OKLAHOMA CITY (June 4, 2021) – Veteran volleyball coach Jason Skoch, who has enjoyed considerable success at three previous NCAA Division II stops, was named this week as Oklahoma Christian's new coach.

From nearby Yukon, Skoch has spent 15 seasons working at Truman State (Mo.), West Texas A&M and Saint Leo (Fla.). He's posted a 437-121 record, won 13 conference and six Division II regional titles, made 12 NCAA tournament appearances and been named as a conference coach of the year five times. His teams have won more than 30 games in a season nine times.

Skoch, 45, graduated from Yukon High School in 1994 and Oklahoma State in 1998. He played club volleyball at OSU and Penn State (where he worked on a master's degree) before moving into coaching.

He will take over an OC program that posted a promising 6-12 record and qualified for the Lone Star Conference tournament this past spring in its first season of competition since fall 1983. Here is an interview with Skoch, conducted shortly after his hiring and edited for length:

You're originally from Oklahoma. What was your journey like, starting in Oklahoma and now returning here?
"I ran and played soccer growing up. One year, our cross country coach at Yukon didn't return and they brought this guy in. He was a big guy and he'd have us go running to the Yukon Community Center and then we'd play (volleyball) doubles as kind of a cool-down. Beach volleyball was a big deal at the time, in the early 1990s. I later found out this coach was the assistant for OU volleyball.

"So then I go to Oklahoma State and they have an indoor club team and there were these guys who were older players there for grad school. It was good timing. Tulsa has some really good men's volleyball too. You sort of find these pockets and you train with them. I wasn't really good at that time. When I left Oklahoma State, I chose to go to Penn State, with the idea of using my last year of eligibility and also going to grad school. I ended up sitting (out) a year, which ended up being a blessing, because grad school was brutal. Pennsylvania has high school boys volleyball, so … there is so much volleyball there, they had a gym (at Penn State) that was designated for volleyball pickup games. I ended up just traveling and playing on the East Coast … just playing beach (volleyball) or coaching club. Everywhere I would go, I would find a way getting connected with volleyball.

"I came back to Oklahoma State to start my PhD. I met a guy named Ryan Webber at Stillwater High and I called him and asked if I could help with volleyball there. I helped him with eighth grade and ninth grade and JV and a club team that he had started. I was taking my PhD classes and teaching and coaching and I was dog-tired. I went to a USA Volleyball clinic and they told me to finish out (my degree program) because once you have that stats degree, you'd always have it, but I also knew that because I didn't know people, I'd start at the bottom. So I quit with about a year and a half left in my degree (program) and contacted Jeff Boyland (who in 2003 had just taken the volleyball job at Central Oklahoma). Jeff needed somebody to help, so I'm there.

"(The next year), a guy that I had played against in beach was an assistant coach at Mississippi State and was leaving to be an assistant at Rice. He called me and said I needed to go to Mississippi State because I'd be a good fit. I worked for Tina Seals, a great Christian lady, old-school, tough. While I was at UCO, I met my to-be wife. We were at Mississippi State and we were planning on staying but Truman (State), a very academic school, called me in April. … The head coach they had offered (the job to) had backed out and they were in a bind, so within three years of going into coaching, I was a head coach at Truman.

"My wife was from here … so when the WT job came open, I told them I'd be interested. It's way closer (to Oklahoma) than Truman. So we were there and after 10 years and we all agreed (then) it was a time for change, so we went to Saint Leo. We had a really good time but we wanted to be back (in Oklahoma). We had a great run (at Saint Leo) and did something historic there. It wasn't a job thing. It was a family thing."

