Coaches are under a lot of pressure to deliver instant results or see their organization move on from them. In the NHL, for example, the average coach’s tenure at the start of the 2025-26 season was under two years.

But NC State head volleyball coach Megan Wargo-Kearney — having just completed her first full season at the helm — believes that an emphasis on people and communication is the first step.

“Building that foundation of people matter, how we communicate matters — no matter if you’re No. 1 on the depth chart or No. 15,” Wargo-Kearney said.

Look no further than how the players hold each other accountable. After a disappointing home loss to Notre Dame, some of the team’s older members led a meeting to get everyone on the same page.

“We had a pretty tough moment a couple weeks ago after we lost to Notre Dame … they felt like people were coming in and cruising in practice, and they got onto them,” Wargo-Kearney said. “Everybody spoke up, and so I think that it’s just been a total collective effort … they’ve been able to also have some tough conversations with each other.”

After that meeting, the team rattled off four straight road wins.

Wargo-Kearney never coveted the head coaching job at NC State, or any head coaching job, but the transition from associate head coach just made sense.

“I had schools reach out to me, but I was never pushing that was what I wanted to do,” Wargo-Kearney said. “And then it just was more like a natural thing that happened, you know?”

She almost didn’t get into coaching in the first place.

Four years studying management while playing softball and volleyball for Gettysburg College — in which she made four total all-conference teams and earned Centennial Conference Volleyball Player of the Year honors — had her thinking her future was in international business. But when the coach who had been put in charge of her former high school team reached out, she answered the call.

“He just said, ‘Come back and coach,’ and you know, I think that I found a passion,” Wargo-Kearney said. “I was working a regular job, and I think I found a passion while doing that.”

From there, she became an assistant coach at Lees-McRae College before moving to Truman State University, where she earned a master’s degree in leadership and found her husband, football coach Thomas Kearney. After a stop at Arkansas, she joined the staff at NC State as associate head coach. Along the way, she was forming relationships and building a system of people to lean on.

“When things get tough from a coaching perspective, I have a really good network of coaches that I connect with,” Wargo-Kearney said.

She credits her parents with helping her be a good fit in Raleigh.

“I think that a lot of the way I was raised, a lot of things I believe in, I think fit this school really well in our mission and the blue-collar, and the working hard, and hands in the dirt and getting gritty,” Wargo-Kearney said. “I think that the relationships that people like to create in this athletic department, I think that all those things fit me really well. So, it has worked out for that reason.”

This past season? A “really good” success in the program-building book. Just look at the way people in the organization give each other credit. When asked how the team manages to stay focused and spirited in a season where the wins have come with many losses, Wargo-Kearney points to the veteran players on the roster.

“We can’t take all the credit for that, our staff. A lot of that comes from the leadership group … Courtney [Bryant] and Elaisa [Villar] and Lily [Cropper] and Sydney [Daniels] have really done a good job of keeping everyone engaged,” Wargo-Kearney said. “Everybody loving each other, everybody living the values that we’ve put forth every day.”

But senior outside hitter Courtney Bryant praised the work ethic of the team’s younger players — including seven freshmen — when asked about her own role as a leader on the team.

“The young ones, they work hard and they don’t make it too hard. They’re ready to win. They’re ready to do whatever it takes to get the job done,” Bryant said.

There are a lot of people responsible for the relationships the players and staff have with each other. But maybe it helps to have a head coach who is so passionate about getting to know other people: For her, recruiting is an opportunity to learn about someone new, not a marketing pitch.

“It’s all about relationships. It’s all about connecting and finding out what is important to them … It’s like you’re a detective literally,” Wargo-Kearney said. “As long as you have a strong conviction for what you’re doing, it’s not selling. You’re just telling your story.”

Although the season — in which the Wolfpack finished in the bottom half of the ACC at 15-15 — has brought plenty of things to be unhappy about, Wargo-Kearney takes comfort in the knowledge that she’s doing things the right way.

“It falls back to these relationships, the people investing, making sure we’re still teaching … just having faith that like, what we’re doing here is, we’re going about it the right way. And I think we’ve laid that foundation and just falling back to that,” said Wargo-Kearney. “That’s been … a big thing for me.”

Next season, the team will look to cash in on that investment as this season’s group of freshmen — who made up a top-20 recruiting class — get older.

“There is a balance that’s coming in the next year or two, once these young people become older. And, like, ‘hey we’re going for it’,” Wargo-Kearney said.

Like any coach, Wargo-Kearney wants to win. But she is also committed to making NC State volleyball a program where people matter, not just the team’s record.