It certainly was a grand entrance for Leslie Gabriel at her introductory news conference Thursday as the new head coach of the Washington women’s volleyball team.
Members of the Husky band formed two lines at the entrance into the Founders’ Club at Alaska Airlines Arena, then began a deafening rendition of “Bow Down to Washington” as Gabriel and UW athletic director Jen Cohen walked into the room.
“That’s something that I love the most, is hearing that band play,” Gabriel said to begin her comments. “It gets me super fired up.”
Gabriel was a star UW volleyball player (1995-98) before spending the past 22 years as an assistant coach. She was named the team’s head coach on Dec. 26 after Keegan Cook left to take the coaching job at Minnesota.
The hard work of coaching one of the top programs in the country has already started for Gabriel, but Thursday was a day of celebration at UW for its new leader.
The large gathering at the Founders’ Club included Gabriel’s husband, Anthony, their three children, and her parents, Manu and Tina Tuiasosopo, who also raised two UW football players (Marques and Zach), a UW softball player (Ashley) and a pro baseball player (Matt).
“We want to recognize and celebrate the start of the Tui era for Husky volleyball,” Cohen began, eliciting huge applause.
“If you would have told me 28 years ago, that I would spend 26 of the next 28 years of my life on the sidelines of Husky volleyball, I would not have believed you,” said Gabriel, who said it was her dream to be UW’s head coach.
Gabriel knows what it takes to lead a successful program, having been an assistant on five teams that reached the Final Four, including the 2005 team that won the national title.
“It takes a whole lot of hard work to win a national championship,” she said. ” … I’m all about improvement. Can we get a little bit better each day? And that’s all I’m going to ask these girls. We’re going to study this game and we’re going to have standards.
” … I’m just going to say, ‘Can we get 1% better?’ And I think if we just approach each day like that — be a little bit better — then before you know it, we’re in the mix.”
The Huskies battled injuries last season while finishing 20-11 and losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Gabriel will have to replace a strong group of players who finished their careers last month, including three who earned All-American honors at UW: setter Ella May Powell, outside hitter Claire Hoffman and middle blocker Marin Grote.
“The senior class, they brought it every single day and they laid some really great foundations in this program,” Gabriel said, “But I’m also really excited for the future, and the women that we have on our team right now. I’m excited to see the growth. It’s a new team and everyone has new roles so I’m really excited to see how these women take on these new roles that they have in front of them. As a coach, I want to give them the tools to help them be able to lead this team and become better players.”
Marques Tuiasosopo, who quarterbacked the Huskies to a win in the Rose Bowl after the 2000 season and is now the offensive coordinator at Rice University, was also on hand for Thursday’s event.
He was two years behind his sister in school and remembers spending weekends growing up going to volleyball tournaments. He continued to support his older sister at matches when they were at UW together for two years.
“It’s surreal and I’m really excited for her,” Marques said. “Obviously, she started it off for our family. I’ve always looked up to her as an older sister. She has been my best friend for a long time. To see her achieve her dream is really cool for me and am excited for her to hit the ground running.”
Marques said his sister will bring more to her players than just expertise.
“The one thing that she has — that sometimes I think people don’t know — is tremendous passion,” he said. “When she gets in with those girls, they’re going to feel that passion for the game. They’re going to feel that intensity that it takes to play this game at a high level. I think all you have do is look back at her when she played and was at the net blocking. She got so fired up and that’s who she is as a competitor.”
The celebration now over, it’s back to practices and working on improving her team. Gabriel said she always wants to be competing for national and Pac-12 championships, but the focus at the moment is getting “more mechanically sound.”
“We’re going to be pretty young but there is a lot of opportunity here,” she said. “People will come out and shine who haven’t played that much, which I am really excited about.”