Volleyball’s Wizard of Westwood will be calling it quits

Al Scates is in his 50th year of coaching UCLA, with 19 NCAA titles and more than two dozen Olympians as his legacy.

By Helene Elliott, LA Times

Photographs cover almost every inch of wall space in Al Scates’ office, a gallery of faces forever young. Books, plaques and keepsakes from his travels cover his desk and crowd the ledge beneath a window framing the view he has enjoyed for 50 years.

“This is pretty filled up,” he said.

The trees outside his window couldn’t have been more than hopeful striplings when Scates began coaching men’s volleyball at UCLA in 1962. The parking lot he used to see across Bruin Walk has been replaced by the John Wooden Center.

The campus has changed, but Scates has been a constant through five decades, the first 42 years on mutually agreed-upon one-year contracts. Scates will coach his final home opener Friday in his final season before he retires.

He has won 19 NCAA titles, a standard matched by only a few Division I coaches in any sport, and two U.S. Volleyball Assn. titles before men’s volleyball became an NCAA championship sport. His ability to mold 44 U.S. national team members and 27 Olympians and launch dozens of coaching careers underscores his ability to inspire and communicate his love for the sport.

“The era of Al Scates coaching UCLA is a special era in collegiate athletics that, maybe because it’s men’s volleyball, most people don’t appreciate,” said UC Irvine Coach John Speraw, who played for and coached alongside Scates and will be an assistant coach of the U.S. men’s Olympic team in London.

“He has been a coach, a mentor, a good friend. It’s hard to sum it up because he means so much to me and, I think, lots of alumni.”

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Karch Kiraly is among those admiring alumni.

“It seems surreal that he coached for 50 years and it seems surreal that he’s going to retire,” said Kiraly, who played on three of Scates’ NCAA championship teams and will be an assistant coach for the U.S. women’s team in London.

“He got us so used to just the fact that he was going to coach, and coach and coach, that it is a shock to the system now. To coach 50 years is something I cannot wrap my head around — and the 19 titles that he and UCLA have won.”

Scates, 72, hasn’t lost his touch or his enthusiasm. His Bruins are 5-1 and ranked third by the American Volleyball Coaches Assn., and he’s awake at 5:30 a.m. and in the gym for 7:30 a.m. practices.

But the demands of coaching seem only to increase, and after supplementing his coaching salary with teaching jobs for 35 years, until 1997, he’s ready for an easier pace. He’s also ready to let his wife of nearly 51 years, Sue, choose travel destinations that don’t involve volleyball tournaments and to see more of their four grandchildren, ages 4 to 14.

Scates played baseball and basketball in high school and tried football at Santa Monica College, thinking he would become a football coach. His team won the Junior Rose Bowl in 1958 under Coach Jim Powers, who had a novel idea to keep athletes in shape after the season.

“He told the football players, ‘I’m going to coach a volleyball team, and we’re going to enter a junior college tournament, so I want all you guys to try out,’” Scates said. “I didn’t know how to play and he cut me in about five minutes, which was justified. But I did sit around and watch the guys he chose.”

Scates was told the best players were at State Beach in Santa Monica. He watched the regulars there and took his lumps playing against them.

“There were no volleyball coaches or camps in those days,” Scates said. “There was no high school volleyball and there was no women’s volleyball at all. Volleyball existed only at the college level for men or at the beach for doubles.… That’s how you learn quickly because you get a lot of … touches.”

When he transferred to UCLA as a junior, he continued to play volleyball because practices were in the afternoon and he could keep his other jobs coaching kids and supervising playgrounds. He had started coaching football at Blanco Park in Culver City and also coached track.

When UCLA volleyball Coach Glenn Engstrom took a sabbatical and offered him the job, Scates was surprised but accepted. He then went to see Athletic Director Wilbur Johns.

“He didn’t even tell me to sit down,” Scates recalled. “I told him that I cannot accept a salary for coaching volleyball because I wanted to be in the Olympics in 1964, and at that time if you coached a sport for money or played for money you were not considered an amateur and couldn’t participate in the Olympics.

“When he heard that he jumped up shook my hand, and said, ‘Congratulations, son, you’re hired.’”

Later, Scates learned that the men’s volleyball budget was $100 and that UCLA provided only uniforms, which were discards from the men’s basketball team.

Scates still played for the U.S. national team as an outside hitter but missed the 1964 Olympic squad because of what he considers an unfair deal made by coaches where the player at his position was already determined before camp. “In those days there was a lot of finagling going in, which I was totally unaware of at the time,” he said. “I never practiced again after that.”

