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Kip Yoshimura, an assistant volleyball coach at Gonzaga University in 1992, returned to the Bulldogs in 2002 as the fourth head coach in Gonzaga's NCAA Division I history. Yoshimura had been the head coach at Lewis-Clark State College in nearby Lewiston, Idaho, for the previous nine years, compiling a 251-72 record for a .777 winning percentage. The Warriors qualified for the NAIA National Tournament five times, advancing to the quarterfinals in 1996 and to the semifinals in 1998. The 1996 squad posted a school-best 35-4 record, with the 1998 club finishing 32-7. After joining the Frontier Conference for the 1999 season the Warriors captured two regular-season titles. LCSC won three Pacific Northwest Athletic Conference titles (1994, 1996, 1997) and the 1996 and 1999 NAIA/Pacific Northwest Region championships. The Warriors were also NAIA Region/District runners-up three times. The Warrior volleyball program was ranked nationally in the NAIA polls for nine straight seasons, maintaining a Top 10 NAIA ranking throughout the 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 seasons. His players earned several All-America athletic and academic awards at LCSC. Yoshimura was named the 1999 Frontier Conference Coach of the Year, and in 2001 was named the Frontier Conference and NAIA Region I Coach of the Year in leading the Warriors to a 27-5 record. It was his sixth Region honor. A native of San Jose, Calif., he started his coaching career as a student assistant in 1983 for the women's team at West Valley College in Saratoga, Calif. During the 1988 and 1989 seasons he was an assistant for the Cal State-Long Beach women's program that compiled a 58-12 record and won the 1989 NCAA Division I National Championship. In 1991 he was the top assistant at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and spent the 1992 season at Gonzaga prior to joining the Warriors. During the spring of 1991, Yoshimura was selected as an assistant coach to train in Kobe, Japan, with former USA National Team head coach Arie Selinger and a select group of collegiate coaches and athletes. Yoshimura, a graduate of Cal State University, Long Beach (B.S., Mechanical Engineering), also enjoyed a successful playing career. As a starting setter for West Valley College men's team, he helped guide the program to a 31-5 record during the 1983 and 1984 seasons, gaining All-Northern California honors his sophomore year. At San Jose State University, Yoshimura spent two years as the starting setter for the SJSU Men's Intercollegiate Club team. |
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