Stanford volleyball veteran Don Shaw headed for Hall of Fame

Don Shaw, perhaps the most successful college women’s volleyball coach ever, helped shape Stanford into a nationally prominent program and was at the helm when the Cardinal won the first of its six national titles in 1992.

The American Volleyball Coaches Association recognized Shaw on Wednesday, announcing that he will be inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame as part of the Final Four festivities in Omaha in December.

Shaw, a some time commenter for KZSU volleyball broadcast, will be joined by three-time All-American player Deitre Collins-Parker of Hawaii and Long Beach State coach Brian Gimmillaro.

“If you want to know the quality people in volleyball, just look at this year’s AVCA Hall of Fame class,” AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer said. “The first volleyball player to win the Honda Broderick Cup awarded to the top woman athlete in the country, a coach who has trained players who have competed in over 10 Olympic games, and the coach (Shaw) with the highest winning percentage of any collegiate coach ever . . . and they were not in our Hall of Fame until this year … remarkable people, outstanding achievements.”

In his 16 years with the Stanford women’s program, Shaw accumulated a winning percentage of .863 (440-70), won four national championships and 10 conference titles, including six in a row from 1994-99, the longest streak in Pac-10 history.

Over those 16 years, Stanford was ranked in the top 10 of the AVCA poll all but nine weeks. The Cardinal have played more NCAA tournament games, and won more of them, than any other school.

“When I think about a Don Shaw coached team, the first two things to jump out at me are the precision of execution and the competitiveness on the court,” says Stanford men’s head coach John Kosty. “He instilled a great passion for the game of volleyball in his student-athletes and accepted nothing but the best out of every member on the team.”

Until winning the title in 1992, Shaw always pointed to programs like Pacific, under John Dunning, Hawaii and UCLA as programs to emulate.

Since then, Stanford has become a program which other colleges emulate.

Shaw also directed the men’s volleyball team at Stanford for a total of seven seasons, with stints on either end of his tenure with the women’s program.

Under Shaw’s guidance of both programs, 17 student-athletes earned a combined 37 AVCA All-America awards.

Many of his former players also went on to compete at the national level, including Scott Fortune and Kim Oden, captains of the 1992 men’s and women’s Olympic teams, respectively, and Kerri Walsh, a two-time beach volleyball Olympic Gold Medalist, who is also widely regarded as one of the best beach volleyball players in the world.

Shaw was a charter member of the AVCA, and has served on the NCAA District VIII Advisory Committee. Shaw also sought to help develop volleyball skills in players at a young age, by conducting several clinics around the country, as well as being the co-founder and director of Stanford’s men’s and women’s volleyball camps for 20 years.

Shaw himself was a member of the U.S. National Team in 1979. He earned All-America honors in leading Chuck’s Steak House to the USVBA Open Division national championship in both 1977 and 1978. He was also a USVBA All-American in 1986, playing on the winning Billauer/Norfleet team in the Senior Division.

He played professionally for the San Jose Diablos in 1979 and 1980 in addition to a successful career as a beach volleyball player.

Shaw also excelled in baseball and basketball. He was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the 1969 Baseball Amateur Draft, the same draft in which Stanford baseball coach Mark Marquess was picked by the Chicago White Sox.

Shaw also played basketball at Loyola Marymount from 1971-73, leading the West Coast Athletic Conference in free throw percentage (.853) in 1971-72.

He received a bachelor’s degree in sociology with an athletic coaching minor from UC Santa Barbara in 1977 while beginning his coaching career as an assistant for the Gauchos in 1976. He also served as an assistant coach for the gold medal-winning men’s team at the 1982 National Sports Festival.