Boston College Athletics
Get to Know Volleyball Head Coach Jason Kennedy
February 28, 2018 | Volleyball, #ForBoston Files
A rising star in the sport, he made an immediate impression on the Eagles.
Makenna Goss remembers the day she saw her cell phone ring with the signature area code. The Boston College volleyball player had just heard from her team administrator a half hour earlier with the news that the Eagles had a new head coach, and it would've been easy to ignore the phone call in the excitement of the new announcement.
The call was a Los Angeles-based number, and even though she didn't recognize it, Goss just kind of knew that she needed to pick up the phone for that particular phone call.
"I was like, 'It can't be but I'll answer it anyways,'" Goss said. "But it was Jason Kennedy calling right away. He thanked me for being on the interview committee (for BC's new head coach) and said he just wanted to get to know me. He asked some questions about the team and how we structured things. He wanted everything to be a smooth transition, and he called the team immediately to talk to us himself."
Just like that, the Jason Kennedy era had begun. In early January, Boston College hired Kennedy as its next volleyball head coach. It also helped insert the Eagles into the career path of one of the sport's brightest rising stars.
Kennedy arrives in Chestnut Hill from about as far away as someone can get. A native of Honolulu, Hawaii, he played college volleyball as a setter for the Santa Clara Broncos in California. Following graduation, he was head coach at the club level in California before joining the Southern California men's and women's programs in 2011 - a place where he stayed and rose until accepting the BC job.
So it's probably understandable if he still doesn't quite understand how a weather pattern can be 70 and sunny before snowing 24 hours later.
"I honestly didn't know a lot about BC when I came out here to interview for the job," Kennedy said. "It was really the people on this campus that sold me on the vision of Boston College and what the program can be. My official start date was (in January), and we had our first official practice, but I've been nothing but impressed by the work ethic and the positive attitude (of the team)."
Kennedy's resume stands alone for its achievements. USC is one of volleyball's storied programs. The women's program has six national championships and 27 consecutive national tournament berths. This past season, the Women of Troy advanced to the NCAA regional final for the second time in the three years that Kennedy was on the official coaching staff.
"It was exciting to hear that we had a coach who was from a high-caliber school like USC," rising junior Cat Balido said. "They're very good every year, so that's exciting for us. USC is one of the top Pac-12 teams every year. He's been there for a while, and he had a pretty big part in that program. That's exciting for us to get someone like that with a winning pedigree and background."
It's a resume now paving a road from Los Angeles to Boston. As a rising senior and one of the team's leaders, Goss played an active role in interviewing for the new head coach. She served one the interviewing committee and had a unique opportunity to meet with all of the candidates. She was immediately impressed with Kennedy, a coach who rapidly rose to the top of her desired wish list.
"Looking over the resumes of coaches, we had some really great candidates," Goss said. "But his really stood out. I'm a Southern California girl and he was a coach at USC. That's a program I grew up around, and they're always very dominant. Seeing that made me really excited to meet him, and then he just blew everyone away after that. The way he spoke, the way he wanted to build a team culture where the person comes before the athlete in a way was an emphasis."
But Kennedy is more than just a "West Coast" guy. As an experienced coach at both the collegiate and club levels, he's seen the game develop from its roots. He understands that while he was raised to play the game in the Pacific, it doesn't mean he can't integrate and bring a unique style east to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Where the club game may be more parochial and regionalized, the college game instead transcends those boundaries.
"I don't think (regionalism) applies too much in the collegiate game," he said. "You look at our roster and we have three or four kids from California. At SC, we had several kids from out of state. So there isn't a West Coast/East Coast thing in college. In the club scene, you're going to see a different style of play at a younger level. In the collegiate game, we're working with rosters that have been assembled from across the country and, in our case, across the world. It's not a style thing that then takes precedence."
"There's other levels of competition on the East Coast versus the West Coast," Goss said. "But our assistant coach is from the East, and Jason wants to bring those coasts together, especially in recruiting."
It's that desire to build BC that drove Kennedy cross-country to help build the program at BC. Coaches are often tasked with producing wins and losses, which require them to build a team. But coaches who are able to build a culture are often able to construct a full program that becomes sustainable. That will then become the catalyst for future success.
"The biggest short term goal is that we want people to buy into the system," Kennedy said. "We have done that so far. We want to win more matches, but we're not going to put everything into winning that runs against what we're trying to do systematically. Long term - we want to make the NCAA Tournament. I don't know if it's a realistic goal for this season, but I took this job with the goal to see Boston College in the NCAA Tournament at some point."
