Not a whole lot of volleyball talk on this blog, but I wanted to point out to those that might not have checked Gazette.com today that I wrote an article about new Air Force volleyball coach Matt McShane, and a sidebar about his efforts to build the program’s following.

McShane has a pretty impressive resume, and he is optimistic that he can turn around a Falcons program that has been dreadful – to put it kindly – for a while. Former coach Penny Lucas-White went 97-302, including 15-93 in league play during her 14 seasons. Since going 5-9 in league play in Air Force’s first season in the Mountain West Conference (1999), here are Air Force’s conference records:

0-14
0-14
2-12
4-10
0-14
1-15
0-16
0-16
0-16
0-16

Yikes.

So a change was loooooooooong overdue. And the players with whom I spoke for the article were glad to get some new energy in the gym.

McShane exudes energy and positivity and confidence. He told me he doesn’t care about the Falcons’ gruesome past and that Air Force is going to win – “a lot.”

“Every game we play, I think we’re going to win,” he said. “And at the end of that game, if we win I’m going to be happy, and if at the end of that game we lose I’m going to be upset. So it doesn’t matter if they beat that team before or they didn’t beat that team before. Really, that doesn’t matter. It’s where we are right this second and where we’re going. We’re better – we’re already better. And by Aug. 15 we’re going to be better than we are on Aug. 1.”

Air Force opens its 2010 season on Aug. 27 at home against Long Island at 7 p.m.