John Andrew Banachowski (born August 1945) is an American

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

coach. He was the head coach of the women's volleyball team at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

(1965–1968; 1970–2009). He had more wins than any other Division I coach, with 1,106 total victories and an overall record since the 1970 season of 1,106-301 (), until his record was broken on September 6, 2013, by University of Hawaii head coach Dave Shoji. He did not coach the two seasons from 1968 to 1970 after his graduation from UCLA. Under his coaching, the UCLA team won six national championships (3

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

–1984, 1990, 1991; 2

AIAW The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was a college athletics organization in the United States, founded in 1971 to govern women's college competitions in the country and to administer national championships (see AIAW Cham ...

–1974, 1975; and 1 DGWS–1972). Banachowski was twice an All-American volleyball player at UCLA under Al Scates, and won

USVBA USA Volleyball (USAV) is a non-profit organization which is recognized as the national governing body of volleyball in the United States by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committe ...

national championships in 1965 and 1967 as a player. While at

he joined

Delta Tau Delta Delta Tau Delta () is a United States–based international Greek letter college fraternity. Delta Tau Delta was founded at Bethany College, Bethany, Virginia, (now West Virginia) in 1858. The fraternity currently has around 130 collegiate chapt ...

International Fraternity. He got his 1,000th career victory on Nov. 12, 2005, becoming the first Division I women's coach to reach 1,000 career victories when the Bruins handed eventual national champion

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its only loss of the season in a five-game thriller at

Pauley Pavilion Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion, commonly known as Pauley Pavilion, is an indoor arena located in the Westwood Village district of Los Angeles, California, on the campus of UCLA. It is home to the UCLA Bruins men's and women's basketball teams. Th ...

. On January 11, 2010, he announced his retirement, effective June 30. Originally from San Mateo, Banachowski now resides in

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. He has two children.

Coaching at UCLA

1981-2010

Since NCAA began sponsoring women's sports in 1981, UCLA women's volleyball has earned 37 AVCA All-American honors, to go with 47 Volleyball Monthly/Magazine All-American awards. Banachowski has also coached players to numerous other awards, including 43 All-Pacific Region honors, 85 All-Pacific-10 awards, five Pac-10 Players of the Year and the National Player of the Year in 1992 (Natalie Williams). Eighteen Bruins have earned All-NCAA Tournament accolades, including Williams, who was named Most Outstanding Player in both 1990 and 1991. Williams also won two Honda Awards under Banachowski's tutelage in 1992 and `93, with Lis Masakayan earning the honor in 1985.

1980s

In 1988, Banachowski received his first Pac-10 Coach of the Year honors. In 1989, he received his second straight Pac-10 honor, as well as being named the

AVCA The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) is an organization of over 9,000 members, incorporated as a private non-profit corporation, non-profit educational corporation in 1981, as the Collegiate Volleyball Coaches Association. It is cur ...

National Coach of the Year. In the 1984 NCAA Championship match against

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

, UCLA marked one of the best comebacks in a single game. In the fifth and deciding game after splitting the first four games with the Cardinal, UCLA was down 11-2. In a fifth game, you had to reach 15 points to win the match. With heroics from Lis Masakayan, the Bruins were able to come up from being down 9 points and win the match and national championship, 15-12. This was before rally-scoring era, which would have made it much more unlikely that the Bruins would have pulled the comeback. Nonetheless, it was considered one of the best comebacks in a fifth game.

1990s

UCLA won their 2nd NCAA title in 1990 by defeating

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, 3-0 in

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. If the 1984 comeback wasn't enough, they weren't finished with come from behind wins in national championship matches. In 1991, playing on their home court at Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins saw opponent

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take a commanding 2-0 game lead on them. With Long Beach being able to win the championship if they won the 3rd or 4th games, UCLA rallied back and took the next to games to force a fifth. They won the championship by winning the fifth game, pulling off one of the best comebacks in NCAA history. On Oct. 24, 1997, Banachowski became the first women's volleyball coach in history to be inducted into the National Volleyball Hall of Fame as a coach. He has since become the first volleyball inductee into the Serra High School and San Mateo County Halls of Fame.

2000s

Aside from Banachowski earning his 1,000th career victory in 2005, a year later Banachowski led the team to their first 30-win season and final four appearance since 1994. Banachowski was inducted into the

Hall of Fame in 2003. Since 1981, the Bruins have appeared in 11 Final Fours, winning championships in 1984, 1990 and 1991 and earning runner-up finishes in 1981, 1983, 1992 and 1994.

Olympic coaching

Banachowski has been involved with the U.S. Olympic Team as a coach many times. He is a former advisor with the U.S. National Team, helping teams during the 1990

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, the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

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, the 1995

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and the

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. Additionally, he coached the West Team in the 1986 U.S. Olympic Festival. In 1993, Banachowski was the head coach of the U.S. World University Games squad, a group which achieved the highest American finish in WUG history, earning a silver medal in

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Honors and awards

*2009

National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame The National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame and Museum was founded in 1973. The mission of the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame is to recognize and preserve outstanding achievement by individuals of Polish heritage in the field o ...

, Troy, Mich.Banachowski Inducted Into National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame
*2006 AVCA Coach of the Year, Pacific Region Coach of the Year, Volleyball Magazine Coach of the Year *2003 AVCA Hall of Fame induction *2000 USA Volleyball All-time great coach, George L. Fisher "Leader in volleyball" award *1998 Pacific Region Coach of the Year, Pac-10 Coach of the Year *1997 Induction into the National Volleyball Hall of Fame (coach) *1994

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl ...

Coach of the Year *1993 Pacific Region Coach of the Year, Pac-10 Coach of the Year *1992 Pacific Region Coach of the Year *1989

Coach of the Year, Pacific Region Coach of the Year, Pac-10 Coach of the Year *1988

Coach of the Year

References

External links

UCLA profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banachowski, Andy 1945 births Living people American volleyball coaches American men's volleyball players UCLA Bruins men's volleyball players UCLA Bruins women's volleyball coaches People from San Mateo, California American people of Polish descent International Volleyball Hall of Fame inductees 20th-century American sportsmen