Ahen Kim had just earned his wings when he began to worry they might be clipped.
 
Despite working with one of the most talented squads he’s ever had, his first season as an assistant coach with the AU volleyball team in 2012 ended in heartbreak to Colgate. 
 
The loss—three points short of victory in a five-set nailbiter at the Patriot League championship—was a rare instance when the legendary late head coach Barry Goldberg’s program fell short. AU had reached the NCAA tournament 10 of the last 11 seasons. As the dust settled, Kim grew anxious.
 
“I’m sitting here as a 27-year-old assistant coach going, ‘Holy smoke, he’s going to fire me,’” says Kim, who took over as head coach in June, three months after Goldberg—who helmed the program for 34 years—succumbed to cancer. “This was [only] the second time he’d ever lost the Patriot League.” 
 
Kim ultimately kept his job, and in the lead-up to the next season, Goldberg taught him the importance of intense preparation and how to balance high expectations with caring for players—regardless of the final score. 
 
During the 2013 season, AU served up the first of five NCAA tournament appearances while Kim was an assistant. The Eagles swept Colgate in a championship rematch, then shut out Georgia and Duke on the way to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen for the best finish in program history. 
 
Kim, who was named Brown University head coach in 2017, has stacked plenty of successes since then, leading the Bears to a 2021 Ivy League Championship and landing conference Coach of the Year honors. 
 
But as he returns to AU this season to pick up the mantle from his friend and mentor, he hasn’t forgotten the lessons learned from the team’s fall from grace. 
 
“It’s the dilemma of sport,” Kim says. “You’re almost pursuing something so challenging that you’re going to fail along the way. You might not even get here. So, how do you allow that to help you?”