College volleyball: End of an era for Vandals ...St. Maries native Buchanan retires after 22 years as Idaho volleyball coach
UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO ATHLETICS Idaho volleyball coach Debbie Buchanan talks with her team before a match against Southern Utah at Memorial Gym in Moscow on Oct. 28.
UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO ATHLETICS Debbie Buchanan, a St. Maries native, stepped down as Idaho Vandal volleyball coach on Wednesday after 22 seasons.
Buchanan
From news services
Idaho volleyball coach Debbie Buchanan announced her retirement Wednesday after 22 years, 320 wins, 16 conference postseason appearances and two NCAA tournament appearances as the Vandals head coach.
A native of St. Maries and a former Lumberjack volleyball star, Buchanan took the reins of Vandal Volleyball beginning in 2000 and wasted no time in making Idaho a contender. In her first year, Idaho knocked off No. 18 Utah State in Memorial Gym, and again defeated the No. 18-ranked team in the country, this time Santa Clara, in the 2001 season.
She said she is taking the opportunity to focus on her family. Buchanan and her husband Buck have two sons. Austin, the oldest, is a redshirt freshman on the Hawaii men’s volleyball team. Blake is a junior at Lake City High, where he is a highly sought-after basketball recruit.
“I am retiring from coaching after 27 years to be closer to my family and to be able to go and watch my boys compete,” Buchanan said. “I have loved my time here at the University of Idaho and appreciate all the support and friendships I have made along the way.”
Buchanan (then Debbie Martin) led St. Maries High to four state A-2 volleyball championships, and earned a scholarship to USC. However, a knee injury suffered in a high school basketball game her senior season ultimately cut short her volleyball career at USC. She was an assistant at Idaho and Colorado State before becoming the Vandals' head coach.
Buchanan concludes her tenure at Idaho as the program’s all-time winningest head coach, boasting a 320-317 career record, including 198-164 in conference play, spanning across the Big West Conference, the Western Athletic Conference, and the Big Sky Conference.
"Debbie committed herself to this program for over 20 years,” Idaho athletic director Terry Gawlik said. “She has done everything right on and off the court and made Vandal volleyball competitive for over two decades in three different leagues. We are grateful for everything she has done for Vandal Athletics and wish her all the best going forward.”
Spring 2021 marked Idaho’s 16th consecutive conference postseason appearance, where they earned the No. 7 seed in the Big Sky tournament.
This season, Idaho finished 5-20 and failed to qualify for the Big Sky tournament.
In 2003, just her fourth season as head coach, Buchanan led the Vandals to their first NCAA appearance since 1995, receiving the first at-large bid to NCAA Tournament in program history. The 2004 season saw the Vandals earn their second consecutive at-large bid and pick up the highest-ranked win in program history, a 3-2 win over No. 13 UC Santa Barbara.
After five seasons in the Big West, Idaho moved to the Western Athletic Conference from 2005-13. The Vandals advanced to the WAC semifinals in 2010, 2011 and 2013, and the program’s first WAC championship match in 2012, where Idaho lost to New Mexico State.
In 2011, Buchanan earned WAC Coach of the Year honors and had a program-high six players earn WAC postseason honors. Buchanan’s teams went 91-52 (.636) in WAC matches in nine seasons as a member of the conference.
In 2014, Idaho’s first season back in the Big Sky Conference, the Vandals finished 11-5 in league play to earn the No. 4 seed in the Big Sky Tournament. In 2015, Buchanan led the Vandals to the Big Sky North Division title, going 10-6 in conference play. In 2017, Idaho again won the Big Sky North and advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament.
Idaho earned a share of the 2018 Big Sky regular season title and the No. 2 seed at the conference tourney. The Vandals advanced all the way to the Big Sky title match, where Northern Arizona won to claim the conference's automatic bid to the NCAAs.
Under Buchanan’s tutelage, Idaho players have earned one All-American honor, two AVCA All-Region selections, 49 all-conference honors, and 12 All-Freshman team selections. Buchanan has also coached a player to a first team all-conference selection in 15 of her 22 seasons and boasts the only Vandal player to earn four all-conference honors in her career.
Idaho said it will conduct a national search to find a new head coach. Gawlik, a former volleyball student-athlete, coach, administrator and past chair of the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Committee, will lead the search.
