BOZEMAN, Mont. – University of Providence vice president of student engagement Dave Gantt can add another accomplishment to an already highly-decorated volleyball career.

On Friday, Gantt's 1999 Montana State volleyball team was recognized as the 3rd best Bobcat volleyball team of all time. The list is part of a series done by longtime MSU athletic department director of communications Tom Schulz, who is doing a weekly list of the Top 10 MSU volleyball teams. Gantt's 1997 team has already been ranked 5^th, and his 1996 team was ranked 8^th.

"I'm really honored to be a part of Tom's list," Gantt said. "I look back at those days in Bozeman as some of the most treasured memories of my life."

When Gantt left after the 2002 season, he had amassed a 159-96 record with the Bobcats, the winningest volleyball coach in program history. That feat is even more impressive considering that Gantt inherited a program in 1994 that went 5-27 the year before without winning a single conference game.

"We obviously had to change the culture," Gantt said. "And then we had to recruit to it."

Gantt wanted to recruit players who were mainly from the surrounding area and could fit the culture he was attempting to build. His philosophy was to recruit high-character kids from mainly Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Southern Canada who would buy into his teachings and coaching style.

"If I can't teach you how to play volleyball than I shouldn't be coaching," he said. "Do you recruit talented kids with an upper end, or do you recruit finished kids who think they have it at all? The kids might not grow at all and then they become your cultural anchors. There's no room for growth anymore because they think they got it. That's what we hung our hat on."

Gantt also made sure that he developed relationships with his players off the court. No matter how hard he was on them during practice, he made sure to let them know that he ultimately had their back.

"Every one of our kids was an all-star at where they come from," Gantt said. "Now they're okay. They have to reestablish that status. Even the head coach has to be an ally in that process."

"You have to use your time in a constructive way," he continued. "Time is of tremendous value to all of us. That doesn't mean sitting at the front of the bus and going to sleep until you get where you're going. We talked at airports, we talked on the bus, we talked out of our element. It's a safe place to have a conversation and develop that reservoir of trust with them. They're not going to agree with you on everything. But at least they know what you're all about as a person. That's huge."

Success didn't occur right away. In his first year, Gantt led the team to a 7-21 season, winning two conference games. The following year he got his team above .500, going 16-10 overall and 5-9 in conference.

Things would get even more difficult in 1996, when the Big Sky Conference added Cal-State Northridge, Portland State and Sacramento State to the league. Cal-State Northridge and Sacramento State were two of the better programs in the Northwest, and had given previous Bobcat teams problems in the non-conference.

"That changed the complexity of the Big Sky Conference when those three teams joined," Gantt said. "The entire paradigm of how we operated had to change. We got it into it pretty good with those teams pretty quickly."

Despite the added challengers, Gantt led his team to a 16-12 record, going 7-9 in conference. The following season he reached a 9-7 record in the conference, the first season above .500 in conference since 1984, when Gantt was an assistant with the program. Two years later in 1999, Gantt's team has a 20-10 record, going 10-6 in conference.

"I have a lot of respect for those first few teams because every year we created a gut check right at the very beginning of the fall so that they had a sense of what they were getting into," Gantt said. "But after about that second or third fall, all of those returning players would do it because that was our culture. There wasn't anyone who would commiserate with those who were complaining about the coaches being too tough. That's a huge thing when you're asking people to get out of their comfort zone."

The successful change in culture led to higher expectations for the team. Which meant the team had to change some of their goals.

"It wasn't getting to the tournament anymore," Gantt said. "It was playing for seeding. That's different. You're not just playing to try to get to the tournament, because now you have. You're not playing just to experience the event, because now you have. Now we're playing for seeding so we can do something while we're there."

"We changed the culture one kid at a time," Gantt said. "It wasn't easy, and it took some time. But every single one of our kids contributed to the success we had later on. That's special."


This is part 1 of a three-part series on Gantt's tenure as the head coach of the Montana State Bobcats. Part 2 will release next Friday.

Keep up with Tom' Top 10, released every Friday at MSUBobcats.com