Andy Banachowski was the UCLA women’s volleyball head coach for all but two seasons between 1965 and 2009 – coaching his first three campaigns as a student at UCLA and athlete on the men’s team.

Michael Sealy held the position for 13 seasons.

In December 2022, Alfee Reft was named just the program’s third head coach since the NCAA started sponsoring women’s volleyball in 1975. But after just three seasons, the coach is off to greener pastures.

Reft left Westwood on Jan. 21 to become League One Volleyball San Francisco’s head coach – a team set to begin its inaugural season in January 2027 – less than two months after ending UCLA’s three-season NCAA tournament drought.

I can’t help thinking it is a bad sign for UCLA Athletics – and college sports in general – when a head coach leaves before his first recruiting class reaches its senior season and with the program’s best season yet within arm’s reach.

UCLA’s 2025 NCAA tournament appearance followed a 32-27 record in Reft’s first two seasons and former coach Michael Sealy’s 16-13 performance in 2022.

While senior outside hitter Carly Hendrickson, sophomore pin hitter Anastasija Ivkovic and sophomore outside hitter Kiki Horne – who combined for just 13 starts last season – announced transfers to new programs during the Dec. 7 to Jan. 5 window, the Bruins largely kept their roster intact.

Though they’re set to lose graduate student setter Zayna Meyer, graduate student middle blocker Phekran Kong and senior outside hitter Cheridyn Leverette to graduation, Meyer and Kong’s contributions to the 2025 team were minimal because of injury, and UCLA was still equipped to return up to 12 players from its roster.

That does not even include a four-person 2026 recruiting class that includes middle blocker Brooke Harwood, Prep Dig’s No. 20 player in the class, and defensive specialist/libero Presley Thompson, Prep Dig’s No. 36 player.

But now that’s all up in the air.

While Reft recruited three transfers during last year’s winter window, the Bruins brought in none this offseason, a UCLA Athletics spokesperson said.

UCLA’s next head coach will only have the spring May 1 to May 15 window to bring in talent with collegiate experience.

Maybe Reft’s ascent just came too fast for UCLA to truly catch. He was an assistant coach at Illinois for two seasons and an associate head coach at San Diego for three – making deep tournament runs with both programs – before arriving in Westwood.

The first-time head coach missed seven matches in his inaugural season while in Poland as a seasonal assistant coach with the United States Women’s National Team – before eventually earning a silver medal with the squad in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Now, Reft has taken a job that will free him from a 30-plus match season packed into three to four months and the chaos of transfer portal windows, high school and international recruiting and name, image and likeness fundraising.

Even with mixed on-the-court outcomes that led to a 51-40 record over three seasons, Reft’s abilities as a recruiter and culture builder are hard to discount.

One of his first wins was pulling Anna Dodson back to UCLA after she initially entered the transfer portal following the 2022 campaign – the middle blocker earned an AVCA All-American honorable mention in 2023 and received Second Team All-Big Ten honors in 2024.

After missing the NCAA tournament in 2024 with a 14-15 overall record and an 8-12 conference record in the Bruins’ first season in the Big Ten, Reft brought in 10 new players – including three from teams that made the NCAA third round or quarterfinals the season prior.

Through highs and lows, players routinely touted the culture Reft had built at UCLA, and the inconsistencies that plagued the Bruins in 2025 were often attributed to a team experiencing growing pains – a problem that should only be lessened with more time and experience heading into 2026.

Now, it’s up to athletic director Martin Jarmond to replace the coach he hired – ideally with someone who can keep the existing core intact and build on Reft’s progress rather than reset the program.

While there is some added benefit to hiring a head coach sooner rather than later, I imagine Jarmond may be wary about jumping the gun after his promise of hiring a new football head coach within 96 hours in the wake of Chip Kelly’s departure in February 2024 led him to hiring DeShaun Foster – who he would fire after just 15 games.

Though almost everyone would rather not give Jarmond the benefit of the doubt, the increasing volatility collegiate coaching has made such decisions tougher.

While many have willingly – or unwillingly – adjusted to the changing landscape and life cycles of college athletes, the evolution of college coaches may be harder to stomach. After all, even if a player transfers out after a season or two, the plan was always for them to be gone after four years, give or take.

Coaches, however, are pillars of programs – not one-term presidents. Many of UCLA’s longest-tenured head coaches – such as men’s tennis’ Billy Martin, women’s tennis’ Stella Sampras Webster, softball’s Kelly Inouye-Perez, women’s basketball’s Cori Close and men’s and women’s water polo’s Adam Wright – all got their first head coaching gigs at UCLA and have stayed ever since.

Women’s soccer coach Margueritte Bates (Aozasa) notably left UCLA on Nov. 24 to take the same position at Texas. And Kelly infamously left the head coaching job at UCLA to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator in 2024, winning a national championship before taking the same post with the Las Vegas Raiders. He was ultimately fired after just 11 games, landing at Northwestern as coach David Braun’s offensive coordinator in December.

Kelly would rather be punted around the college and NFL ranks than stick with the cushy, stable job he had in Westwood. Even with an administration that was seemingly content with his 35-34 record over six seasons.

Jarmond went with an internal promotion in the wake of Bates’ departure – naming Gof Boyoko women’s soccer’s head coach Dec. 12. That approach remains an option to fill the women’s volleyball vacancy, too, and may be the easiest way to preserve continuity.

Assistant coach and Director of Operations Noah Casaquit has been with the program for three seasons – the longest on the existing coaching staff – but assistant coach Nick Vogel may be the favorite among internal candidates.

Vogel joined Reft’s staff in 2025, but spent the previous two seasons on former coach John Speraw’s men’s volleyball staff – when they won the 2023 and 2024 national titles. In addition to spending four seasons at UCLA as a student-athlete, he’s had coaching stops at San Diego, UC San Diego and DePaul, plus a previous season with UCLA women’s volleyball in 2015.

But no matter the direction Jarmond goes in his next hire, and regardless of whether the next era of women’s volleyball proves favorable or a failure, the same question persists around any coach.

How long before they leave UCLA?