Karch Kiraly

He began playing volleyball at age six with encouragement from his father, Laszlo Kiraly, who had been a member of the Hungarian Junior National team prior to fleeing the country during the Hungarian national uprising of 1956.

At age 11, Kiraly entered his first beach volleyball tournament paired with his father.

Kiraly attended Santa Barbara High School, where he was a member of the boys' varsity volleyball team.

His father played a key role in creating the boys' volleyball program at the school.

Charles Frederick "Karch" Kiraly (born November 3, 1960) is an American volleyball player, coach, and broadcast announcer.

The Dons of Santa Barbara made it to the championship game twice during Kiraly's high school years, reaching the finals his sophomore year before losing in the championship match to San Clemente High School in 1976.

In his senior year, Kiraly's high school team went undefeated, winning CIF SS by defeating Laguna Beach High School in the title game in 1978, and Kiraly was voted Sectional Player of the Year.

During his high school years, Kiraly was invited to join the Junior National Team, on which he competed for three years.

Kiraly has credited his high school coach, Rick Olmstead, for teaching him the value of hard work and dedication.

While growing up, he had the Hungarian nickname Karcsi (pronounced Karch-ee), which corresponds to the Hungarian name Karoly for Charles.

Later at UCLA he began to be called Karch.

In 1978, Kiraly enrolled at UCLA, where he majored in biochemistry and also was a brother of the Epsilon Sigma Chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha.

From his freshman year, he played outside hitter and setter on the Bruins' volleyball team, playing opposite junior Sinjin Smith in the Bruins' 6–2 offense.

Under head coach Al Scates, Kiraly led UCLA to the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship in his freshman season in 1979.

In his sophomore season, the Bruins made it to the finals again but lost to crosstown rivals USC.

UCLA reclaimed the top spot in Kiraly's junior season.

Kiraly finished his college career with another title during his senior year.

In his four years, the Bruins compiled a 123–5 match record, with titles in 1979, 1981, and 1982.

They went undefeated in the 1979 and 1982 seasons.

Kiraly earned All-American honors all four years, and was awarded NCAA Volleyball Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 1981 and 1982.

Kiraly joined the national team in 1981.

Playing outside hitter, he proved to be an extremely solid passer.

Kiraly earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry from UCLA, graduating cum laude in June 1983 with a 3.55 cumulative GPA.

Along with teammate Aldis Berzins, Kiraly was the foundation for the "two-man" serve reception system Doug Beal created in 1983.

Along with covering half the court on serve receive and consistently delivering the ball to team setter Dusty Dvorak, Kiraly proved to be an excellent defender and a highly productive outside hitter.

He was a central part of the U.S National Team that won gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games.

Kiraly led the U.S. National Team to the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics, overcoming a pool play loss to Brazil to defeat Brazil in the finals.

Kiraly was the youngest player on the gold medal team.

The US National team showed their place as the world's best team by winning the 1985 FIVB World Cup, followed by the 1986 FIVB World Championship.

In the 1988 Summer Olympics, the team won its second Olympic gold medal, this time defeating the USSR in the championship match.

Kiraly was selected as a captain for the 1988 team at Seoul.

Kiraly was inducted into the UCLA Hall of Fame in 1992, and his jersey was retired in 1993.

Growing up, Kiraly wanted to be a biochemist to follow in his father's footsteps, but that changed when he joined the US national team and led it to multiple gold medals.

He was twice named the best player in the world by the international governing body.

He was also named the best volleyball player of the 20th century.

He went on to win the gold medal again at the 1996 Olympic Games, the first Olympic competition to feature beach volleyball.

He is the only player (man or woman) to have won Olympic medals of any color in both the indoor and beach volleyball categories.

He played college volleyball for the UCLA Bruins, where his teams won three national championships under head coach Al Scates.

Kiraly is currently the head coach of the United States women's national volleyball team leading them to their first-ever gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and thereby completing the "triple crown" of coaching an Olympic gold medal-winning team as well as personally winning gold medals in both indoor and beach volleyball.

Kiraly grew up in Santa Barbara, California.