University of Oregon
Utah Valley
Coaching Staff of "Best Friends" Leads Ducks Into Oregon Classic
08/30/18 | Women's Volleyball, @GoDucksMoseley
UO coach Matt Ulmer and his two assistants first worked together at Long Beach State, one of Oregon's opponents this weekend for the Oregon Classic in Matthew Knight Arena.
When Matt Ulmer left Long Beach State for Oregon, a going away party was thrown in his honor.
To mark the occasion, Ulmer's wife, Kara, put together an online photo album of memories from his seven seasons as an indoor assistant, and a head coaching role with the beach program that included the 2013 national title. Ulmer's fellow assistant at the school known as "The Beach," Erika Dillard, submitted some photos for the album, and also a note.
Its message: I foresee us working together again, and soon.
Fast forward less than five years, and Dillard's intuition has proven correct. For the 2018 UO volleyball season that continues this weekend with the Oregon Classic in Matthew Knight Arena, Ulmer is in his second season as head coach, and his staff this year includes Dillard as a first-year assistant. Futhermore, the other full-time assistant is Dave Butler, a volunteer assistant at LBSU in 2013, when Ulmer and Dillard worked under legendary former Beach head coach Brian Gimmillaro.
This weekend, the Ducks welcome Long Beach State to Eugene along with Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Utah Valley for the Oregon Classic. The event begins Friday with four matches in MKA, beginning with LBSU against Arkansas-Pine Bluff at 11 a.m., and culminating with Oregon facing Long Beach State at 8 p.m.
The Ducks will face the program where Ulmer was an assistant from 2009-14, and where Dillard was on staff from 2009-16.
"It was a really important time for me, and I'm excited to see them in our gym," Ulmer said Tuesday, following Oregon's emphatic sweep of Portland State.
Ulmer had been a volunteer assistant with the Beach for two seasons before his promotion to a full-time role in 2009. That same season, Dillard (née Erika Chidester) returned to her alma mater as an assistant as well. Thus began a working relationship that carries on to this day – and will well into the future, based on their respect for each other.
"Erika's the biggest recruit I've ever gotten – and I've had some good ones," said Ulmer, who has helped the Ducks sign two top-five recruiting class in the last three years.
To be honest, Dillard said, it didn't take much of a pitch from Ulmer to convince her to return to coaching from a year on the sidelines last fall.
"It was a quick trip up here with my husband to decide, can we live in Oregon?" Dillard said. "Once we said, 'Yeah, we can see this being a great place to raise our family,' it was a really quick decision."
Ulmer and Dillard were in their mid-20s when they joined Gimmillaro's staff in Long Beach in 2009. The AVCA Hall of Fame coach allowed them to divide up their coaching and administrative duties as they saw fit, a division of labor that in some cases still exists today with the Ducks.
Their working relationship thrives for two primary reasons: They both believe in diving deeply into the techniques and fundamentals of volleyball in drills, rather than devoting practice time chiefly to scrimmaging. And they're able to speak frankly and even critically without taking things personally.
That dynamic began to take shape a decade ago in Long Beach, and it continues now in Eugene.
"I had forgotten how much fun volleyball was until I got here," Dillard said. "The first week, I went home every day and told my husband, 'I feel completely rejuvenated.' "
Spending 10 years at a non-Power 5 program helped Dillard develop a breadth of skills necessary to keep a program running, on and off the court. That versatility continues to serve her well, and also makes her appreciate the vast resources she has to draw from now that she's at Oregon.
And along with Ulmer, she's been reunited this season with Butler, who joined the Ducks as a full-time assistant last season when Ulmer was promoted to head coach. Like Dillard, Butler said he knew he'd eventually be reunited with his former Long Beach co-workers.
"Matt's vision always was to be a head coach," Butler said. "And once he got this job, it was his vision to get us back together."
Butler has an easygoing personality that he said meshes well with the dynamic between Ulmer and Dillard.
"It's very strange just how easily we get along," Butler said. "It's really fun being able to coach with your three best friends."
For that to happen at Oregon, Butler said, "the stars aligned." And with this staff of close friends and respected co-workers now in place for the Ducks, the sky's the limit.
