I owe a great deal to you for the two opportunities you gave me in the collegiate coaching world. It all started in 2003 when you gave me the opportunity to be the volunteer and be part of that magical 35-0 season. You taught me the game through your eyes and how to use statistics and the value of them. With that experience it landed me the assistant coaching position at Pepperdine.
The second opportunity was when you brought me back to USC in 2008 as your first assistant and gave me the opportunity to work with you again and gave me the reigns to go out and recruit! We had the pleasure of coaching some incredible talent including Alex Jupiter, Kendall Bateman, Natalie Hagglund and Samantha Bricio to name a few. One of my fondest memories is listening to you talk about your early experiences coaching the national team. You mentioned about getting right on the verge of failure and how you just wanted to crawl into bed and pull the covers up over your head. J (I have felt that here while I am building this program at GCU.) The lesson here is greatness comes right on the brink of failure and you learned through your experiences you just have to keep pushing and believing.
One of my fondest seasons was 2012 when we tinkered with the defense every night and schemed on different variations of the “wishbone” defense. That was awesome.
There is no doubt in my mind I would not be where I am today with you and your guidance.
Thank you for taking a chance on me twice and passing on some of your great wisdom and insight to this game and life. I wish you luck in your new adventure and will chat with you soon I am sure.
Tim Nollan
Grand Canyon University Head Coach (2016-present)
USC Associate Head Coach (2011-15)
Pepperdine Assistant Coach (2004-07)