Volleyball is Life: Chris Gravel on a Mission to Bring Hillsdale a National Championship
Written by Doug Goodnough
Chris Gravel’s goal was to play Major League Baseball. A true competitive soul, he didn’t plan to take “no” for an answer, but if the Major League was out of reach, then he’d settle to become a hitting coach.
“Baseball was my number one,” he said, reflecting on his baseball goals when he was entering college.
As a standout high school player, he would have been able to play in college. But a lingering back injury plus other injuries through his last three years of high school hindered him from being recruited and put a damper on those lofty baseball dreams.
“I was injured all the time,” he said. “Whenever I was about to do something or achieve something special, I got injured.”
Gravel began college at Oakland Community College and later transferred to Wayne State University. While at Wayne State, the sport of volleyball began to take center stage for Gravel. He’d spent time before helping his sisters train for the sport; however, taking a methods of teaching volleyball class increased his interest in the sport. He began to play in some indoor tournaments with Wayne State head coach Matt Peck.
“There were a couple of us from the class who were decent,” he said. “And as soon as I realized you could cause pain to an opponent, it became a real sport to me.”
He was eventually invited to train with the Wayne State women’s team, and Gravel learned firsthand just how competitive the sport of volleyball could be.
“I went to the women’s practice, and I was the worst player in the gym,” Gravel said. “That was so hard for my ego. So, for the next month, I trained hard to get better so I could actually be useful.”
While training with the team, Gravel got to know the players and began offering them some feedback, often using analogies from other sports to help convey an idea. Peck was impressed with Gravel’s ability to give feedback to his team, and after a couple of months, offered Gravel an assistant coaching job.
This new interest in volleyball was intriguing, and he decided to put baseball on hold and give this “girls sport” a try.
“I had helped coach my sisters and their friends for as long as I could remember, plus I just fell in love with the sport,” Gravel said.
The rest, as they say, is history.
After a two-year stint at Wayne State and three years at Grand Valley State University as an assistant coach, he was offered the head coaching position at Hillsdale College, which was struggling to compete in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Enter Gravel. After more than 28 years at the helm of Charger volleyball, Gravel has racked up more than 600 career wins, including numerous conference titles. He has taken the program to the NCAA Division II Tournament 16 out of the past 20 years, including multiple Elite Eight appearances and a Final Four showing. He was the first coach in a team sport ever to host an NCAA regional tournament and the first one to win an NCAA Tournament Championship for Hillsdale College.
Arguably the most successful coach in Hillsdale’s history—in any sport—the 56-year-old Gravel is far from finished. His ultimate goal: bringing home a national title. With that goal still to be attained, Gravel spends almost every waking moment building the program toward that final prize.
Two Years or Bust
After starting his volleyball coaching career at Wayne State, Gravel took a year off to work in sales and pay down some debt. When the longtime GVSU Head Coach Joan Boand sought him out to be her assistant coach with a mind toward making him her successor, he decided it was worth it to step back into the game.
Though he interviewed for the position, the head coach position was not to be his. He may not have gotten the job, but the man who interviewed him, then-GVSU Athletic Director Dr. Mike Kovalchik, was impressed with Gravel and remembered him.
A year later, Kovalchik joined the Hillsdale College staff as co-athletic director, alongside longtime Athletic Director Jack McAvoy. At the time, McAvoy was looking for a head coach who could rebuild a volleyball program that consistently struggled to compete in both the conference and region. Kovalchik remembered how Gravel had impressed him during his interview at Grand Valley.
When Gravel was hired into the position, he became McAvoy’s last hire before retiring in the spring of 1996, and subsequently Kovalchik’s first hire. The AD team gave him five years to turn the program around.
“I told him we would do that in two years,” Gravel said.
Gravel challenged the players who stayed with the program to raise their standards—things were going to change.
“When we took over, they had a really weak schedule,” Gravel said of Hillsdale’s non-conference opponents. “In the first year we took over, we made it a national schedule. And we had a lot of headwinds with a much harder schedule.”