As a recruiter and coach, Scates had plenty of local talent to draw upon but made the most of his resources with intense preparation and highly competitive practices. His teams won three consecutive titles three times and four in a row from 1981-84.

“He recruited people that were like I was,” Kiraly said. “We absolutely hated to lose and loved to win and that’s what the Bruins were like. They were a reflection of Al, and Al wanted to win every single match, every single season.”

Scates was exacting but often displayed his wit and sense of fun. Still, he kept a distance between himself and his team.

“At UCLA there’s so much talent that the way he managed to make objective decisions was to stay fairly separate from the players,” Speraw said. “It was never personal. And once you graduated, he enjoyed the relationship that developed with his players.”

Soon after Speraw graduated, he got a coaching job with the U.S. team for the World University Games on Scates’ recommendation. They were roommates at the Colorado Springs training camp, “and going into that situation I was a little uncertain how that was going to go,” Speraw said.

“We were just hanging out in the living room and I had his putter and I was just putting, and I’m not a good golfer. He was watching me putt and he couldn’t sit there, he had to stand up and coach me as we’re putting golf balls across the carpet. He was great.”

At a coaches’ convention recently in San Antonio, it took two tables to accommodate Scates’ former players. Those coaches are as much his legacy as the plaques in his office — and he could always squeeze in another championship photo.

“What a great story it would be if he could go out and round it out with a nice even No. 20 this year,” Kiraly said. “So we’ll be pulling for him.”

The Top 35 U.S. Players of All Time

Volleyball Magazine just came out with the Top 35 U.S. Players of All Time.  I appreciate the list to bring these great players to light and recognition to the history of our game.  I’m not sure if I agree with the order (especially Gene Selznick), but that’s half the fun of a list.  How many of these great players do you know and recognize?  I believe it is extremely important for the continued growth of our sport in the United States to know (and want to play like) these players.

Nice to see University of Minnesota’s Lauren Gibbemeyer in a USA Volleyball uniform!

Russ Rose was in Montreux, Switzerland to watch the USA Women’s Team. It must have been interesting for him to be a spectator to his former Penn State players.

Team USA took fourth place, losing to China in the bronze medal match.  Karch Kiraly was acting head coach of the squad as Hugh McCutcheon must have been recruiting for his Minnesota team (I’m just kidding, Hugh deserves a break too).  But the team, overall, is coming together as players continue to fight for their roles as they learn to play as a team.  I’m sure Hugh will have them ready for the 2012 Olympics in London.

What I found interesting were Russ’ blog posts.  It was pretty much a recap of the tournament and I don’t think Russ is going to become a blogger anytime soon, “The final day and final blog come with a great deal of anticipation for the teams in the finals and a welcome reprieve from the author.”  But I did find his final paragraph insightful:

My final thoughts on the event were that the game is always in a state of change and there remains various ways to play the game from both a technical and tactical platform. Some teams rely on precision to combat an apparent physical disadvantage at the net and others fall back on their natural talents to overpower the opponent. The jump spin serve has transitioned to more of a jump floater and the international protocol of a 30 minute warm-up shows that we may be over preparing on game night in the college game. Teams at all levels succeed because of their personnel in addition to their ability to play together.

The jump floater is becoming more prevalent in the women’s game (the men still dominate with the jump top spin serve) and I couldn’t agree more with the college game over preparing on game night.  Collegiate warm-ups seem to be more of a choreographed dance recital that can last longer than the actual match.

Here are the final sets of USA vs China (5th set of pool play) and USA vs Cuba (to get into the Gold medal match):

Coaching volleyball encompasses so much more than strictly coaching volleyball   In fact, there are times I enjoy the overall process more than simple court time.  The process includes many of the categories listed within my blog, such as mental, nutrition, statistics, and others that are not included: marketing, logistics, player/parent “counseling”, etc.  I believe a piece of this website puzzle that I have omitted until this point is exercise.  Exercise is comprised of many parts, weight training, conditioning, core training, plyometrics, etc… all to be combined with proper nutrition.

I’m often asked for advice on exercise as I have been fortunate to be exposed to some incredible programs.  I witnessed in person Karch Kiraly go through his pre-practice workout with his plyo-coach, Mike Rangel.  This same workout routine was adopted by Misty May.  I was fortunate to watch the University of Minnesota and 2008 NCAA National Strength Coach of the year Coach Sara Wiley in action with the team.  And I have worked with some great strength coaches in between.  The great programs are ones that incorporate volleyball movements with strength and agility movements PLUS new ideas to keep the program fresh.  I have run across a great video that does just that called Core Power for Volleyball.