How did you find out about the opening at OC?
"A local high school coach (in Oklahoma) called me in April and told me this job was open. If that guy hadn't of told me, I wouldn't have known about it, because I wasn't checking the NCAA portal and all that kind of stuff. I'm excited. It's weird – when you step out of (coaching) for a second, I feel like I've forgotten a lot. I'm purposefully going up to do a recruiting clinic in July in St. Louis. It's only two days but I think I'd forgotten how to run a practice. I'm excited but I'm also a little nervous, because this is a good conference and there are a lot of things to tweak with this team. I am one of these people who thinks out loud. I've got to pragmatically get past this next month to get things secure, so then I can just focus on training the kids. The gear hasn't been ordered. The schedule hasn't been finalized. I get to do all that, and then once I get up to speed, the fun part of the job begins. I'm getting excited about being in the gym again and seeing if I can tweak what I saw on the video. There is some potential there."

You've found Division II to be a good fit for your career. Why is that?
"Sometimes, when you're the crème-de-la-crème, I don't think you have to always – like the blue chips, anybody can walk into the gym, it doesn't matter who you are, and you know who the natural, savant, stud is. I think in D2, my strength is training and developing. It's fun making a kid better. I just think at this level, you can take a non-traditional prototype of a position and if you're creative, you can figure out how to make them produce at the level that you need. I think that happens more at Division II, and especially at a program like this that's just starting, because you're not at the crème-de-la-crème. You've got to figure out how to make the player better and I think a lot of coaches at made programs are great recruiters. The best coaches out there can recruit and train. I think in D2, you train more."

You're taking over a young team, but also one that's still developing its identity. I'd think that's a unique opportunity for a coach.
"Imagine exactly that, but starting in December. What do we do for 2021? That's really a whole different thing now because we start (the season) in two months. Phase one is finding out who's on board (with change) and then making sure we have that new culture, so that we know 'This is how we're going to be' and then finding a couple of pieces here or there that can be added to help us get us over the hump. I've got to wrap my head around everything. There are some pieces, but what I saw on video, there was just too much individualism and not enough cohesion. That (cohesion) will get us further than anything else, but I also know what's coming with that. … There are some kids who maybe struggled last year who are going to take this as a new breath. I'm planning on that, because that will make the gym even better."

What does it take to succeed in the Lone Star Conference?
"The Lone Star is weird. All the teams that I've seen, there are two styles in general. Half the teams are small and athletic and fast, so they try to play the speed game. When it's on, it's amazing, but you can paint yourself into a corner as far as your options. Then, the other half of the teams have decided to go big. It's just brawling. Realistically, to win, you have to be a little bit bigger than those fast teams and have a little bit more skill than the big teams – almost like a tweener. The game is changing, so if you err on having a little bit of size, you've got to have two finishers. In this conference, if you have two kids who can finish the play, you can go from 12th in this conference to the top three.

"Some of our girls, there was some stuff that I saw (on video) that looked really, really good. You can win small, but you have to play even more as a unit. They have to accept who they are. That's the biggest thing – this is who we are and we have to accept it. If we don't, we're going to get rocked this year. … You won't know that until you get them in the gym and figure out how to truly be a better unit. On the video, it looks like they've got some guts and some heart and they want to get good, but they don't have that girl who can get them out of a pickle. The advantage that these girls have is, from what they tell me, they want to work hard. What coach wouldn't like that? My immediate thoughts are, I just need to be able to paint a picture and get them to see the picture, and then just weather the storms until it clicks, because they want it more."

How long do you think it will be before OC becomes competitive in the Lone Star?
"That's a loaded question! I haven't actually decided how I'm going to approach the girls with that, because I will tell them that I expect us to do good now and win now, but knowing through experience as a coach, the realities. But you never know what could happen. You don't want to miss out on an amazing story because you're trying to be too realistic. I'm probably just going to treat them as if we're already a great program and chew them out if we didn't win the right way and be a bit kinder if we lost but we fought, but knowing deep down what's realistic. If you tell a new program that, 'It's OK,' then you're just slowing down the process."

You sound excited to be back home and intrigued by the opportunity here at OC.
"I'm more excited than I look. There's a lot to do in the next six or seven weeks, before the fun stuff. It's sort of overwhelming but it will be fun because it's just a fun job. Campuses are ghost towns in the summer but by the middle of the summer, I'm ready for the kids to be back. There's just an energy."