Her Story
About Kim
Kim Elgarico serves as the beach volleyball coach at Bushnell University in Eugene, Oregon. With 28 years of experience in the field, she began coaching immediately after graduating from high school and has built her career across multiple locations due to her husband's job relocations. Elgarico holds a degree in marine science from the University of South Carolina, where she also played volleyball in college. She has traveled with the Brazilian national team to work with mentors and has coached camps and clinics in at least 10 states. At Bushnell University, Elgarico started the beach volleyball program from non-existence and guided her team to a ninth-place finish nationally while receiving a team of character award from the conference. She is CAP1 certified and high performance certified, and maintains memberships in USA Volleyball, ABCA, and serves as an NAIA coach. Elgarico attributes her success to relationships and community support, emphasizing the importance of nurturing connections, character, integrity, and full effort in her work and personal life.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kim
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would definitely say it's relationships. Every opportunity that I've had I've been given by either playing and meeting someone who we have something in common, or being in the right place at the right time, and the people that I meet. It's people giving me opportunities to show how I can support them or help them be better. I would say it's a community effort of people and being in the right place at the right time.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I would probably say nurture your relationships. Because it's not always what you know, sometimes it's who you know, and who can get your foot in the door.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Nurture your relationships and don't calm down. Come on down, be take your career and run and do it fearlessly.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
There are not a lot of female coaches that are successful so a challenge is getting more in the field. There's an opportunity to have female coaches like grow in volleyball since we also lead at least in the U.S women's volleyball is growing in an insane way right now in the best possible way. The challenge is staying in front of it and show up attend watch women's sports and keep supporting each other. There's always opportunity for women right it's just how hard are you willing to fight to keep it.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
When I'm recruiting for instance I'm always looking for not just talent but also character and integrity. That's really important and then I would say you know effort leads to work ethic and so it's very important that you know if you're not the best player or the best at your job that you're giving full effort.
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