Elaine Roque, former AVP player and USA Volleyball National Team player has developed a great program with her strength coach.  As a disclaimer, I do not add products to my blog for monetary purposes.  In fact, there are no advertisements on my blog.  The purpose of my blog is to spread my passion of volleyball to make the sport better.

Core Power for Volleyball is not a program that has been thrown together in a day, month, or year, but is one of the world’s best volleyball player’s culmination of exercises over an entire training career.  This career has included the USA Olympic Training Center, top NCAA Division I strength programs, and professional beach volleyball strength trainers.  Experience, over time, speaks volumes in developing a great program.  This video will make any player better and help reduce injury.  In a sporting world of “Bigger, Faster, Stronger”, this training regimen is the real deal for volleyball.  You can find the video here: http://www.totalvid.com/Abs-Instructional/Core-Power-for-Volleyball or here: http://corepowerforvolleyball.com

At Winthrop University Volleyball, we have included parts of the program with our spring workouts.

REMEMBER!!!  Exercise needs to be incorporated with proper nutrition too.  Be sure to properly hydrate and refuel your body immediately after a workout (a drink as simple as chocolate milk is a great post-workout supplement).

My goal with my players is that nutrition and exercise becomes a healthy lifestyle habit.  Core Power for Volleyball is an excellent training foundation for a healthy lifestyle.

Remember the days when fluorescent was in (although it seems to be coming back around again)?  Karch Kiraly’s trademark attire was a pink Speedo hat.

It appears Karch’s pink Speedo is a now a fluffy pink top hat.  Amazing what retirement does to a hat.

“To be true to one’s self is the ultimate test in life. To have the courage and sensitivity to follow your hidden dreams and stand tall against the odds that are bound to fall in your path. Life is too short and precious to be dealt with in any other fashion. This thought I hold dear to my heart, and I always try to be true to myself and others that I encounter along the way.” ~ Flo Hyman

Volleyball community, let’s get this straight…

If the word “Flo” is mentioned amongst junior players, the players will likely tell the coach, “The Club Can’t Handle Me Right Now“.  The players are not talking about the volleyball club they play for (although some might believe it).  They are reciting a little Flo Rida, Grammy Award winning rapper:

You may have heard the song on the van or bus trip to a match.

When the word “Flo” in the volleyball world is mentioned, our first thought should not be the “flow” of the game.  “Our team has a really good flow right now.  The rhythm of the team is gelling.  We are passing well, setting nectar, and banging balls.  We are really flowing.”  No.

In tennis, if the name “Billie Jean” is mentioned,the first person you most likely think about is the great Billie Jean King.  I don’t think Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean is the first synapse of the mind.  Mention the word “Tiger” and I’m sure a slew of thoughts run through your mind, but golf is the epicenter.

Flo deserves the recognition with the game of volleyball as “The Babe”, Arnold Palmer, and Billie Jean King to their respective sports.  Flo Rida nor any volleyball club could handle Flo Hyman, right now or ever…

Flo is Flora Hyman.  “It is impossible to quantify the impact Flo Hyman had on the sport of volleyball with just words. She was the most famous volleyball player of the time, not just here in the United States, but also worldwide.” states the Volleyball Hall of Fame.  In 1985, she was named one of the  All Time Great Volleyball Players.  Arie Sellinger, USA Volleyball National Team coach called her “The Goddess of Volleyball“.  Long before the likes of volleyball legends Karch Kiraly and Misty May made volleyball a popular spectator sport, no star loomed larger over the game than Flo Hyman.  A towering 6’5″ presence on the US National Team, she was named All World and selected as the Most Valuable Player in countless international tournaments, as well as being named to numerous All-Star Teams.  For more than a decade she reached these accolades before her untimely death, when she collapsed during a match in 1986 at the tender age of 31.  Her passing as iconic as NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt’s crash into a wall.

