Chicago the last two seasons, guiding the Ramblers to a 40-17 record. In 2023, he was named the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. coach of the year.

During a wide-ranging interview with The Times, Hawks, 55, discussed his vision for the program and whether it can sustain its recent success heading into its season opener Thursday against Fairleigh Dickinson. Hawks’ responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.

You referenced UCLA’s unmatched tradition of 21 NCAA championships in your introductory statement. What does it mean to you to return to Westwood and lead this storied program?

I think just personally, if I date myself back to high school [in the mid- to late 1980s], when I could first drive a car, I would go up to the Santa Barbara tournament and I would watch all the teams compete. I would watch UCLA walk in and it was just different and I would resonate with that. I watched [middle blocker] Tim Kelly, who was 6 feet 11 and 275 pounds, so, yeah, they were men and it was just different.

I think back to those days and then when I got the assistant job in 2015 with John, I was here for seven seasons and every day on campus — and this is no joke — I pinched myself, like I can’t believe I’m here. So it means the world to me. I recruited a lot of these guys, I spent a lot of time on the phone with them and to come back full circle and be able to kind of finish up hopefully their careers with me and how it started, I think it’s an honor.

To follow John Speraw, who is one of my best friends and was in my wedding and I am super proud of him and super humbled to follow him, and then Scates, I mean, these shoes that I’m filling, they’re not size 14s, they’re much bigger. I’m humbled.

Do you have a favorite Al Scates story?

I never played for him, but Al befriended me because I was a friend of John Speraw and I won’t forget it. I was a nobody — I was an assistant coach who didn’t play high-level Division I ball and I think I had a reputation of who I was as a coach, but I didn’t expect Al Scates to know who I was and just how he treated me when I felt like he didn’t know me, that respect he gave me was something I’ll never forget.

Having been around the program as long as you have, what’s been the best advice you’ve received from coach Speraw and coach Scates?

To be myself, that was the one thing they both consistently said. I don’t think I’m in this position unless they knew there was something good there, so I’m not going to try to be Al Scates, I’m not going to try to be John Speraw — that would be ridiculous.

So for me to stay true to who I am and to stay true to that principle, I think, is paramount for me. These guys know me as an assistant coach, they know how my personality is, and if I came in and was different because I have a different hat on, I think it would be disingenuous. So I’m going to be who I am and I’m going to coach with my heart on my sleeve and they’re going to know what I feel and sometimes that’s good and sometimes that’s bad, but I think if there’s that trust, we’re going to be fine.

What are your core principles as a head coach and how do they help you achieve success?

I think first and foremost — and we just talked about it today at the end of practice — is trust, right? I think there has to be a deep level of trust between the staff and the players and player to player and vice versa, so that’s probably the first thing.

I say this a lot, I tell the guys in every message I’ve sent them, I’ve said, ‘Love you guys.’ And I think that men sometimes have a hard time sharing that, but if they know that I care about them to their core, then I can light them up in practice and they know it’s coming from a good place, so that’s trust, right? So they have to know that I trust and I care about them as people first, right? So I think if you have trust and you have that love and respect for each other, then the rest of the game’s easy.

But having integrity is part of trust, right, doing what you say you’re going to do and when you say you’re going to do it. So, to me, the core principle is trust.

When you left for Loyola, did you have any idea that you might be able to return to UCLA in this capacity so quickly?

Zero. Honestly, I did not think I was going to come back. My wife, Julianne, is from Ohio and she went to college in Chicago, so all her best friends live there and I just feel like the Midwest is such a great place to raise a family and we can afford a home. I did not think I was going to come back; I just was ready to move forward with the next steps, whatever that looked like. I thought I would be at Loyola for a long time, to be honest with you.

When I got the call [to come back to UCLA], it probably took me 3½ seconds to want to say, ‘Yes,’ But my wife is my No. 1 fan, obviously, and I couldn’t do this without her and how she’s holding the ship afloat back in the Midwest still [along with daughters Giavanna, 10, and Gabriella, 8], trying to sell our house. This was a tough transition, you’re going into a new season with half of fall and a very competitive team that’s trying to win three [titles] in a row and is doing something really special, but to do it without my family is really tough.

How does serving as head coach of the Under-21 USA National Team help you in what you’re trying to do with the Bruins?

I think it allows me to get different coaching reps, so I think of it like playing — when you’re in the offseason and you’re not doing anything, you forget about the rhythm of the game, really, and timeouts and what are you saying and drills and practice planning.

