USA Volleyball’s Board of Directors unanimously approved the selection of Doug Beal as the organization’s new Chief Executive Officer at the 2005 Winter Meetings at the Antlers Hilton Hotel in downtown Colorado Springs, Colo.

Beal, the long-time USA Men’s National Volleyball Team head coach, officially began his duties on Feb. 1, 2005.  He took over the reins of the organization from Rebecca Howard, who retired as CEO on Jan. 28, more than two years after taking the position on an interim basis.

"I was pleased at how seriously the Board questioned Doug at the winter meeting, and with both the depth and breadth of the questions asked," said organization President, Al Monaco.  "And I was more pleased with the approval vote without any registered negatives.  I believe, as I have all along, that we have selected the right person to lead USA Volleyball at this time."

Beal, head coach of the 1984 USA men’s Olympic team that won the gold medal in Los Angeles, has served USA Volleyball in a number of capacities during a career that spans more than 30 years.

“I am excited, I am motivated and I am energized to see if I can have a positive impact on our association—and hopefully the sport in general—from this position of leadership within USA Volleyball,” said Beal, a member of the Volleyball Hall of Fame.

“I have had a very unique opportunity as I have grown up in the game to work for, and observe closely, every past CEO that USA Volleyball has ever had.  And I hope I am smart enough and sensitive enough to have taken something that will be positive and constructive from every one of those previous leaders.”

Last year, Beal became the second coach in USA Volleyball history to guide three teams to the Olympics when Team USA competed at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece.  He also guided the team at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

Former women’s national team head coach Terry Liskevych was the first to coach at three different Olympic Games—1988, 1992 and 1996.

At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, Beal guided his squad to a 4-4 record and to a fourth-place finish overall—the team’s best Olympic finish in 12 years.

Beal was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1989 and was USA Volleyball’s first recipient of the All-Time Great Coach Award in 1995.  He was named a finalist for the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Greatest Coach of the Century.  Beal was also recently selected to the USA Volleyball 75th Anniversary All-Era Team as a coach during the Men’s 1978-2003 era.

“If I have a single objective, it is very simply to grow the game.  I want USA Volleyball to be the catalyst and the leader in growing the game!  That is what we’re about and I think that is what we ought to be about,” said Beal.  “There are lots of ways to grow the game, but we have this really wonderful vehicle: our association of member organizations that allow us to cover the entire country and the entire scope of the sport.

“I think the sport itself is the other wonderful vehicle.  And most people who are in it understand its attractiveness, its diversity, its lifetime appeal and its popularity across so many segments of the population.”

Beal began his volleyball career as a player in his hometown of Cleveland.  He earned conference Most Valuable Player and All-America honors while attending The Ohio State University.  Soon after graduating from Ohio State in 1970, Beal joined the USA men’s national team.

While playing on the national team from 1970-71, he started and coached the men’s volleyball program at Bowling Green University.  He returned to Ohio State in 1972 to become the Buckeye’s head coach while pursuing his doctorate degree in exercise physiology.  He coached OSU for three years, leading them to a 52-15 overall record and earning conference Coach of the Year honors twice.

Beal’s playing career ended in 1975.  In 1976 he accepted the head coaching position with the USA men’s national team at the age of 29.  Beal helped establish the first-ever men’s year-round volleyball training facility in Dayton, Ohio, in 1978.  The center moved to San Diego in 1981 along with the national team program.

After finishing 13th at the 1982 World Championships, Beal and his staff implemented a new revolutionary offense.  His two-man serve reception, innovative use of multiple back-row attackers and swing hitters transformed the sport and led to a decade of dominance for the USA Men.

The team won the first leg of the elusive volleyball “triple crown” in 1984 when the USA Men captured the country’s first-ever volleyball Olympic gold medal.  Legends Karch Kiraly, Steve Timmons, Dusty Dvorak and Craig Buck were all part of Beal’s Olympic squad.  Victories at the 1985 World Cup and 1986 World Championships capped off the American rise to the top of international volleyball.

Beal resigned as head coach to become the organization’s National Team Center Director from 1985-87.  He remained involved with the organization until 1990 when he moved to Italy to coach a top professional team.

He rejoined the national team program in July 1993 as a special assistant to the Executive Director/CEO.  He worked closely with former USAV Executive Director John Carroll, and was responsible for FIVB relations and player development for the USA national teams.

He worked in that capacity until he accepted the program’s head coaching position for the second time in 1997.

“We have had some remarkable successes, and I think it’s important for people to understand the breadth of what our association does,” explained Beal.  “Hopefully I can do a good job of getting that word out so that people really know what we are about.

“The other thing that I want people to understand is that we are the only country that has won a medal in every Olympics since 1984, either indoor or beach.  So we have this tremendous legacy of success, but we also have these increasingly high expectations for performance.

“But I don’t ever want to be a CEO or a leader that downplays expectations,” he added.  “I want to keep expectations high.  I want to motivate and lead and hopefully set a path for increasing successes and increasing expectations.”

E-Mail Doug at USA Volleyball