“Pushing yourself over the barrier is a habit.” Flo was quoted in a 1985 New York Times Article, and barriers she conquered, such as spiking a volleyball over 110 mph.  A specialty of Flo’s was the “Flying Cluthman”, a fast, hard-impacting spike that was recorded at over 110 mph.  Known for her powerful hitting and endless determination, Flo was most notably recognized for her selfless attitude, her presence, and contagious energy.  “Flo was more than a great athlete who pioneered in her sport and achieved so many firsts… She left us as she would have wanted us to remember her, fighting hard for the success that only commitment would realize and encouraging her teammates to seek and attain those lofty goals with her. She was and will continue to be an example that we all should emulate as we pass through life no matter what path we choose to walk. We will never see her like again. No one will ever lead U.S. Volleyball to so many proud and satisfying moments in the world arena. We are all much better because she was with us for a while but we are left so empty and unfulfilled because she left too soon.”  USVBA

In 1987, the Women’s Sports Foundation honored Flo by creating the Flo Hyman Memorial Award presented to the female sportsperson, irrespective of nationality or sport contested, adjudged to have capture the dignity, spirit, and commitment to excellence.  Great athletes like Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Martina Nvratalova, and ironically, Billie Jean King, have been graced with the Flo Hyman Award.

Volleyball World – it’s time to recognize the impact Flo Hyman played and use the word “Flo” with the respect it deserves.  Our sport and our youth need to recognize the impact and history of the game, to help it grow.  Enlightening each other of Flo’s presence is a good start.

Sports of The Times; Remembering Flo Hyman

The New York Times
By George Vecsey
Published: February 5, 1988

THERE is only one thing wrong about the Flo Hyman Award: it came to be named for the Old Lady of volleyball much too soon.

She was one of the most charismatic athletes this country ever produced, rail thin and tall, with a smile that energized an arena.

But she died from Marfan syndrome during a match at the age of 31, two years ago, and her name was memorialized on an award – and her memory has helped extend the lives of other people, including her brother.

The Flo Hyman Award, given by Major League Volleyball to the female athlete who ”embodies the spirit and dignity” of the late volleyball star, was presented to Jackie Joyner-Kersee yesterday in Washington during National Women in Sports Day, organized by the Women’s Sports Foundation. Last year the first Flo Hyman award went to Martina Navratilova.

Yesterday, famous athletes like Billie Jean King, Pam Shriver, Zina Garrison, Carol Mann and Joyner-Kersee visited the capital to lobby for women’s sports, while women held awareness programs in many states. Senator Bob Packwood, Republican of Oregon, announced the award to Joyner-Kersee in the morning and President Reagan presented it to her during a ceremony at the White House.

”Flo was a leader on and off the court, trying to help the future generations,” Joyner-Kersee said in an interview. ”I only met her once, when my high school team went to watch the national team. She asked me if I wanted to play volleyball.”

Joyner-Kersee stuck with basketball and track and field, and is doing fine. Her world-record performances in the long jump and the heptathlon are the best lobby women’s sports could ever have, just as Flo Hyman’s exuberance and maturity gave women’s volleyball a big-time appearance.

HYMAN was 6 feet 5 inches tall and originally self-conscious about her height. But her family and friends convinced her that her height was a blessing.

Nobody knew that her angular frame contained signs of Marfan syndrome, a condition just beginning to be recognized in thousands of Americans – often taller people with long arms, long fingers, oddly shaped chest bones.

Marfan is an inherited disorder of connective tissue that affects bones and ligaments, eyes, the heart and blood system, and the lungs. Flo Hyman became America’s best-known volleyball player with a faulty aorta, but she did not know it.

”We never heard of it,” said Suzanne Jett, her sister and the oldest of eight children – ”seven, now,” Jett added softly.

The family lived in Inglewood, not far from the California beach towns of Redondo, Manhattan and Hermosa, where mostly sun-baked blond people frolicked on sandy volleyball courts in the 60′s. Basketball was for blacks. Volleyball, even with Wilt Chamberlain as its champion, was mostly for whites.

”Florie was six feet tall in elementary school,” Jett recalled, using the nickname that only family members could use. ”She was such a big, young, powerful girl. I took her to the beach with me, and we used to play in the two-man tournaments. She joined a youth team that went to Russia. After that, volleyball was her sport, not basketball.”

Attracted to volleyball, with its teamwork and its finesse, its power and its grace, Hyman was an all-American at the University of Houston, and then joined a national team that was eventually sequestered in southern California. Arie Selinger, the hard-driving Polish-Israeli-American coach, had to persuade her she really did want to bash her bony frame into the hard floor, over and over again, to retrieve a wayward volleyball.

”I’ve had a lot of fights with the floor,” she said with a whooping laugh.

The Americans were primed to make a run for the gold medal in 1980, but the Carter Administration’s boycott of the Summer Games in Moscow postponed or wrecked dreams for hundreds of athletes. Most of the women stayed together for the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, but in the gold-medal match, it was Ping Lang and her Chinese teammates who won the gold, not Flo Hyman and her teammates, who had waited so long.

