The puzzle that keeps Chris Lamb coming back to Wichita State volleyball
Chris Lamb has a new obsession.
Between the early mornings and late nights that come with another volleyball season, Wichita State’s longtime head coach has been devouring speed chess.
It’s more than a pastime. For Lamb, the fast-paced game mirrors the instincts that have kept him sharp entering his 26th season at the helm: quick reads, weighing probabilities and always searching for the next move to improve his position.
That puzzle is what still fuels him at age 60, even as many of his peers have walked away. The transfer portal, NIL and now revenue sharing have convinced veteran coaches across the country to retire rather than reinvent themselves.
Lamb, by contrast, seems energized by it all. He and the Shockers open the season Friday night, Aug. 29, at home in the Shocker Volleyball Classic, hosting Kennesaw State at 7 p.m. inside Koch Arena. Two days later (Aug. 31), they’ll square off against Arkansas at 1 p.m. Both matches will stream on ESPN+.
“Every day I feel like I’m solving puzzles,” Lamb said. “If you survey the volleyball coaches around America and ask, ‘What is Chris good at?’ Volleyball math and training would be the answers. I like to develop talent, not just sign it up and then turn in a lineup.”
That philosophy is increasingly rare. The trend in college athletics is to get old and stay old by stockpiling veterans through the portal. WSU, meanwhile, is one of just four programs in the country with at least 10 freshmen on the roster this season.
To most coaches, that’s a headache. To Lamb, it’s an opportunity.
“When I got hired here, Jim Schaus told me, ‘I’m not interested in a good team, I want a good program,’” Lamb said. “Sadly, I don’t know who can really buy into that as much anymore. I’m so excited about this recruiting class, but we’re going to be young in an era where nobody wants to be young anymore. For coaches like me, it’s just sad that you’re not developing talent anymore. The landscape is different.”
He calls his 2025 recruiting class the best he’s signed in more than a decade — since the group that became the backbone of WSU’s historic 2017 undefeated conference championship run. Freshmen like outside hitters Olivia Cohee, McKenzie Jones and Jenna Cubbage, middle blocker Janaya Weitkemper and right side Danielle Moore are already pushing for playing time.
And that’s exactly how Lamb likes it.
“Chris is really a teacher at heart,” his wife, Shannon, said. “He loves to train, it really doesn’t matter the age. He could take the youngest, most inexperienced group at our camps and he will enjoy every second of it. Not every Division I head coach is like that.”
Former players say that’s what makes the gym under Lamb different.
“He’s always doing different drills, putting out different lineups, there’s always something new, something fresh,” former setter Izzi Strand said. “I don’t know if he has ever been in a rhythm. He’s always looking for something better, something different.”
That restless energy is why Lamb has thrived while contemporaries opted out.
“A lot of those coaches didn’t want to evolve because there’s been some serious changes with college volleyball and it’s a totally different game than what it was,” Shannon Lamb said. “You either need to figure it out or get out. But Chris loves to solve puzzles. Even with all of the changes, as long as he can be in the gym and train, that’s what makes him happy.”
Picked third in the American Conference preseason poll, WSU returns three starters and its libero from the 18-win team that earned the program’s first NCAA bid since 2017: senior outside hitters Brooklyn Leggett and Emerson Wilford, junior middle Maddie Wilson and senior libero Katie Galligan.
The back row may be the team’s deepest spot: Galligan is the returning starter, but Gabi Maas was the full-time libero in 2023 before missing last season with a knee injury and she is finally healthy again. Sophomore Grace Hett also has impressed at camp.
Replacing all-conference talents like Morgan Stout and Strand won’t be easy. In the middle, Wilson returns but continues to battle a nagging foot injury. At setter, Lamb has a rare three-way competition between redshirt freshman Sarah Musial, High Point transfer Hannah Hawkins and Memphis transfer Jordan Heatherly.
In true Lamb fashion, expect tinkering.
“I’m pretty honest with them about the math,” Lamb said. “I’m not afraid to predict the future, even when the future doesn’t look so bright. I like keeping it real.”
Hanging banners inside Koch Arena, like the Shockers will do on Friday, is fun, but it’s not the real joy for Lamb in coaching. That’s the day-to-day.
“This is a bigger deal for the outside world,” Lamb said of last year’s postseason berth. “I’ve always had my own goals for my teams based on who we were and what I thought we could do.”
That mindset explains why, 26 years in and more than 500 victories later, he still bounces into the gym with the energy of a new hire.
“A lot of coaches get burned out because they get so caught up in the wins and losses, but he does this for all of the right reasons,” director of operations Ashleigh Houlton said. “He has an energy that I’ve never seen before. It’s like he doesn’t age. He just keeps finding this energy reserve.”
The game has changed, but Lamb hasn’t lost the reason he started: the thrill of building something. That’s why as more of his coaching friends around the country begin talking retirement plans, he’s still talking lineups.
College volleyball continues to shift around him, but for Lamb, the joy is knowing he still belongs in the middle of it.
“All I need is to go to practice every day and have most of the girls give me everything they have,” Lamb said. “As long as I’ve got a handful in the gym that want to go hard, I can do this forever.”
This story was originally published August 29, 2025 at 5:03 AM.
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