When word began to spread in late January that Matt McShane had been named the new volleyball coach at Air Force, the news was greeted by some variation of the following question, posed on the VolleyTalk message board by poster (R)uffda!:

Why on earth would he want that job?

“I’ve been asked that once or twice,” McShane said with a chuckle last week.

Air Force, after all, seemed to those inside the volleyball community like a dead end – someplace you couldn’t win. And, heck, it would seem like that to anyone outside the volleyball community who simply looked at the Falcons’ recent records. They’ve gone 0-16 in each of the past four Mountain West Conference seasons.

McShane, meanwhile, had the resume to land a much higher-profile job – he recently was named one of Volleyball Magazine’s 10 best assistants, and he’d spent the previous five years with a Cal team that finished in the Top 20 each of those seasons.

So why Air Force?

“This institution always had a little place in my heart,” McShane, 55, said.

McShane spent four years as an assistant at Utah and 13 before that at New Mexico. During that time, facing Air Force in conference play, he developed “this special feeling for the Air Force Academy,” he said. He liked Colorado Springs, and – having spent time coaching the U.S. national team – he liked the idea of coaching a collegiate program that was one of the few that could be considered “the U.S. team.”

“I didn’t serve – and it’s not the same, I’m never going to equate what I do with what all of my players are going to do when they graduate – but this is a way that I can serve,” McShane said. “And I really think that in my heart somewhere there was this sense of duty. And that’s why I’m here.”

As for the program’s frightening past – in 14 seasons previous coach Penny Lucas-White won just 97 of 399 games, including just one regular-season conference victory in 94 the past six seasons – it didn’t scare off McShane.

“I don’t care,” McShane said. “Every team that I’ve ever joined, the goal was get better. At New Mexico, the team was OK when I got there, and we got better. And then we were a top 15 team at New Mexico. And at Utah, they were good when I got there, and we got better. And at Cal they were very good when I got there, and we got better. What happened in the past is not that relevant to me.”

McShane already has generated some excitement around the program that is palpable in the Falcon Athletic Center. And he seems to have built a quality staff. For his assistants he hired Marc Swindle, who has many ties to volleyball clubs (which are akin to basketball AAU teams when it comes to recruiting), and Louella Maxwell, who spent two years as a cadet at Air Force and was an All-American setter.

The staff seems to set up the Falcons for a brighter future, but McShane believes he has some pieces in place to win more games in 2010.

While he won’t have close to the talent he had at Cal, McShane said he will use the unique qualities of cadets – discipline, intelligence, understanding the nuances of the sport – to his advantage.

“There are volleyball players out there that just go out and muscle teams. And at Cal, there were teams that we would muscle up,” he said. “And we’re not going to do that. We’re going to pass well, we’re going to defend well, we’re going to hit the edges of the block, we’re going to set incredibly well, our ball control’s going to be great, and our players are all going to understand our system.”

McShane also said the Falcons will “be incredibly good at knowing what our opponents like to do and take those things away,” thanks to superior scouting.

Still, the toughest task for McShane and assistants might not be tactical but psychological. The Falcons have lost 70 straight games to MWC opponents and have won more than eight games in a season once since 1999. And while McShane can ignore that past, it still might wear on players.

“I’m sure it will creep into the players’ heads every once in a while,” McShane said of the unsuccessful past. “That happened in the spring once or twice, and we stopped it and went, ‘No, no. Not anymore. Not here. If you’re feeling like you’re sliding down a path that you’re not going to be successful – that might be happening – but you’re not going to show it, we’re not going to tolerate it. We’re going to be positive.’”

His players, who have gone through some workouts and scrimmages with him, have bought in.

“I think the change is going to be good for us,” senior middle blocker Nichole Stilwell said. “We needed a fresh start. We needed something to change that atmosphere in the gym and change the attitude of the team.”

McShane did that.

“I think it was his attitude,” senior setter Jessica Hellman said. “Because almost every practice he’s like, ‘I’m so happy I’m with you guys. There’s no place else I want to coach.’ And that’s nice, as a player, that the coach thinks that. … He brought a very positive energy into the gym, which is refreshing.”

Air Force volleyball coach Matt McShane worked with teen girls attending the AFA’s volleyball camp at Clune Arena on Thursday. Photo by Carol Lawrence, The Gazette