”The family was up in the stands, crying,” Suzanne Jett recalled. ”But Florie came by and waved. You could see her smile. She was happy. She had reached her goal. She had played for a gold medal. I thought to myself, ‘If she is happy, why am I crying?’ ”

Selinger was forced out after the Summer Games and Hyman went to play in Japan, looking to coach over there.

”Florie had a lot of doors opening for her,” her oldest sister said. ”Broadcasting. Acting. Coaching. But she would come home and lobby for more money for women’s sports. She felt this country doesn’t give women’s sports as much as other countries do. She tried to make things better. But she also nursed her relationship with the Japanese.

”She got friendly with American baseball players and their wives, she got to know the owner of an American nightclub, she loved the Japanese,” said Suzanne Jett, who edits television commercials in Los Angeles. ”I visited her and we went out dancing. I was supposed to go over again.”

ON Jan. 24, 1986, during a normal rest on the bench, Flo Hyman fell over dead. Her sister came over to claim her body. The family eventually learned from a pathologist in California that Hyman had died of something called Marfan syndrome. The family has learned more about the ailment from the National Marfan Foundation, run by Priscilla Ciccariello in Port Washington, L.I.

”My brother and I went to a Marfan symposium run by Johns Hopkins in Baltimore,” Jett said. ”People kept saying, ‘Are you sure you don’t have it?’ because I’m tall and thin, like Florie, and have unusually long arms. I took the test and did not have the internal manifestations, but my brother, Michael, had open-heart surgery two weeks later. He’s all right now. He just had his first child. It’s something to watch in the baby.”

Giving an annual award to star athletes like Jackie Joyner-Kersee is one way of remembering Flo Hyman. The awareness of a menacing condition is another legacy of an American champion who could reassure her own family after the loss of a gold medal.

“I had to learn to be honest with myself. I had to recognize my pain threshold. When I hit the floor, I have to realize it’s not as if I broke a bone. Pushing yourself over the barrier is a habit. I know I can do it and try something else crazy. If you want to win the war, you’ve got to pay the price.” ~ Flo Hyman

In an individualized world, where ME seems to count most, blame is a topic that is often used, but rarely broached.  Rarely do we take blame on ourselves, but rarely do we admit that we push blame on to others.

Mom enjoys watching The View talk show.  Over the holidays, I listened in as guest, Justin Timerberlake, discussed the days of Napster.   The host asked Justin if he was upset at Napster (when Napster was deregulated) for the millions of dollars lost due to illegal music sharing.  Justin, in his politically correct celebrity jargon, was disappointed at Napster and was relieved when the government stepped in to regulate the music industry.  He went on to mention that Shawn Fanning (Napster founder) should be responsible for repaying the music industry for the money lost due to Napster.

I’m sorry,  Shawn Fanning is just a very, very small piece of this puzzle.  Yes, he created a website, a service that provided easy file sharing.  His service is no different than an old dual cassette boombox (am I dating myself) or a CD burner.  Napster just provided a vehicle to copy music at a higher rate of speed, one in which the music industry was uncomfortable because of lost sales.  BUT, Napster would never have been an issue, if each individual chose the ethical route to not copy songs illegally.  The real blame is on each individual person, not Shawn Fanning and Napster. 

The point being, it’s easier for the host of The View and Justin Timberlake to blame one company and one owner versus recognizing the real blame: each individual that unethically, and now illegally, downloaded music.  Coincidentally, those same individuals that should shoulder the blame are FANS of The View and Justin Timberlake.  Don’t bite the hand that feeds, Justin.

When I worked in the “real world” as owner of an international marketing company, I imported goods from Asia for sale in the United States.  Lots of electronics, housewares, luggage, etc.  Those goods were made in sweatshops; just like the screen you are reading this blog on.  Admittedly, I have been in sweatshops where rows of young girls, ages 11 to 17 (the preferred age and gender because their fingers are small and nimble enough to assemble by hand tiny parts), worked assembly lines and lived at factories for many months a year for monthly wages less than you make in a day.  People asked me how I justified what I did.  I asked them how they justified purchasing a TV, microwave, shirt, luggage, calculator, towels, sheets, shoes, computers, over 75% of the goods you use on a daily basis from products made in China.  It was easy to blame me; it was hard to blame themselves.  If we want to stop the exploitation of using children (the same age as the junior kids we coach in club), stop buying goods from China.  Buy American.

