Taft College Athletics Director Kanoe Bandy named winner of L. William Miller Award by NATYCAA
The National Alliance of Two-Year College Athletic Administrators (NATYCAA) has announced Taft College Athletics Director and retired volleyball coach Kanoe Bandy as the 2024 recipient of the Association's L. William Miller Award.
The L. William Miller Award is presented annually to a member of NATYCAA who demonstrates excellence in leadership, service, and integrity in an athletics program at a two-year college or organization. The award is named after Miller, one of NATYCAA's Founding Fathers who enjoyed an illustrious career at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, where he coached track and cross country from 1966-73 and was the director of athletics from 1966 through his retirement in 1994.
Kanoe Bandy began her career at Taft College in 1987 as a business instructor and women's volleyball coach. While Taft dropped the entire athletics program in 1994, the volleyball program was reinstated just two years later, and Bandy returned to the Taft sidelines, while also adding athletics director responsibilities. As the AD, her goal was to get the entire athletics program back on campus, while also serving as the Associated Student Body Advisor. Currently, she serves as the Division Chairperson for the Applied Technologies division.
Nationally, Bandy has been active across a multitude of organizations …
- Secretary/treasurer to the California Community College Women's Volleyball Coaches Association for 22 years
- Taft College representative on the Central Valley Conference (CVC) Board of Directors and CVC Planning Board Chair
- Management Council representative for the sport of water polo for six years
- Management Council Chair beginning the summer of 2019, for the next four years, serving on the Covid-19 working group which was responsible for making recommendations to the Board regarding return to competition, while ensuring their safety
- Served on the 3C2A Board of Directors, the governing body for California Community College Athletics
- Serves as the membership chairperson and treasurer for the California Community College Athletic Directors Association (CCCADA) and has done so for the last 17 years
As the athletics director, Bandy received the 2012 Professional Award by the CCCADA. She also had the honor of receiving the Under Armour NACDA AD of the Year in 2019.
On the sidelines, Bandy has been honored multiple times with conference coach of the year, Nor Cal regional coach of the year and in 2005, was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Northern Regional Coach of the Year in 2010. In both 2015 and 2023, she received the Coaching Achievement Award by the California Community College Coaches Association (CCCCA), becoming the lone coach that has won this award more than once. Bandy is most proud of her 2001 and 2017 teams who won the CCCAA State Scholar Team Awards, with the 2017 team having a 3.43 GPA. In fall 2021, Bandy retired from coaching with 567 career wins, five conference championships and 13 playoff appearances.
In the community, Bandy and her teams fed families during the holidays, worked with the children at the childcare center during Halloween and Easter, collected canned goods for Thanksgiving, cleaned up the community and raised breast cancer awareness on campus and in the community. Bandy received the Soroptimist Ruby Award: Women Helping Women which recognized the contributions to the local Soroptimist Club Critical Care funds which helps transport cancer and critically ill patients to their doctors' appointments and treatments.
Bandy received her bachelor's degree from Fresno State University and has a master's in business administration from California State University, Bakersfield. Bandy and her husband Don, who is a retired history instructor, football, and softball coach spend their free time playing golf and following their son, Stewart, who is working on his master's degree in bio-chem.
(Courtesy NATYCAA)