There were no grouchy quips about millennial entitlement. Rather, Stanford volleyball coach John Dunning offered perceptive and humorous observations during last month's final four when asked about having so much youth in his program this past season: 12 freshmen and sophomores combined, kids born a decade after he'd won his first national championship in 1985.
"They have so much energy. Sometimes I have to leave the room because it's overwhelming me," he said with a grin. "And there are other times I just sit and smile.
"All they do is sing and dance. And I think they are going to get tired -- that we should train more because they're going to use it all up before the game starts, because they're dancing so much. But you kind of roll with some stuff."
He and the Cardinal rolled all the way to the NCAA title, tying Penn State for most Division I women's volleyball championships with seven. Now after 32 seasons as a college coach -- split evenly between Pacific and Stanford, 16 years at each school -- and more than four decades in the sport overall, Dunning retired Monday.
It was an announcement as low-key and humble as Dunning himself. But make no mistake: He's been an extremely important figure in the growth of volleyball, and his absence will be felt. He'll still contribute to the sport at a website called The Art of Coaching Volleyball, and with some clinics. But at 66, he's a grandfather now eager to spend more time with his family.
Some may wonder why now. With such a young team -- including four freshmen who played huge roles in getting the NCAA title -- Stanford is the favorite for next year's championship, too.
Perhaps it's because you don't often get the "perfect" ending; it's very hard to do in sports. So when the potential for that does come along, it seems serendipitous.
Dunning said he considered retiring after the 2015 season, when Stanford was upset in the second round, but his wife helped him realize that he didn't want to end his career on that note.
He enjoyed this season so much, he wasn't sure it was the right time to leave, either. But after pondering it for a couple of weeks, he made the decision.
"I knew I would like continuing to coach this group so much," he said Tuesday. "But I got away from it, talked to my family, and decided it felt right to stop. Yesterday was a really hard day telling the team. And today is a hard day thinking about it. There are no negatives to it, though.
"People have checked in with me, 'Are you all right.' And I'm fine. I'm not sick or anything. Everything is good. But it just felt like it was time."
Dunning won five NCAA titles overall, two at Pacific (1985, '86) and three at Stanford (2001, '04, '16). The one last month in Columbus, Ohio, will be the final stamp on a coaching career that began in 1973 at the high school level in California, and ended with him beaming over the exuberant, celebratory goofiness from young women whom he knows will go on to be doctors, lawyers and business owners, among other things.
"I love volleyball for volleyball." John Dunning
This championship season was improbable to a degree for Stanford, which makes it all the more memorable. How could you pick a better way to go out?
Stanford didn't win the Pac-12 title this season and was the lowest-seeded team at the final four -- behind No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Minnesota and No. 4 Texas. Dunning's sixth-seeded Cardinal had seven losses -- the second-most for an NCAA championship team -- but all along the way, the Cardinal players kept evolving and improving.
This is the true joy of coaching, and for Dunning to experience it this way so late in his career probably felt like an especially wonderful gift. It was also a lot of work.
He's had many teams that were loaded with both talent and experience, that were considered favorites from the start of the season. This was a team that was putting the pieces together throughout the season and really didn't reach its peak until the final four, winning its final 10 matches in a row. Perfect timing.
The Cardinal had to come back from down 0-2 in sets at Wisconsin in the regional final. Then they had to beat a Minnesota team that was on a 14-match winning streak and considered the favorite by many entering the final four. Then a Texas team that had looked overpowering in sweeping the top-seeded and defending champion Huskers.
The Cardinal triumphed because the experienced competitors they did have -- including redshirt senior Inky Ajanaku, the most outstanding player at the final four -- meshed so well with rookies like outside hitter Kathryn Plummer (national freshman of the year), setter Jenna Gray, libero Morgan Hentz and middle blocker Audriana Fitzmorris.
And because Dunning understood so well how to help them reach their potential. By the time the NCAA final ended with a 3-1 victory over Texas, it didn't seem like an upset. The Cardinal had proven themselves the best team at the most important time.
"I think one of the things that you find out the longer you coach is that there's not [one] way to do things," Dunning said during the final four. "You use your experiences to figure out how to coach each team, because they're all different."
It had been 12 years since Stanford's last championship, and the Cardinal had their share of tough losses in that time. Dunning acknowledged those were difficult for him, but they were also an indication of how the sport's power base was growing. He had seen that from the ground floor.
He graduated from San Diego State in 1973. Title IX had been signed into law the summer before, with colleges and high schools across the country still figuring out how to implement it.
Dunning started working at Fremont High in Sunnyvale, California, as a math teacher and basketball coach, then was asked to coach the school's new girls' volleyball program. He became a successful volleyball coach at the prep and club levels, then continued that in college at Pacific and Stanford.
His overall college record was 888-185 (.828 winning percentage), with 12 final four trips, 10 appearances in the NCAA final and the five titles. Dunning made the NCAA tournament every one of his 32 seasons.
There was a sense of "full circle" for Dunning at this final four: When he won the NCAA title in 1985 in his first season at Pacific, his Tigers beat Stanford in the final. One of the Stanford stars then was Wendy Rush. She would become Wendy Humphreys, and have a daughter, Kelsey, who would play at Stanford for Dunning. Kelsey Humphreys was a senior on this year's championship team.
Now, Stanford's opening is as coveted as any job in volleyball -- or likely in any other Olympic sport in college. There will be big shoes to fill after Dunning and his predecessor, Don Shaw, who won four titles in his time with the Stanford women's program from 1984-99.
Beyond just the gaudy numbers of one of college volleyball's biggest winners, there is Dunning the person, who is so respected for how he treats people. His players, his opponents, the fans, the media. Dunning brought a mathematician's mind to coaching volleyball and could dissect strategy at the most complex and intricate levels.
Yet he also knew how to inspire athletes to be better students and people. And he talked patiently and eloquently about his sport, and coaching in general, in ways that could deepen the understanding and appreciation of volleyball even for those who didn't know much about it.
"I love volleyball for volleyball," he said. "To see the athletes that play now, and the level of play -- plus the rules, like rally scoring, that have changed the sport -- I hope that it continues to grow in its exposure. It's a sport anyone can enjoy."
His presence on the sidelines will be greatly missed. But he deserved to go out on top.