Scott Radley: McMaster’s Dave Preston takes over as head coach of Australia’s national volleyball team
For the better part of three decades, his wardrobe has consisted almost exclusively of McMaster maroon, Western purple or Canada red.
How about yellow? Does he own anything that colour?
I won't need a big suitcase, let's put it that way," Dave Preston says.
But he will need that suitcase. And a new taste for sunnier hues. Because the longtime - and incredibly successful - coach of Mac's dynastic volleyball team has a new assignment. Head coach of Australia's national men's team, the Volleyroos.
Yes, they call themselves that.
It's a little bit surreal," he says.
Not the name, the fact that this is his new role. It's also a story a long, long time in the making. Like, 18 years or so.
Preston had been an assistant with Team Canada for a decade that many years ago. Not long after his first daughter was born, he had to head off for the lengthy Olympic qualification process. Which ended in disappointment.
The only bright spot I could think of was seeing my new daughter," he says. When I got home, she played strange with me in the airport. She didn't know who I was. At that time, I made the decision that somebody else can coach the national team but nobody else is going to raise my daughter."
Since then, he's concentrated on Mac and being at home.
But that daughter is 18 now and in first year of university. Her sister is about to finish Grade 11. They're grown. So when someone sent him a job posting for the Australian team a few months ago ...
I'd be perfect for that," Preston says. That was my immediate thought. Then I thought, but I'd have to move my family across the world."
Of course, he'd also have to land the gig.
His lack of international volleyball at the highest level for the last number of years isn't exactly what you'd think most countries would be after. On the other hand, the Marauders finished 0-18 the season before he came and he quickly turned things around. His ability to build is enticing.
The day he and his Marauders returned from the nationals last month, he was on a Zoom interview with the Australians. Then another. Then more conversations until Thursday when he accepted the offer that had been made a few days before.
A couple weeks from now, he'll head to Canberra for a training camp. Then to Brazil for the first leg of the Volleyball Nations League. Followed by Tunisia, Bulgaria, Japan, Chinese Taipei and back to Australia.
The goal here is improvement and laying a foundation. Australia's in a bit of a down cycle right now. It's ranked No. 31 in the world. You have to be in the top 12 to make the Olympics. So, a miracle aside, it likely won't qualify for Paris in 2024.
But 2028 in Los Angeles? Sure why not? And the big prize? The 2032 Games are in Brisbane. As in, Australia. That's an automatic entry. He's had graduates of his program play under the rings but he's never been to an Olympics before.
That's part of this dream," he says.
Where does this leave McMaster? After all, with 10 Ontario titles in the past 19 years and an overall record of 341-89 since coming from Western, Preston is inarguably the most successful coach running the most-successful program at the school. Is this it?
The Australian federation is going to let him continue one more year. That will give time for his younger daughter to graduate high school and for him to host the nationals which will be in Hamilton next spring.
Then both sides are going to see what his schedule looked like and whether it's sustainable before making a decision about the future. Meaning he could stay on or he might be in the home stretch of his McMaster tenure.
I'm hoping I can make it work," he says.
A whole lot of folks in maroon are happy for him for sure. This is a huge opportunity. Few ever get to lead a national team. It really it one of the signs you've reached the top of your profession.
But, just as many are hoping this isn't the end here.
Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com