Who will be Oregon’s next volleyball coach? The question has been answered.
Oregon Athletic Director Bill Moos
announced Jim Moore as the new head coach for the Oregon women’s volleyball program during a press conference at the Len Casanova Center on Monday.
Moore takes the helm of a Duck squad that finished 10-19 overall and 1-17 in the Pacific-10 Conference in 2004.
“Jim has a tremendous reputation for
rebuilding programs across the country for a number of institutions,” Moos said. “It
reinforces my feeling that Oregon has become a destination and not a stepping stone and that is how Jim looks at it as well.”
The 16-year collegiate head coach comes from Northern Michigan, a team he returned to in 2003 after coaching the Wildcats from 1989-94. He has headed programs at Kansas State (1994-96), Texas (1996-2000) and Chico State (2000-02).
“I’ve been at different places and I
wanted that to stop,” 46-year-old Moore said. “I wanted to come to some place that I could stay. To have the opportunity to step into a program that can be at the absolute top
level in this country and to give me that
opportunity, I am honored and humbled.
“I wanted to go to a place that I could
win it all.”
The search for a new coach began immediately after former head coach Carl Ferreira
resigned on Dec. 7, 2004. Ferreira joined the Ducks in 2000 and finished his tenure at
Oregon with a 43-104 overall record. His teams were held to a 4-86 record in Pac-10 play.
Moore’s collegiate record is 352-156 and in his seven seasons with Northern Michigan, he finished 173-63. In 1993, he led the Division II Wildcats to a 38-1 record and a national
championship. Moore’s 2004 squad finished 24-7 and reached the NCAA Elite Eight, while his 2003 team went 26-1 after finishing .500 the previous year.
“I’m very pleased with how the search turned out,” said Reneé Baumgartner,
Oregon’s senior associate athletic director, who led the hunt for a new head coach.
“Bill and I wanted a head coach that had
experience at rebuilding programs.”
Baumgartner said that Moore agrees
with Oregon’s principles relating to the
development of successful student athletes in an enjoyable environment.
“In a few years it’s going to be great to see how our volleyball program has turned around,” she said.
Moore has yet to meet the team he has
inherited and could not evaluate its talent and potential. He said the key to rebuilding a
program is by recruiting heavily.
“We’re going to have to get after it,” he
said. “We need to first take the players that are here, get them to believe in themselves, get them to play hard, get them to play with heart and passion.”
Moore said that adapting the existing
players to a new system will not be hard, so
recruiting will be his immediate emphasis. He said he will look at uncommitted high school and junior college players, which may become a global search.
“I’d like to look at going foreign and getting players that can play here right away,” Moore said. “I’ll look anywhere.”
Moore said he was attracted to the competitiveness of the Pac-10 and expects to use that as a selling point to recruits.
“That’s how you get players here,”
Moore said. “Kids want to come play in this conference. It’s a great conference — it’s
always been a great conference.”
Moore has two player scholarships available and two assistant coaching positions that he hopes to fill soon.
“I really believe we’re going to have the best staff, perhaps, in the country,” he said.
One assistant coach on his side will be
his wife Stacy Metro, who he said will
volunteer her expertise. As a former Northern Michigan player, Metro was a three-time
All-American and two-time Player of the Year for Division II volleyball.
Moore comes into Oregon’s program with 13 letter winners and four starters on the team’s roster.

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