Minnesotans first came to know Hugh McCutcheon under unimaginably cruel circumstances. In 2008, when he was coach of the U.S. Olympic men's volleyball team, his father-in-law, Todd Bachman, was stabbed to death in a random attack at the Summer Games in Beijing.
McCutcheon spent six days at the bedside of Bachman's wife, Barbara, who was gravely wounded. He would remain there as long as necessary, entrusting his team to his assistant coaches. "Volleyball is my job," McCutcheon said then. "My family is my life."
His philosophy hasn't changed, but his ability to join the two just got much easier. Thursday, it was announced that McCutcheon will become the Gophers' new volleyball coach sometime in the next 18 months, enabling his young family to settle in his wife's hometown. The timing, he said, was "atrocious"; he is currently coaching the U.S. women's national team and is under contract to lead it through the 2012 Summer Olympics.
That didn't deter him from making a choice that felt right. McCutcheon understands better than many how suddenly life can be knocked off course. So he followed the path that was calling him, with the faith that the details will be worked out.
"A lot of [the decision] was about family," said McCutcheon, whose wife, Elisabeth (Wiz) Bachman, is a Lakeville native. "As we started our family, the possibility of being home an extra 60 days a year was enticing, and also the idea of having a more normal rhythm to our daily lives.
"Coming to Minnesota was something we always looked at and thought was a good possibility for us. This just seemed like a really good opportunity that made sense on a lot of levels."
McCutcheon, 41, has not decided how long he will stay with the national team. At the latest, he will join the Gophers in September 2012, after the London Olympics. Laura Bush -- an assistant to former head coach Mike Hebert, who retired in December -- will serve as interim head coach, then assist McCutcheon when he comes to the U.
His new job unites McCutcheon, his wife and their baby son, Andrew, with Wiz's family, which owns the iconic Twin Cities chain of flower and garden stores. When they met, he was a coach rising through the USA Volleyball ranks, and she was a standout volleyball player who made the 2004 Olympic team. They were married in 2006, a year after McCutcheon had become head coach of the U.S. men's team.