And I think this is what made John really special is that he went from the men’s college team to the men’s national team, back to college, so he was constantly getting reps where it’s seeing the game, seeing plays happen, seeing what’s happening internationally and then bringing that to what we can do here at UCLA.

We have some very special athletes that can play at that level and we have a lot of them that will be at that level, so exposing myself to what Poland, Brazil and Cuba are doing and all these elite teams internationally, I think, can only benefit us here, for sure.

There’s a handful of players remaining from the team when you were last here in 2022. What’s it been like to reunite with them?

It’s been really neat. I just had a conversation with Ido David the other night and he was hoping it was me [that was going to get the job] and me too as well, but to connect with him, who I’ve spent time recruiting from Israel, he doesn’t have to prove himself to somebody else, so during COVID I spent a ton of time recruiting Andrew Rowan and Zach Rama, Cooper Robinson — I was on the phone with those guys all the time, and to come back again, it’s really incredible.

UCLA ‘s Ido David spikes the ball past Long Beach St.’s Sotiris Siapanis during title game on May 4 last year.

(Wally Skalij / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

You have four returning starters from the championship game in Ido David, Cooper Robinson, Andrew Rowan and Matthew Aziz, along with another key returner off the bench in Zach Rama. What does it mean to return that much experience from a team that won it all?

It’s valuable. I do think that there’s a big shift in leadership, so Andrew and Zach and Cooper didn’t have to lead because they had [last season’s veterans] Ethan Champlin and Guy Genis and Merrick McHenry and Alex Knight, right? So that’s probably the one thing that we’re trying to develop with our current team is that internal leadership, but it does mean a lot because I think we have some of the most elite athletes in the country and to have those guys on my side and not across us from the net means a lot.

What will it take to win a third consecutive national championship, something that hasn’t happened since coach Scates won four in a row from 1981-84?

It’s going to take all 21 guys on our roster, and I think that we have the capability to do that, we have the guys, we have the athleticism to do it. But winning’s hard and it takes a lot of luck, right? Maybe a draw, maybe a bounce here or there, but I think you can also create your own luck, so if we do all the right things academically, athletically, off the court, socially, then we’re going to put ourselves in the best chance to do that. We know there’s no guarantee and I think that if we train the way we have been training — with intention and with the right attitude — I think we’re going to put ourselves in that position to raise that trophy again.

What are the strengths of this team?

Our setting, No. 1. We have an elite setter; Andrew Rowan is just so creative and a great person and I could go on and on about him, but from an athletic standpoint I think he’s just a really talented setter. We have three elite pins [right-front and left-front players], and Zach and Cooper are just two elite, unique athletes that are touching 12 feet [with their vertical jumps] that can do things that a lot of other people can’t do. They also have a mindset of, they just want to keep getting better and sometimes it can get a little bit chippy, but that’s good — I think you’ve got to have that, you can’t teach that competitiveness, right?

And then you have Ido, who just has an elite arm and has played the game internationally and is a senior that just wants to finish this off with a championship. Then you add our middle blockers and they’re some high-IQ guys — Cam Thorne, electric arm, really offensive, highly competitive, developing his serve. We just have some unique pieces that I think are really special.

UCLA outside hitter Ethan Champlin and setter Andrew Rowan react against Long Beach State during a match in 2023.

(Julia Nikhinson / Associated Press)

How big of a factor is NIL in men’s volleyball recruiting and where is it headed?

It’s a huge thing right now. I think the rich are getting richer and we’re Power Four, we’re in a position with 400-plus active alumni who deeply care about this program and the direction we’re going, so they support us on a level that I think is different from a lot of programs in the country.

Where is it headed? I hope there’s some cap on where this can go because financially, can departments sustain it? Can donors sustain giving like that every year after year? You know, there’s donor fatigue. So I don’t know what’s going to happen, I think that’s the scary part about where this is all headed. But it is massive for our program and the support we get, I can’t thank all those people enough.

So it sounds like it’s a strength for the program?

Oh, yeah. We’re in a healthy spot.

What’s been the best part of being back at UCLA?

Just the people who work in the department and knowing that I don’t have to go searching for who handles what; I just know where to go, I have a good friendship with a lot of people in the department and the hiring committee were a bunch of friendly faces that, it was just nice to reconnect. So when I was in that interview, it just felt comfortable. I want to win as bad as anybody, but I feel support and I don’t feel the pressure that we have to win. I think that’s the expectation, that’s what we all want to do and we’re all driving toward that goal, so to have [Athletic Director] Martin Jarmond and the entire athletic department and everybody here, my immediate staff, we’re all rowing in the same direction and it’s really cool.