Q & A WITH ALAN KNIPE:

Alan Knipe already has a good gig, but this one was too good to pass up.

The 1987 Marina High grad, who still lives in Huntington Beach, was selected recently as the U.S. men’s volleyball national team coach. The Long Beach State men’s volleyball coach will train the U.S. national team leading up to the 2012 Olympics in London, and will be able to rejoin the 49ers after that.

Knipe, 40, has been coach at Long Beach State for nine years. The 2008 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Coach of the Year, he is busy prepping the 49ers for the MPSF Tournament.

He recently took time to talk to the Independent about his new position.

Question: What does it mean to you to be named to this position, U.S. national team coach?

Answer: It’s an enormous honor to represent the United States in anything, especially the sport that’s been so important to me my whole life. I don’t take it lightly. It’s a great honor.

Q: Is it a natural progression for you in a way, because you’ve had experience coaching at the 2008 Pan American Cup [leading the U.S. to a gold medal] and the World University Games before that? You’re not really a stranger to international competition.

A: I don’t know if I’d say it’s a natural progression, because there are so many coaches who would be able to coach this team. There are so many great coaches in men’s volleyball in the United States, especially in the Southern California area. I do think it’s a good fit for a lot of reasons. I have some background in it. I’m familiar with a lot of the guys; I’ve trained some of them, whether they’ve been with Long Beach State or in the summers with the Pan American team or the WUG team.

I think what’s probably the best thing about it is trying to put together a collective group that can form a good program for the next four years. Obviously, they had a great program the last four years, but each squad brings new challenges, new guys, new faces. As much as I’ll have a lot to do with this, it’s not about me. It’s about the guys on the team and developing the right chemistry of the players that we ultimately select for the 12-man roster for the Olympic games, and the staff that we surround those players with.

Q: What was it like for you watching the team’s success last summer at the Olympics, especially since, like you say, you’ve had a couple of those guys [Robert Tarr, Tyler Hildebrand and Paul Lotman] on Long Beach State?

A: First of all, like any American, watching them win the gold medal and the American flag being hoisted is an amazing experience. Then, take it to another level where you have some personal connections with that sport. Then, to take it to another level where you’ve had three of the players through your program at Long Beach State, now there’s a personal connection.

I’ll be honest with you, it was slightly emotional. I was super-proud of those guys. I couldn’t have been happier for the team and the players.

Q: Did you watch it on TV?

A: Uh-huh. I was actually on vacation with my family up in Northern California, and we watched it. The way they did the broadcasts, unfortunately we knew the outcome when it came on TV, but that’s OK. It was awesome. My boys didn’t know the outcome. They were jumping up and down on the bed, going crazy [laughs].

Q: Coming off that result and becoming the coach, do you feel pressure?

A: Is there pressure? Sure. But that’s the nature of the chosen profession here. But there’s no one really going to put more pressure on me or the team or the staff, than we will put on ourselves to succeed. This isn’t the first team to win a gold medal for the United States [in indoor volleyball], this is the third team [the United States also won gold in 1984 and ‘88]. There’s not only a precedent set by this previous team, but by USA Volleyball as a whole.

The way I choose to look at it is wouldn’t you much rather have a team coming back with a nucleus that won a gold medal at the Olympic games, add some of the talent we’re going to add with the young guys and build from that, rather than build from a team that doesn’t believe that they have what it takes to win? That’s obviously not the case with this team.

Q: How has the emergence of beach volleyball influenced the indoor game. Has that influenced it, just from a losing player’s standpoint?

A: No. Well, yeah, there have been some. The team trained in San Diego when I was on the team, and then they moved to Colorado Springs. When they were in Colorado Springs, it was a problem when there were some players who wanted to play on the beach and also play indoor. They lost some players to the beach, but now that they’re back to Southern California [Anaheim], I’m not sure they’re losing any players right now. Definitely, being in Southern California has given the guys the opportunity to play on the national team and still have some other interests going on.

Q: What would you say is your coaching philosophy?

A: After a few years of any coach, hopefully you can figure out by watching their team things they take pride in. In volleyball, one of the things that will always be a must is to be a good passing team, or serve-receive team. We strive to be a great team in serve receive, and it comes with some other things too. You have to have some balance offensively.

As far as philosophy goes, you want to be an aggressive team. We want to let our athletes be athletes, but we also want them to play under some guidelines of when they can be real aggressive. There becomes a window of opportunity that starts to shrink when you put yourself in a less-than-desirable situation and you continue to stay aggressive. If I’m serving or I’m hitting and I get a bad set or give myself a bad toss, and I’m aggressive with it, my chances of success are very low. I would like my players to recognize those situations and be able to adapt, to not make mistakes and keep the ball in play.

... The other thing is that a well-prepared team is a must, to go out and execute game plans. Lastly, I think when two good teams are playing and they’re equal, a lot of it is going to come down to their discipline and their effort. Those are two things that you can’t throw the light switch during the match time. Those things are developed over a culture in the gym, that it’s been developed over a long period of time that that’s what they know.

Q: You’ve had a pretty long coaching career. Is there a win or a moment that you’re most proud of as a coach so far?

A: I don’t know if I have any one particular win. You think back to the first time you made it to the Final Four, the win that gets you there. Or the first time you win a conference title, or there’s wins that have individual meaning. I had a player, Dave McKenzie, who broke the NCAA record for kills in a match. There’s a lot of different ones.

I don’t know. I think if you worry too much about the great moments of the past, you’re not preparing for the next one ...

I guess I would say that I hope the best moment is still ahead of us. I’m still striving for that, whatever it may be.

Q: Looking back on it now, what did it mean to you in 1991 to win the NCAA championship as a player at Long Beach State?

A: It’s fabulous. When you coach, it’s the feeling you want your players to feel. It’s the greatest 20 minutes to a half-hour of sports, right after a championship, the feeling that all the hard work and dedication is worth it and the bond that’s created with that group forever.

It meant a ton. I don’t see those guys all the time, I see some of them more than others. But any time you see any of the players that you went to battle with to win a championship, there’s a very unspoken bond. You don’t have to say anything, you know it, and this is a million years later [laughs]. As much as we knew it was significant when we won, you really don’t appreciate it as much until time goes by and you realize how difficult it really is to accomplish that goal.

Q: What are some of your favorite things to do when you’re not coaching?

A: Most of my time when I’m not coaching is spent with my family. As a coach, when you have family time, you cherish it. It depends what time of the year, but I love to take my boys to the beach and they get on their boogie boards. We love to travel, go out to the desert or wherever we go.

It mainly comes down to just spending time with not only my boys, but my extended family.