But there are laws, rules, regulations, etc…?!?!  It’s China.  After viewing the spectacle of these sweatshops, I consciously made choices to use factories that did not employ children under 16 years old.  I paid more for the goods, but morally felt better in my decision.  I am also not stupid.  It is China.  The factory of which I was shown manufacturing the goods was likely one of many factories.  Or if there was only one factory from that company, often products are outsourced to other factories.  You think the Nike shoes you are wearing weren’t made by children?  Nike will tell you their factories are regulated, which they likely are, but what about the overflow and surplus?  They are made in sweatshops.  Americans choose to turn their backs because the product is cheap (never mind the long-term negative environmental impact of these factories that will cost us billions – and likely lives).  But its cheap NOW…

After many years in international marketing, I chose to move from children in sweatshops to children sweating on a court.  Admittedly, over the years of working in Asia, it takes a toll on a person, mentally, ethically, morally, and physically.  Hopefully, the children sweating on the volleyball court are doing so at their own free will and are enjoying themselves.

About that blame game?  Yeah, unfortunately, I see it in volleyball too.  It’s easy to blame the owner of a company or the guy buying goods in a sweatshop instead of looking in the mirror.  It’s also easy to blame a coach in volleyball.  Most coaches I have dealt with are pure, quality people.  Volleyball has a loving family that looks after one another.  The sport, in the United States, is still small enough were greed hasn’t corrupted it (although greed is trying) and coaches look after one another, to help the game grow.  Unfortunately, I have watched, too many times, players and parents, point the blame to the coach.  A player may not be performing their best or may not be getting enough playing time or has gotten into trouble.  There are certainly times when a coach is to blame, but too often the coach is the first to blame.  Even administration has a short leash on coaches when a season is not successful.

In most cases, a player needs to look inside themselves before blaming a coach or a teammate.  True hard work and discipline on a consistent basis is often missing in this era of instant gratification.  I recall Penn State’s Head Coach Russ Rose saying at an AVCA educational session, “This is a bad era for players.”  Some players do not pay their dues consistently in the weight room, conditioning, nutrition, or during practice.  Or players point the blame at another player on the court for a failed point.  After a poor performance, the player is riddled with questions why their performance was poor.  They ask questions and eventually push the blame to a coach or teammate.    It’s time for this era to stop “pointing the finger and pull the thumb”.  It’s time for each of us to look inside ourselves and find where in the past we lacked a true discipline, consistent effort along the way.  It could have been one month or six months ago when maximum effort was not given.  That lack of effort (even going through the motions) can and will catch up to you.

Champions work hard everyday.  I often talk about Karch Kiraly working out the day after winning the Manhattan Open (read about Karch Kiraly and his trainer, Mike Rangel, here).  Ironically, the harder we work, the more likely we are to blame ourselves over small failures.  The blame works as an internal motivator.  We start to recognize our own true weaknesses (which we recognize through hard work) and we learn to rely on the strength of our teammates to pick us up.  Instead of blaming teammates, we motivate one another by compensating for each others weaknesses.  With the lack of blame, a team builds pure unity, positive reinforcement grows between teammates, and success is not hampered, but achieved.

This past week in Kansas City at the AVCA Convention and Final Four was thoroughly enjoyable.  It was 24 hours of volleyball.  Blissful.

Even though volleyball is one of the most popular sports in the world, we, in the United States, are fortunate it has not blown-up yet (it will).  It provides us the accessibility for legends to roam amongst us mere mortals.  I had the opportunity to chat with Karch Kiraly while watching Misty May Treanor played a sand coed 4 vs 4 tournament with convention attendees.  How awesome is that?  I’m certain Michael Jordan isn’t attending any basketball conferences nor is Kobe Bryant playing any pick-up games with convention attendees.  We are lucky.

Furthermore, we are fortunate to have the greatest coaches in the game wanting to help us all to be better coaches.  There were incredible educational sessions where we learned from Hugh McCutcheon, Carl McGown, Terry Liskevych, Russ Rose, John Kessel, Terry Pettit, Bill Neville, Mick Haley, John Dunning, Beth Launiere, Anne Kordes, and many more

On top of all this fun, there were great Final Four matches played and I was fortunate to also speak to all the first time attendees of the convention.  What a great honor for me.

If you are a volleyball enthusiast, this is a highly recommended event.  There is so much volleyball going on.  It makes me realize how lucky I am to be doing what I love.