{"id":88106,"date":"2025-12-09T20:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/88106\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T20:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:56:09","slug":"nick-macrae-ready-to-take-over-long-beach-state-volleyball-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/88106\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick MacRae Ready to Take Over Long Beach State Volleyball \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long Beach State athletic director Bobby Smitheran made the easiest hire anywhere in the NCAA last week. After legendary men\u2019s volleyball coach Alan Knipe announced his retirement with four national titles to his name at LBSU (three as a coach, one as a player), Smitheran got to look one spot down the bench and hire Knipe\u2019s longtime assistant Nick MacRae.<\/p>\n

MacRae has been the program\u2019s Associate Head Coach for their recent run of dominance, including three NCAA championships. He was also twice named the AVCA\u2019s National Assistant Coach of the Year as well as making its 30 Under 30 list. He\u2019s been an assistant for 13 years and could certainly have taken several other open jobs over the years, but stayed loyal to his alma mater.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been at the heart of our program\u2019s rise to national prominence,\u201d said Smitheran. \u201cHe\u2019s the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacRae will start with the runway you\u2019d expect for a high-value hire, with a five-year contract at the Beach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Knipe has spent the last 13 years as MacRae\u2019s boss preparing him for this moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s literally nothing in our program that he hasn\u2019t had his fingerprints on over the years, everything from Data Volley on the bench up through offense and defense, working on scholarships, being our recruiting coordinator,\u201d said Knipe. \u201cHe\u2019s ready. And he has what I think is most important which is a tremendous love for our community, our program, and our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacRae is now also a rare thing to find at Long Beach State\u2014a Long Beach native in a position of power. He played volleyball for Wilson, Long Beach City College, and Long Beach State before beginning his coaching career at his alma mater\u2014his entire assistant coaching staff will also be LBSU alums.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the greatest honor because at Long Beach State and in men\u2019s volleyball, this is the Mecca of our sport, and I\u2019m taking over for the greatest ever in Alan Knipe,\u201d said MacRae. \u201cI also get to do it here in my own city\u2014all my peers have had to move all over to get their dream jobs, and I get to do it here. I\u2019m born and raised here, my wife and I are raising our kids here. Sometimes it works out.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacRae said it\u2019s been a whirlwind since Knipe\u2019s surprise retirement announcement. He\u2019s been doing what Knipe would have done in his shoes\u2014doing his best to keep things focused on the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hunkering down,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cThe staff is dialed in, I met with all five seniors, spoke to the entire team, spoke to the commits. I\u2019ve had the luxury of learning from Al and I\u2019m saying, \u2018Let\u2019s treat it like a Final Four week with all the noise out there.\u2019 We\u2019re just working.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s necessary, of course, because the season starts soon for the reigning NCAA champs, who also just announced the nation\u2019s top recruiting class signed in MacRae\u2019s second week as head coach. The Beach will open up at home in the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid Jan. 2 before embarking on a season that sees them host UCLA, Penn State, and Hawaii among others.<\/p>\n

MacRae said he doesn\u2019t feel any anxiety about following one of the greatest coaches of all time in his sport and at his school.<\/p>\n

\"MacRae\"<\/a>Photos of MacRae by Jake Cammarata<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not afraid of that, I\u2019m leaning into it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the most sincere and greatest honor taking over for him. Being here for 14 years I see almost every new coach or AD talks about reinventing the wheel or bringing back the glory days. I get to be the first to just celebrate the guy I\u2019m following, and keep pushing this baby even further.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knipe said that he\u2019s not just happy for his prot\u00e9g\u00e9, but for the program and Long Beach State fans as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy for Nick but I\u2019m so happy for the program that they get Nick, too,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s committed 13 years as an assistant coach, that\u2019s a tremendous amount of time. And I suspect that just like when I took over after being an assistant, I felt like I was pouring everything into it and then suddenly I had even more. I think it will be that way for Nick.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacRae laughed when told of Knipe\u2019s prediction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell I\u2019d compare it to the first time you become a father and you realize, \u2018Oh I have more energy in the tank.\u2019 I didn\u2019t know what I didn\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cI was up at 3am this morning connecting with a commit who\u2019s ten hours ahead. There\u2019s some extra energy in the tank for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the other unique aspects of MacRae\u2019s tenure, he\u2019ll also be coaching on a court with his own name on it. MacRae\u2019s father, Bruce \u201cDD\u201d Mac Rae, is a much-loved and well-known Long Beach State booster. His support of the university\u2019s volleyball programs was recognized with the moniker \u201cMac Rae Family Court\u201d being added to the Taraflex volleyball court rolled out for every match in the Pyramid.<\/p>\n

Truly, it\u2019s hard to imagine a much sunnier start to a head coaching tenure than the one MacRae is enjoying. Coaching in his hometown, in the program he grew up in, taking over for his mentor as a reigning national champion, and raising three beautiful young children with his wife, Ashley.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a dream,\u201d said MacRae.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long Beach State athletic director Bobby Smitheran made the easiest hire anywhere in the NCAA last week. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-88106","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\/88106","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=88106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}