Four decades in, Ken Bentley remains pillar of Bisons women’s volleyball

Ken Bentley says he still can’t believe he’s worked fourty years as Head Coach of the University of Manitoba Bisons women’s volleyball program.

“Every time somebody asks, ‘How long have you been there?’ and I say, ‘It’s my 40th year,’ I can’t help but laugh,” Bentley said. 

“It is funny, in a way remarkable, but also kind of funny.”

Bentley’s journey into the sport began long before championships, packed gyms or national titles. It started in a Grade 5 physical education class, where a volleyball unit immediately grabbed his attention.

“I just loved it,” he said. 

“I have the memory like it was yesterday.”

From that point on, Bentley was rarely out of the gym, playing at lunch, lingering after school practices and building friendships rooted in the sport. While he also raced motocross growing up, an individual pursuit that he still follows closely, volleyball’s reliance on teamwork resonated most.

“I loved how important being a team is to success in volleyball,” he said. 

“All my friendships grew from volleyball.”

Coaching, however, was never part of the plan. Bentley was still a Grade 12 student when a phys-ed teacher asked if he would coach a girls team. He agreed simply for the chance to spend more time in the gym.

“I didn’t know much about coaching,” Bentley said. 

“But I just gravitated towards it.”

That passion, combined with persistence, shaped a career that would eventually become synonymous with women’s volleyball in Manitoba. After four years working alongside a mentor coach at the University of Winnipeg, Bentley found himself in the right place at the right time when the Bisons job opened late in the summer of 1986.

“I was really fortunate to get the job, no joke,” he said. 

“Right place, right time.”

The sport, and the landscape around it, has changed dramatically since then. Bentley remembers an era when volleyball was still growing toward prominence, with limited professional coaching structures and fewer development pathways. Four decades later, he sees a system that is stronger than ever.

“The level of play, the level of athlete, the level of coaching, it’s never been stronger,” he said.

Sustaining success for that long has required constant evolution. Bentley is candid about the ups and downs that accompany a coaching career measured in decades.

“For me to sit here and say this 40 years has been a smooth, linear path would just be ridiculous,” he said. 

“Every coach is going to go through tough moments.”

Those moments, he said, became opportunities for growth, both professionally and personally. One of the biggest lessons came through learning the importance of self-care, a shift from earlier years when he coached year-round without pause.

“I learned it’s really important to get off the hamster wheel and recover emotionally and mentally,” Bentley said. 

“It’s made me a much better coach.”

That mindset now extends to his athletes as well. Bentley believes strongly in cycles, seasons that end cleanly so new ones can begin with renewed focus and emotional readiness.

“You’ve got to end for a new beginning,” he said.

The approach paid dividends last year, when the Bisons captured a national championship on home court in front of a sold-out, thunderous crowd, the program’s first title since 2014.

“I don’t think I could fully put into words what that environment was like,” Bentley said. 

“You could not wedge one more person into that place.”

Unable to coach much verbally amid the loud noise, Bentley leaned on preparation and a simple message to his team.

“Let’s play the match, not the moment,” he told them.

And they did, reflecting years of training, composure and shared experience. Bentley credits the victory not only to the athletes, but to the community that filled the gym.

“It represented good karma,” he said. 

“Volleyball is a really important piece in our community.”

Bentley describes his coaching philosophy as “firm but fair,” rooted in technical excellence, preparation and intention. He likens team development to building a house.

“If you build a house with a poor foundation, the first sign of bad weather, the thing blows down,” he said.

Over time, his philosophy has softened in one key area: emotion. Once a strict advocate for emotional control, Bentley says he now encourages players to play with emotion, just not emotionally.

It is one of many evolutions that have allowed him to remain energized and deeply invested after four decades on the bench. Bentley says he still seeks growth, through clinics, video and conversations and takes pride in learning from his athletes as much as teaching them.

“You learn how to work, how to persist, how to fail and find out it’s not the end of the world,” Bentley said. 

“That’s what stays with you.”