A legend of the Beach is riding off into the sunset–and he’s going out on top.
Longtime Long Beach State men’s volleyball coach Alan Knipe will announce his retirement later today, he’s confirmed to the562. Knipe is a four-time NCAA men’s volleyball champion with Long Beach State, having won as a player in 1991 and then as a coach in 2018, 2019, and earlier this year in 2025.
His retirement will be effective at the end of this month, and it’s expected that Long Beach State will soon announce that his longtime protégé and LBSU associate head coach Nick MacRae will take over the program as it looks to defend its national title.
“I was told once that you’ll know when you know, and I know,” said Knipe. “It doesn’t mean I don’t have the same love and passion for the program, but I’ve been doing this now since the Spring of 1996 which is when I started as an assistant coach–the only time I took off was for the London Olympics quad. It’s been my entire life’s work.”
Knipe, who famously squirms when attention is placed on him instead of his players or program, laughed at the idea that he’d retire at the end of the season instead of before it, which he said LBSU athletic director Bobby Smitheran asked about.
“When Bobby asked what I wanted to do, I said a retirement tour would be like a year-long root canal, I would never want that,” said Knipe. “Every game of someone’s senior year being about me? I would never do it.”
The Beach will be one of the top teams in the nation once again this year, as they’ve been for the last decade. They return several All-Americans from last year’s national champs as well as a top freshman recruiting class. That’s tomorrow’s concern, however. Today (whether he likes it or not) is going to be about celebrating Knipe’s legacy and the way he’s elevated the LBSU men’s volleyball team.
A three-time AVCA National Collegiate Coach of the Year, Knipe is being inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame later this year, and was recently inducted into the Long Beach Century Club Hall of Fame. In addition to the four national titles he was a part of as a player or coach, Knipe also brought the men’s volleyball team to the NCAA Final Four in eight of the last nine years, with five championship match appearances.
He said as he’s been preparing to walk away, the thought of that sustained success meant more to him than the actual championships–and that winning last May didn’t influence his decision to step away.
“It’s been present in my mind for the last couple years, knowing that you’re getting closer to it,” he said. “I didn’t know exactly when. For me, it’s fun to win your last match whether it’s your Senior Night or your coaching career–but in a one and done tournament like the NCAA, not always is it the best team that wins one match. So I’m probably more proud of the run–all of those teams in their own right, had we played another match it might have gone another way, for both the wins and the losses.”
Smitheran said that Knipe’s retirement is well-earned.
“As a player or coach he’s been associated with our program for four decades, he’s going out as a national champion,” he said. “He gave it everything he had and elevated the program–he’s earned the right to determine when he wants to go out.”
Smitheran was appreciative not only of the fact that Knipe won so much but also that he leaves the program in such a strong place.
“It is only fitting that he retire as a national champion and he has positioned our program for continued success, as the culture of the program is strong and prepared for this moment,” he said. “I know he will remain connected to the program as he bleeds black and gold and his legacy will be felt for decades to come.”
Knipe acknowledged that the recent changes in the NCAA, which have made it harder on mid-major universities and also on the Olympic sports, were part of what’s made it feel like it’s “time.” He joins a large group of high-profile coaches stepping away from NCAA coaching over the last few years as college sports have become more professionalized with NIL money and increased costs across the board.
“There’s no way to tiptoe around that, there’s no doubt that it’s part of it,” he said. “I worked in an environment for the better part of my career that tried as hard as it could to at least state the mission was to balance the field and respect all student-athletes, and somewhere along the line that’s become something that’s not even talked about anymore. I don’t think (the way things are going) is what college sports are about.”
As far as going forward, the Beach program will be in capable hands with MacRae, who has been an assistant under Knipe for 13 years, and is an AVCA Assistant Coach of the Year honoree.
“I’m so happy for Nick and so happy for the program that they get Nick,” said Knipe. “He’s committed 13 years as an assistant coach, that’s a tremendous amount of time to commit to one program. He’s Long Beach born and bred, he’s a Long Beach alum who cares tremendously, and there’s nothing within this program that he hasn’t been involved in over the years. He has, what I think is most important, a tremendous love for our community, our program, and our team. He puts in the work that nobody sees and I know that he has the respect of the current and former players as well as all the alums.”
MacRae won’t be the only LBSU alum on the coaching staff–in fact, with McKay Smith and Amir Lugo-Rodriguez filling out the staff, it will be entirely former Beach players.
As for what’s next for Knipe, his Champions Unlimited coaching clinics have taken off lately, and he said he’s looking forward to continuing to mentor young coaches, and hopes to help continue to elevate the sport of volleyball in America.
“I don’t see myself sitting on another NCAA college bench,” he said. “I’d like to spend time continuing to grow the sport of volleyball. As I travel around the world, I see no reason that men’s and women’s volleyball professionally here in the US couldn’t be something special. I would love to be a part of that.”
In reflecting back over Knipe’s career, it’s hard not to get caught up in numbers. Four national titles, 10 NCAA Final Fours, 14 NCAA Tournaments, eight National Players of the Year, a 450-172 overall record–the list goes on and on. But Knipe said that none of those accomplishments have been on his mind as he’s come to his decision to retire.
“The hard part to walk away from is the relationships, the closeness you have with people whether players or coaches or administrators,” he said. “It never gets easy–no team would have been easy to walk away from, especially the way we run our program. I truly love these players and this program. It’s been my entire life.”
He was also emotional reflecting on the administrators who’ve believed in him and supported his program. He mentioned Bob Maxson and Bill Shumard, the university president and AD who trusted him enough to hire him as a young head coach, as well as longtime sport supervisor Mark Edrington. He said university president Jane Close Conoley and AD Andy Fee were instrumental in the team’s recent dominant run.
“They helped catapult the Olympic sports at Long Beach State because of their investments–the floor, the budgets, the scholarships, the things they did that hadn’t been done in the past,” he said.
Knipe said he also appreciated Smitheran’s stewardship through the recent NCAA changes and that he helped navigate a path forward for men’s volleyball at the university.
Knipe emphasized how personal the program had been to him–his son Aidan was an All-American setter for the Beach, and his son Evan was a recruit for the Long Beach State baseball team. His wife, Jennifer, is a daily presence around the program.
“She doesn’t see the players as her husband’s players, she knows them and their families,” he said. “She deserves a vacation at some point that doesn’t have to work around a volleyball itinerary, and time in a gym. Those are the things I truly look forward to.”
