Pacific Index

Pacific women’s volleyball team was led by Head Coach Kip Yoshimura for the last thirteen seasons— until now

   Over a decade was spent with one man in charge of the Pacific volleyball team: Kip Yoshimura. This off-season, though, he left. And in June, a new coach has stepped into the program. It is the biggest change the program has seen in a long time, and they are now faced with how will the team change and grow with new leadership.

   Former head coach Kip Yoshimura spent his time as a collegiate coach for an astounding 29 seasons. His commitment to volleyball and, specifically, to the Boxers was admirable. Prior to coaching at Pacific, Yoshimura spent nine seasons at Lewis-Clark State in Lewiston, Idaho and seven seasons at Gonzaga University. At Pacific, Yoshimura coached 27 All-Northwest Conference players, as well as guided the Boxers to earn the American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award nine times. 

   His last season as a Boxer wasn’t what he had hoped for going out, but it was a decently strong season. The women went 10-14 overall for the season and 5-11 for conference, plus they added some impressive wins to boost them into the current offseason. Yoshimura’s resignation as the head coach didn’t end in a blaze of glory, but his time here was well spent cultivating a strong team environment, and preparing the ladies for the future.  

   Now, leading the team into the spring offseason as Interim Head Coach, is Rachael Renville. Renville traveled from New York to Forest Grove this past June to take on the role as assistant coach for the Boxers. Before starting her coaching career, she played at Milligan University, where she was an academic all-conference performer and a member of an all-freshman team. Renville’s passion for coaching started when she took the role as an assistant at D-III Simmons University in Boston, a regional powerhouse program.

   Coach Renville enters the new stage of her career as the interim head coach for the women’s volleyball team at Pacific, and hopes to do great things. “I was living in New York and was taking a break from coaching when I realized I missed it,” Renville explained. “I saw a job posting for the assistant coach position at Pacific and applied. After talking with Coach Kip, I got the job and moved here.” 

   She recalls her first few phone calls with Coach Kip to be exciting and that they created a good bond from the start. “(Coach Yoshimura has) been around the game so long that I got to see a different side of it and his insights,” Renville claimed. “I got to see why and how he did certain things, and he also gave me the room to do things on my own. He really trusted me and gave me the guidance I needed without making me feel like I didn’t know what I was doing.”   

   Transitioning into the head coaching position, Renville feels confident that Coach Yoshimura set her up to be successful. She touched on the set-up structure of practices, preseason, camps, offseason, and more, that Coach Yoshimura set up and introduced her to. “I really am so thankful for that,” said Renville. Her guidance and good relationship with Coach Yoshimura is what pushes her into the offseason with confidence even in the absence of him. “I am really going to miss having him in the office because you just never know what he was going to say or if he was going to show up with his Diet Coke at 9 am,” Renville chuckled, smiling.

   Now that her mentor Coach Yoshimura is retired, Coach Renville is on her own. Her face lit up when asked about her current and future plans for the team. “I don’t think we have hit our full potential yet,” she explained. “We have so much talent and what we really need to do is put in the work now.” That consists of 6 a.m. lifts, workouts, practices, and most importantly, a lot of dedication. The goal is to have the team reach their full potential and do the most that they can. “And I’m gonna do everything I can as a coach to get them there, and just knowing that they’re bought in for that is really, really exciting. I think I’m demanding a lot out of them that maybe it looks a little different, but I think they’re excited about that,” she concluded. 

   Coach Renville plans on using not only her coaching experience, but also her personal experience as a collegiate athlete to help lead the team to success. When asked about her strengths as a coach she mentioned that creating connections with the players is a huge priority for her. “I strive to know every single player on a personal level. I want them to still be able to come to me and talk to me,” she noted. “I know everyone is going to have bad days every now and then, and that’s okay. I just want everyone to show up and do their best.”

   “I know what this team is capable of, and I will do everything to get the most out of them,” explained Renville. “I am a coach that is going to push you, and you have to trust me. I know your boundaries and what you are capable of. At the end of the day, I always have your best interest at heart.”