Laura "Bird" Kuhn considered everything as she weighed three job offers – the school's volleyball tradition, the roster, the resources, the arena, the weight room, the support staff, the salary, the location. In the end, her decision came down to one thing.
Her gut.
"There were certain things and certain expectations and standards and goals for myself in my career and what I think for the certain programs that I interviewed at that were attainable," Kuhn said. "It just became obvious when I was down here. It was in my gut, the first job that I was like, 'I want that job.' Coming down here and meeting the people and seeing everything, the support that we will have through and through, it was a no-brainer to me."
The Aggies introduced Kuhn as their new head volleyball coach Wednesday, her second full day in College Station after accepting the job Dec. 15. She replaces Laurie Corbelli, who resigned after 25 years leading the program.
Lori Williams, the senior Associate Athletics Director/Senior Woman Administrator who headed the search, said the committee identified five to 12 candidates for the job. Some were sitting head coaches. But Kuhn, a long-time assistant coach at four different universities, received the first call and the only offer.
"We wanted to get the best coach for our program, and so even though we had those additional conversations and talks with other coaches who are running elite programs, doing amazing things, Bird still stood out," Williams said. "It was those intangibles. Her intensity. Her competitive nature. Her desire to win and recruit well, and do it well. We talked to people around the country, and that was Bird's reputation. She is a phenomenal recruiter, and she is a great trainer in the gym. Those are things that we need to move our program forward, and she had it. And then the personality was just icing on the cake."
Kuhn, 35, most recently served as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Kansas. She spent seven years there, helping establish a winning tradition with a first NCAA Final Four appearance in 2015 and a first Big 12 Conference championship in 2016.
The Aggies have only one conference title and two NCAA Elite Eight appearances in the program's history.
"The foundation has been laid and established here," said Kuhn, a former American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Assistant Coach of the Year. "I fully intend to compete at the highest level, top of the SEC, competing for championships, going deep into the tournament. Across the board, that is what we talked about when I interviewed. Those are expectations for myself in leading a program. Texas A&M bar none should be competing at that level, consistently. We share that vision from administration through and through, so I'm excited about that. That's why this job was No. 1, and that's the vision I want to carry out."
The Aggies expect to win in every sport. It's why they hired Jimbo Fisher last month to head the football program, and why Kuhn now is moving into the volleyball office in Reed Arena.
A&M Athletic Director Scott Woodward worked at the University of Washington in 2005 when the Huskies won the national volleyball title. He hopes Kuhn's hiring leads to bigger and better banners being hung at Reed Arena.
"Everything that she talked about aligned with everything that we are about," Woodward said. "Giving our kids the first-rate education that they can get and that being important, because that is going to carry on the rest of their lives; and secondly, being able to compete at the highest level and not being afraid of it, and that is what she is about. I've been around championship volleyball and watched a national championship at my former employer, and I know what good volleyball is about, and she reeked of that; and then thirdly, she talks about it more of relationships. I talk about it more as the experience and what our kids are about and who we are as Aggies. You know that. You've heard me say it a million times, 'It's embedded in our core values and who we are.' From that standpoint, she got it, and we were aligned. It was just how we talked about it differently.
"She was highly, highly regarded by my staff coming in, so I had high expectations, and she met them. For us, it became essentially, like she said, a no-brainer. "
Kuhn doesn't expect the turnaround to take long despite the Aggies' 10-15 record -- including 7-11 in the SEC – last season. The five incoming freshmen recruited by Corbelli graduated early and will enroll at A&M next week.
"With the recent success, in 2015, of winning the SEC, it's not like it's some far-off feat," said Kuhn, who played volleyball at Georgia Tech. "I think once we get our culture established, and we get our system and what we are going to train, I don't foresee this long, lengthy [process]. It could be just a couple of years. It's right there. It's a buy-in. It's a culture. It's getting everyone on board. I think the success can happen pretty fast, especially with this group.
"It will be exciting, and it is going to be challenging. There is a lot of personality, a lot of training and things to get done this spring, so I'm up for the challenge. It's going to be really fun."
Less than a week into her new job, running her own program for the first time, Kuhn already knows it was the right decision. Her gut tells her that.
