After ten very successful years as head coach of the men’s and women’s volleyball teams, Steve Burkhart is retiring as the men’s coach. It was a decision many years in the making and not one that came easily. Since 2005, Coach Burkhart has been pulling double duty as the men’s and women’s head coach, 

“The guys have been terrific here the last ten years for me, I mean obviously we’ve had a lot of success and some really great guys come through here,” said Coach Burkhart.

Not only has Coach Burkhart had several players continue their volleyball careers at big universities, like Ohio State, but in 2005 he lead his team to win the State Championship title.

“When I first started doing it ten years ago, I had no idea at that time how much enjoyment I would get out of doing the guys,” said Coach Burkhart

As head coach, there rests the responsibility of building a team; one cannot coach if there is no team to coach. Recruiting, then, is a very important part of any college coach’s job and having two teams means twice the amount of recruiting and twice the work. The trouble for Coach Burkhart is that one of the two teams is always in season, leaving very little time to focus towards recruiting new players.

“It’s absurd! Recruiting two whole teams every year and then coaching,” Athletic Director Howard Davis said.

All college sports are difficult; all are equally difficult to coach. So when someone takes on coaching two teams, it presents an enormous challenge. There has to be some area that loses focus and does not receive as much time and energy as it should. Coach Burkhart explains that because this may happen it is best to find someone that has this time and energy to devote to recruiting and focusing only on one team. 

“I just thought at this phase in my career the program deserved to have a coach that would be able to dedicated his full time work at the men’s program,“ Coach Burkhart said.

This decision was not made overnight and was a long time in the making. Two or three years before his mind had been made up about no longer coaching one of the teams, Davis explained, but had he done so the volleyball programs may have been cut altogether. 

“I think it got to the point where it just burned him out,” said Davis.

Coach Burkhart has put in a lot of hard work and has reached the point where he feels the men’s and women’s teams deserve the same amount of time and attention. There are several candidates being condidered for the job right now and he has full faith in the athletic department to find someone to take on the role that he carried so well.

“I’m sure whoever gets hired is going to do a good job and there’s a good group of guys coming back and I’m sure they are going to be successful,” Coach Burkhart said.

Originally from Chicago, Coach Burkhart began his California coaching career at Buena High School coaching both the boys and girls volleyball teams. By 1992, Moorpark College had reeled him in as the women’s coach. As 2005 came along, he became the men’s coach as well. Not only was he taking some overtime as both coaches, but he was the only one to do so.

His players feel lucky that he took on such a task. Some coaches are great to work with and you learn a little from, but others you gain and grow from. When they had a rocky start to their season this year, freshman defensive specialist Jamal Balkhi said it was because of Coach Burkhart they were able to pull through and play as good as they knew they could.

“He always kept reassuring us that we could win..he always had faith in us,” said Balkhi.

To an athlete there is no better feeling than knowing your coach has complete faith in you. That is one of the reasons Coach Burkhart has been so successful as a coach; his players do not question him, because they know everything he does is for the team. 

“He’s a great coach!” said Balkhi. “He always came to every practice and game with a smile and the attitude to win.”

Though Coach Burkhart has to give up something he loves doing, he will still be remaining at the college and still plans on being one of the team’s biggest supporters.

“I told the guys I’ll be looking over their shoulder and hopefully not be too intrusive but at the same time be supportive,” said Coach Burkhart.

While he was constantly being pulled in two directions, Coach Burkhart was a coach respected by all of his players, and there will be some very big shoes that have to be filled with whomever will be rising to the challenge of replacing him.

“Burkhart is a legend,” said Balkhi.