Linfield Replaces a Legend

No pressure!

Last season, Linfield’s volleyball coach of 2,000 years (slight…very slight overstatement), Shane Kimura, announced 2017 was to be his last. After 40 years with the Wildcats, Coach Kimura participated in his last collegiate volleyball match as Linfield upset Whitworth (his 666th win in his career). Coach Kimura ends his amazing run in the top 20 of wins for Division III coaches.

This week, Linfield announced that UC-Santa Cruz’s coach Josh Daviswould succeed Coach Kimura effective for this upcoming season. Coach Davis spent the last two years coaching the Banana Slugs, who will now start their own search for a new coach. Prior to UC-Santa Cruz, Coach Davis was an assistant in the SCIAC at both CMS (2015) and Occidental (2014).

It’s interesting to note that my blog post on statistics loss for the NWC shows that Linfield is in the best shape within the NWC coming into the new season with only 1.5% of their points lost to graduation. This should give Coach Davis a solid platform to be successful assuming he can keep his players and, of course, add to the mix. My congratulations to Coach Davis and I wish him the best moving forward!