Â
The call was a Los Angeles-based number, and even though she didn't recognize it, Goss just kind of knew that she needed to pick up the phone for that particular phone call.
"I was like, 'It can't be but I'll answer it anyways,'" Goss said. "But it was Jason Kennedy calling right away. He thanked me for being on the interview committee (for BC's new head coach) and said he just wanted to get to know me. He asked some questions about the team and how we structured things. He wanted everything to be a smooth transition, and he called the team immediately to talk to us himself."
Just like that, the Jason Kennedy era had begun. In early January, Boston College hired Kennedy as its next volleyball head coach. It also helped insert the Eagles into the career path of one of the sport's brightest rising stars.
Kennedy arrives in Chestnut Hill from about as far away as someone can get. A native of Honolulu, Hawaii, he played college volleyball as a setter for the Santa Clara Broncos in California. Following graduation, he was head coach at the club level in California before joining the Southern California men's and women's programs in 2011 - a place where he stayed and rose until accepting the BC job.
So it's probably understandable if he still doesn't quite understand how a weather pattern can be 70 and sunny before snowing 24 hours later.
"I honestly didn't know a lot about BC when I came out here to interview for the job," Kennedy said. "It was really the people on this campus that sold me on the vision of Boston College and what the program can be. My official start date was (in January), and we had our first official practice, but I've been nothing but impressed by the work ethic and the positive attitude (of the team)."
Kennedy's resume stands alone for its achievements. USC is one of volleyball's storied programs. The women's program has six national championships and 27 consecutive national tournament berths. This past season, the Women of Troy advanced to the NCAA regional final for the second time in the three years that Kennedy was on the official coaching staff.
"It was exciting to hear that we had a coach who was from a high-caliber school like USC," rising junior Cat Balido said. "They're very good every year, so that's exciting for us. USC is one of the top Pac-12 teams every year. He's been there for a while, and he had a pretty big part in that program. That's exciting for us to get someone like that with a winning pedigree and background."
It's a resume now paving a road from Los Angeles to Boston. As a rising senior and one of the team's leaders, Goss played an active role in interviewing for the new head coach. She served one the interviewing committee and had a unique opportunity to meet with all of the candidates. She was immediately impressed with Kennedy, a coach who rapidly rose to the top of her desired wish list.
"Looking over the resumes of coaches, we had some really great candidates," Goss said. "But his really stood out. I'm a Southern California girl and he was a coach at USC. That's a program I grew up around, and they're always very dominant. Seeing that made me really excited to meet him, and then he just blew everyone away after that. The way he spoke, the way he wanted to build a team culture where the person comes before the athlete in a way was an emphasis."
But Kennedy is more than just a "West Coast" guy. As an experienced coach at both the collegiate and club levels, he's seen the game develop from its roots. He understands that while he was raised to play the game in the Pacific, it doesn't mean he can't integrate and bring a unique style east to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Where the club game may be more parochial and regionalized, the college game instead transcends those boundaries.
"I don't think (regionalism) applies too much in the collegiate game," he said. "You look at our roster and we have three or four kids from California. At SC, we had several kids from out of state. So there isn't a West Coast/East Coast thing in college. In the club scene, you're going to see a different style of play at a younger level. In the collegiate game, we're working with rosters that have been assembled from across the country and, in our case, across the world. It's not a style thing that then takes precedence."
"There's other levels of competition on the East Coast versus the West Coast," Goss said. "But our assistant coach is from the East, and Jason wants to bring those coasts together, especially in recruiting."
It's that desire to build BC that drove Kennedy cross-country to help build the program at BC. Coaches are often tasked with producing wins and losses, which require them to build a team. But coaches who are able to build a culture are often able to construct a full program that becomes sustainable. That will then become the catalyst for future success.
"The biggest short term goal is that we want people to buy into the system," Kennedy said. "We have done that so far. We want to win more matches, but we're not going to put everything into winning that runs against what we're trying to do systematically. Long term - we want to make the NCAA Tournament. I don't know if it's a realistic goal for this season, but I took this job with the goal to see Boston College in the NCAA Tournament at some point."
Â
Players Mentioned
RS
/ VolleyballBoston College Athletics Live Stream
Wednesday, April 01
Boston College Men's Basketball - Head Coach Luke Murray Introductory Press Conference
Wednesday, April 01
#22 Baseball Defeats Maine (March 31, 2026)
Tuesday, March 31
Baseball: Series Win vs. No. 9 Virginia
Tuesday, March 31
