![\"DSC](\"https:\/\/static.the562.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DSC_0014a-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s no way to tiptoe around that, there\u2019s no doubt that it\u2019s part of it,\u201d he said. \u201cI worked in an environment for the better part of my career that tried as hard as it could to at least state the mission was to balance the field and respect all student-athletes, and somewhere along the line that\u2019s become something that\u2019s not even talked about anymore. I don\u2019t think (the way things are going) is what college sports are about.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as going forward, the Beach program will be in capable hands with MacRae, who has been an assistant under Knipe for 13 years, and is an AVCA Assistant Coach of the Year honoree.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so happy for Nick and so happy for the program that they get Nick,\u201d said Knipe. \u201cHe\u2019s committed 13 years as an assistant coach, that\u2019s a tremendous amount of time to commit to one program. He\u2019s Long Beach born and bred, he\u2019s a Long Beach alum who cares tremendously, and there\u2019s nothing within this program that he hasn\u2019t been involved in over the years. He has, what I think is most important, a tremendous love for our community, our program, and our team. He puts in the work that nobody sees and I know that he has the respect of the current and former players as well as all the alums.\u201d<\/p>\n
MacRae won\u2019t be the only LBSU alum on the coaching staff\u2013in fact, with McKay Smith and Amir Lugo-Rodriguez filling out the staff, it will be entirely former Beach players.<\/p>\n
As for what\u2019s next for Knipe, his Champions Unlimited coaching clinics have taken off lately, and he said he\u2019s looking forward to continuing to mentor young coaches, and hopes to help continue to elevate the sport of volleyball in America.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see myself sitting on another NCAA college bench,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d like to spend time continuing to grow the sport of volleyball. As I travel around the world, I see no reason that men\u2019s and women\u2019s volleyball professionally here in the US couldn\u2019t be something special. I would love to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In reflecting back over Knipe\u2019s career, it\u2019s hard not to get caught up in numbers. Four national titles, 10 NCAA Final Fours, 14 NCAA Tournaments, eight National Players of the Year, a 450-172 overall record\u2013the list goes on and on. But Knipe said that none of those accomplishments have been on his mind as he\u2019s come to his decision to retire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hard part to walk away from is the relationships, the closeness you have with people whether players or coaches or administrators,\u201d he said. \u201cIt never gets easy\u2013no team would have been easy to walk away from, especially the way we run our program. I truly love these players and this program. It\u2019s been my entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was also emotional reflecting on the administrators who\u2019ve believed in him and supported his program. He mentioned Bob Maxson and Bill Shumard, the university president and AD who trusted him enough to hire him as a young head coach, as well as longtime sport supervisor Mark Edrington. He said university president Jane Close Conoley and AD Andy Fee were instrumental in the team\u2019s recent dominant run.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey helped catapult the Olympic sports at Long Beach State because of their investments\u2013the floor, the budgets, the scholarships, the things they did that hadn\u2019t been done in the past,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Knipe said he also appreciated Smitheran\u2019s stewardship through the recent NCAA changes and that he helped navigate a path forward for men\u2019s volleyball at the university.<\/p>\n
Knipe emphasized how personal the program had been to him\u2013his son Aidan was an All-American setter for the Beach, and his son Evan was a recruit for the Long Beach State baseball team. His wife, Jennifer, is a daily presence around the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn\u2019t see the players as her husband\u2019s players, she knows them and their families,\u201d he said. \u201cShe deserves a vacation at some point that doesn\u2019t have to work around a volleyball itinerary, and time in a gym. Those are the things I truly look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A legend of the Beach is riding off into the sunset\u2013and he\u2019s going out on top. Longtime Long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-77224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}