Adopting a team that finished 9-24 overall and 4-14 in the conference with a weak schedule, Hillsdale finished 11-22 overall and 6-11 in the conference that first season. It wasn’t great, but a step in the right direction. In year two, the Chargers finished 23-12 and 10-7, and Gravel was on his way to establishing Hillsdale volleyball as a consistent winner—and an eventual power.
Raising the Bar
Gravel spent the first 10 seasons building Hillsdale into a championship-caliber program. In 2004, the Chargers qualified for the NCAA Division II Tournament, the first in program history and the first for any Hillsdale College team. They repeated the feat in 2005. In 2006, Chargers volleyball went to another level, finishing the regular season 27-0, including a spotless 17-0 conference mark. Hillsdale won its first conference championship and finished an NCAA tournament run with a 29-2 record. This was the first time any team had hosted an NCAA post-season event.
Recruiting was paramount to Gravel’s plan for building a competitive program. Selling the College’s strong academic profile and unique mission, he sought student-athletes who were looking at NCAA Division I programs. But recruiting was tricky when the program wasn’t funded at the scholarship levels of other top Division II programs.
“I said, ‘We need to be fully funded. We can make a run at the national title if you make us fully funded,’” Gravel said of his conversations with College leadership. “They decided to give us the increase and make it a level playing field.”
The decision paid quick dividends. In 2011, Hillsdale claimed its fourth GLIAC title in five years and reached the Division II Final Four. The Chargers finished with a 31-3 record, boasting a loaded roster that included future Hillsdale Hall-of-Famers Ashlee Crowder, ’12, and Clara Leutheuser Black, ’12.
In 2017, Hillsdale College pivoted from the GLIAC and joined the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. The volleyball program has continued to be a dominant force, winning the conference tournament title the past seven consecutive seasons. Gravel has nine conference Coach of the Year honors to his credit.
The Iceberg
Finding the best talent is always a priority for Gravel. However, talent alone is not enough. All Gravel’s players must fit the program’s vision and the College’s mission. Everything he works toward as a coach is making the team the best it can be.
“There’s not a player here who doesn’t deserve to play on game day,” Gravel said. “We have 20 players, but only six people are on the court at the same time. So, they must realize it’s not about them. It’s about the team. And that’s work. That’s effort because everyone needs to know that they have value, and they all need to know how to do the job.”
If the team needs you to play a different position, you do it. It’s part of the buy-in, knowing the team is bigger than an individual. That’s the trust Gravel has in his student-athletes.
“It’s made quite clear, you play wherever I tell you,” he said. “And it’s all about the foundation of the program. On game day, you see the tip of the iceberg—the players on the court. But the base underneath? That’s even bigger. That’s the rest of the team. And that’s what pushes the iceberg out of the water. So, you have a responsibility, whether you’re below the waterline or above the waterline. You need to know how to do both and do it well.”
Gravel’s players get it, even the stars. Crowder, one of the top players in program history, was a standout high school middle hitter who switched to outside hitter for the Chargers. Gravel said he’s even turned away some top recruits because they did not share the program’s mindset.
One was a major Division I recruit who was expecting a scholarship offer when she visited the Hillsdale campus. After her visit, she did not get an offer, and she asked Gravel why not.
“She was with her mother,” Gravel said. “She was rude to her mom all day, and my players noticed it. And I said, ‘OK, I don’t like the way you treat your mother. If you treat your mother that way, how would you treat me and the rest of the team? So, thank you for your time.’”
Gravel said his staff spends countless hours evaluating thousands of recruits. He values the feedback his players give him on recruits and will often take that into account. But ultimately, it falls on him to make these decisions and land the best individuals for the program.
“I’ve done pretty well so far,” he said, smiling.
The Family Experiment
Being a college coach takes sacrifice. Countless hours preparing, recruiting, coaching, mentoring, and listening. When Gravel married his wife, Stephanie, nearly 30 years ago, they entered into an “experiment” of sorts.
After Gravel was named head coach, Stephanie became his assistant. Actually, according to the Gravels, it was more like a co-head coach arrangement.
“In the beginning, all we did was work,” Gravel said. “I mean, for three years, we almost never took a day off. It was definitely a partnership. We shared office and coaching duties at home and on the road. A lot of it was just back and forth, taking it home and on the road always. It was a pretty exciting and challenging time.”
