OMAHA, Neb. – The first individual workout Ray Bechard conducted as the Kansas volleyball coach remains a story worth sharing.
Not so much for any coaching breakthrough, though there was that too, but for the connection Bechard was able to develop with the Jayhawks’ top returning player.
Laura Rhode – these days she goes by Laura Curry and is a coach herself, guiding Shawnee Heights High School to third place this past season in Class 5A – was entering her senior season as a gifted setter.
“I can remember it well,’’ said Bechard, “walking into Robinson Gymnasium and thinking to myself, ‘I hope that whatever I say and whatever I do today, I hope she has confidence in me because this is probably going to be my senior setter and captain.