"You just feel it," she said. "You feel it when you are here. You feel the tradition. You feel the people that I know that have been a part of the program here and just the athletics here. Â . . . It's a feeling that it's right."
Her gut.
"There were certain things and certain expectations and standards and goals for myself in my career and what I think for the certain programs that I interviewed at that were attainable," Kuhn said. "It just became obvious when I was down here. It was in my gut, the first job that I was like, 'I want that job.' Coming down here and meeting the people and seeing everything, the support that we will have through and through, it was a no-brainer to me."
The Aggies introduced Kuhn as their new head volleyball coach Wednesday, her second full day in College Station after accepting the job Dec. 15. She replaces Laurie Corbelli, who resigned after 25 years leading the program.
Lori Williams, the senior Associate Athletics Director/Senior Woman Administrator who headed the search, said the committee identified five to 12 candidates for the job. Some were sitting head coaches. But Kuhn, a long-time assistant coach at four different universities, received the first call and the only offer.
"We wanted to get the best coach for our program, and so even though we had those additional conversations and talks with other coaches who are running elite programs, doing amazing things, Bird still stood out," Williams said. "It was those intangibles. Her intensity. Her competitive nature. Her desire to win and recruit well, and do it well. We talked to people around the country, and that was Bird's reputation. She is a phenomenal recruiter, and she is a great trainer in the gym. Those are things that we need to move our program forward, and she had it. And then the personality was just icing on the cake."
Kuhn, 35, most recently served as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Kansas. She spent seven years there, helping establish a winning tradition with a first NCAA Final Four appearance in 2015 and a first Big 12 Conference championship in 2016.
The Aggies have only one conference title and two NCAA Elite Eight appearances in the program's history.
"The foundation has been laid and established here," said Kuhn, a former American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Assistant Coach of the Year. "I fully intend to compete at the highest level, top of the SEC, competing for championships, going deep into the tournament. Across the board, that is what we talked about when I interviewed. Those are expectations for myself in leading a program. Texas A&M bar none should be competing at that level, consistently. We share that vision from administration through and through, so I'm excited about that. That's why this job was No. 1, and that's the vision I want to carry out."
The Aggies expect to win in every sport. It's why they hired Jimbo Fisher last month to head the football program, and why Kuhn now is moving into the volleyball office in Reed Arena.
A&M Athletic Director Scott Woodward worked at the University of Washington in 2005 when the Huskies won the national volleyball title. He hopes Kuhn's hiring leads to bigger and better banners being hung at Reed Arena.
"Everything that she talked about aligned with everything that we are about," Woodward said. "Giving our kids the first-rate education that they can get and that being important, because that is going to carry on the rest of their lives; and secondly, being able to compete at the highest level and not being afraid of it, and that is what she is about. I've been around championship volleyball and watched a national championship at my former employer, and I know what good volleyball is about, and she reeked of that; and then thirdly, she talks about it more of relationships. I talk about it more as the experience and what our kids are about and who we are as Aggies. You know that. You've heard me say it a million times, 'It's embedded in our core values and who we are.' From that standpoint, she got it, and we were aligned. It was just how we talked about it differently.
"She was highly, highly regarded by my staff coming in, so I had high expectations, and she met them. For us, it became essentially, like she said, a no-brainer. "
Kuhn doesn't expect the turnaround to take long despite the Aggies' 10-15 record -- including 7-11 in the SEC – last season. The five incoming freshmen recruited by Corbelli graduated early and will enroll at A&M next week.
"With the recent success, in 2015, of winning the SEC, it's not like it's some far-off feat," said Kuhn, who played volleyball at Georgia Tech. "I think once we get our culture established, and we get our system and what we are going to train, I don't foresee this long, lengthy [process]. It could be just a couple of years. It's right there. It's a buy-in. It's a culture. It's getting everyone on board. I think the success can happen pretty fast, especially with this group.
"It will be exciting, and it is going to be challenging. There is a lot of personality, a lot of training and things to get done this spring, so I'm up for the challenge. It's going to be really fun."
Less than a week into her new job, running her own program for the first time, Kuhn already knows it was the right decision. Her gut tells her that.
"You just feel it," she said. "You feel it when you are here. You feel the tradition. You feel the people that I know that have been a part of the program here and just the athletics here. Â . . . It's a feeling that it's right."