When their daughter, Brooklynn, was born, she eventually became part of the “family business.”
“She went on almost every recruiting trip,” Gravel said of Brooklynn, who is now 23. “She had to come to the office and work with recruits. I think she learned to like it. Steph, Brooklynn, and I maintained and continued to grow the dynasty. It was truly a family effort.”
After nearly 25 years at his side, Stephanie left the program to work in the College’s Student Affairs Office. Gravel has since added two full-time assistants to help him continue his work, which never ends.
“I think I missed my fourth day of practice in my career this year,” he said. “Even after I’ve broken both arms. I’ve broken my nose. I’ve had surgeries. But I come into work. I mean, there’s just no time off. I can go away for a weekend, and I can take vacations now, but at certain times, they’re still non-negotiable.”
The Process of Winning
Gravel believes and teaches what it means to be driven. It is more important than being motivated by a goal. To be driven means you are so determined to achieve something or be successful that all of your behavior is directed toward this aim.
“Encouraging players in self-belief is critical,” he said. “It’s important to find as many ways as possible for players to practice healthy thoughts. It’s a balance of honesty and being self-aware for true growth, and at the same time, being your own best friend. A player’s self-talk can make them or break them in critical moments of the game.”
There’s plenty of focus on volleyball training. But that sometimes can manifest itself in unique ways under Gravel’s leadership.
“We do more growth in our off-season than we do during our season,” said Gravel, who likes to use everything at his disposal, including the weather. “If it snows, the team knows we’re probably going outside to find a way to ‘enjoy’ the elements, and it will likely be at 6:00 a.m.”
He will also create assignments and tasks based on things he’s seen or read and insert them into the training process.
“We have pool workouts with relays, including the dreaded sweatshirt relay,” he said. “So, it really doesn’t matter what you’re doing. It’s about the competition, building mental fortitude, and going outside your comfort zone.”
Much of Gravel’s philosophy comes from absorbing information from different sports and applying them to volleyball. Take baseball, for example.
“I truly believed I could get a hit 100 percent of the time,” he said. “And that’s why I got a hit 40 percent of the time, right? If I thought I could get a hit 40 percent of the time, then I would have been one of many average hitters.”
Gravel said the best way to learn something is to teach it. To that end, his players are instructors in his summer youth and team camps.
“If I want them to be good leaders,” he said, “I have to teach them leadership. And that’s going to make the biggest impact. I didn’t really learn how to play the game until I was 21 or 22 years old. So, I had to actually do it. Studies have shown that you can read something, you can hear something, but if you teach something, that’s when it really sticks. Players teaching others is really a key component to our success on the court.”
Winning is the ultimate goal. But Gravel has his own nuanced definition.
“When you come in, our goals are to win a conference, regional, and national title,” he said. “Although it’s not about the hardware; we just call that icing. I want players to improve in everything they do all the time. And if that happens, all those other things fall into place. But you’re going to hear me talk about a national title and a conference title. It comes down to daily routines and the decisions made each day. So yeah, I believe it can happen. I hope it will happen. Ultimately, this program is about the person they are growing into, the friendships that evolve, and the habits they are creating to be successful citizens in today’s world. Whether it’s reframing a negative outlook, practicing gratitude, or demonstrating perseverance in a tough situation, this is a part of my philosophy on what it means to win in life and on the court.”
Of the Same Mind and Mission
When Gravel and his wife arrived at Hillsdale, they planned a short stay. Improve the program, then move on. Hillsdale was to be a steppingstone. But once they learned more about the mission of the College and how well his coaching philosophy aligned, the more he and his family wanted to remain and build something special.
“This is really a pretty neat place. The longer I am here, I really want to do everything I can to keep this program in the best light possible,” Gravel said of the College. “I would love for all the past and current players to experience the ultimate goal of winning a national title. As a coach, that would be incredibly rewarding, especially because I know I am not easy to play for and I ask a lot of my players and staff. It would be a victory for all those loyal fans and our Hillsdale family. And it would also be the best ‘I told you so,’ for those who said it was too difficult to have a successful or winning program at Hillsdale College.”
Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s senior director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.
Reposted from the fall 2024 issue of Arete.