With a volleyball team that is at the top of its game and near the top of the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) rankings, there is usually a very strong coach at the base of the team. The Bellevue College volleyball coach Kim Culliton is no exception.
Culliton started out playing basketball and volleyball in high school, but switched to volleyball for a scholarship. Ever since, volleyball has been a huge part of her life.
She has coached many high school teams and trained college teams through clinics over the years, and is currently in her 8th year as the BC head volleyball coach. “I have always enjoyed volleyball. This is my 8th season here, and I love what I do.
When I coach, I am not working because when you love what you do, you aren’t working. It is just something I have always loved. Coaching is in my blood.”
Culliton takes every aspect of her job very seriously, and enjoys every moment of it. After a long day for us we would go and scout beginning in August. We would go and look at schedules, and go to high school games which made for really long days. There was one day where I sent out hundreds of emails to club directors and tried to see what positions we needed[…]and out of those 300 I sent out, I got back about 10. But it gave me 10 players.”
Recruiting is a hard job in itself, but when done right, it can have massive payouts. Culliton expressed that she did not just want great athletes, but great students as well.
While she may have a very strong team currently, Culliton knows that her team does need a bit of work.
She coaches them every day and even steps in during practice, and practice with them to help them improve.
However, in her eyes, the biggest problems the team has cannot be coached away, “Our communication is a little lackluster at times. We need to learn how to analyze the mistakes and push them away so we can move on to the rest of the game.”
Culliton is doing all she can help them come over their lack of communication, but ultimately it is up to the girls.
Culliton has done a great job as the coach not only this year, but has been consistently good over her years.
It truly does fall onto the players to succeed, “It is not about me. It is about them, and they are the ones that are going to dictate if we did a good enough job.”
Culliton is an outstanding volleyball coach, and BC is happy to have her at the helm for this strong season.