Top-seeded Concordia plays Lewis and Alaska-Anchorage takes on Palm Beach Atlantic at 6 p.m. in Friday’s NCAA Division II national semifinals in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Concordia, of St. Paul, Minn., improved to 33-2 by demolishing American International 25-6, 25-16, 25-13 in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
Eighth-seeded American International ended its season 28-7. The teams were reseeded once the round of eight was established.
Click here for the NCAA recap.
Fifth-seeded Lewis of Romeoville, Ill., had to work hard to knock out defending-champion Wheeling Jesuit of West Virginia 25-17, 26-24, 30-28 and improve to 29-7. Fourth-seeded Wheeling Jesuit saw its season end 41-3.
Click here for the Lewis recap.
Palm Beach Atlantic of Florida moved on by defeating USC Aiken of South Carolina 25-23, 25-22, 25-20. The second-seeded Sailfish improved to 32-3, while No. 7 seed Aiken saw its season end 31-5.
Click here for the PBA recap.
Alaska-Anchorage went four to beat Angelo State 14-25, 25-22, 27-25, 25-16. The Seawolves improved to 33-2 and are in the semifinals for the first time.
The third-seeded Belles ended their season 34-4.
Here is the recap from the Alaska Daily News.
All of Friday’s matches will be streamed live at NCAA.com.
Ohio State No. 1 in AVCA
Defending-champion Ohio State grabbed the top spot in the AVCA Division I-II men’s preseason poll released Thursday.
The Buckeyes got 23 of the 24-first-place votes. The other went to No. 2 UCLA.
Rounding out the top five of the 15-team poll are No. 3 BYU, followed by Long Beach State and Pepperdine.
Ohio State upset BYU last May 7 in Columbus to win the national championship.
The men’s season starts in earnest in January, but some teams have late-December exhibitions and some non-conference matches. On Dec. 29, the MPSF’s UC Irvine goes to Concordia and Lewis of the MIVA entertains Alberta. The EIVA and Conference Carolinas don’t have matches scheduled until January.
The next AVCA poll is January 9. To see the current poll, click here.
John Forman is an assistant volleyball coach at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, an unlikely landing place for someone with as varied a resume as his in the sport. We connected because he and partner Mark Lebedew are in the process of publishing a book called “Volleyball Coaching Wizards.”
While it’s a volleyball book, the coaches interviewed are not the usual suspects and, clearly, Forman thinks outside the box. The interviews are with Carl McGown, Giovanni Guidetti, Ruth Nelson, Garth Pischke, Teri Clemens, Jefferson Williams, Tom Turc and Craig Marshall.
You can also keep up with Forman at his website coachingvb.com, where he is a prolific blogger.
John Foreman
By John Forman for VolleyballMag.com
Back when I was an undergraduate finance student I read a book called Market Wizards by Jack Schwager. Little did I know at the time how much influence it would have on me.
Market Wizards is a collection of interviews with top traders, investors, and money managers. A whole generation of traders — if not more — can say they were influenced by that book and the follow-up editions published in later years.
The folks interviewed didn’t share any great secrets. What they did, though, was inform and inspire. Readers got to see how these market greats got to where they were and what they had to overcome along the way.
The Market Wizards franchise greatly expanded in the literature of trading. The books tell numerous stories about people most of us would otherwise never hear about. They also share tales of the markets themselves. It makes things highly relatable, even to someone who just dabbles in the markets.
Honestly, I’m not sure what led me to think up a volleyball-coaching version of Market Wizards in the spring of 2015. I had not read that book in years. I think it was just a merging of different influences and ideas swirling around in my head at the time.
I lived in the U.K., pursuing a PhD and coaching at the University of Exeter. I started a coaching blog less than two years prior as a way to share information and ideas with my peers in the southwest of England. Quickly, though, it developed an international readership. That, in turn, let me connect with coaches in other countries.
I leveraged my new contacts to spend time with three professional clubs in Germany during 2014. The coaches I hung out with there were Australian, Argentinian, and Italian. A true multinational, multicultural experience.
I think that exposure gave me a lot of respect for coaches in different places and at different levels. In the U.S., I coached college and juniors volleyball for a number of years. Seeing what the sport — and coaching — is like beyond America’s borders, though, provides a whole different perspective. This is even more so the case in places where volleyball is not a major sport.
One of the coaches I became friends with while I was in England is Mark Lebedew. At the time he coached for Berlin Recycling Volleys, the three-time German men’s champions. I visited with Mark a couple of times and one of the things we talked about is the lack of a good volleyball coaching literature — at least in English.
Think about a sport such as basketball. The stories of coaches like John Wooden and Phil Jackson are well known. They are the subject of multiple books. There are books and documentaries about great players and great teams of the past and present. Their stories are known and told.
What about volleyball, however? Mike Hebert is one of very, very few who have shared their stories in a broad, public way. There are plenty of high profile coaches in our sport, but how much do we really know about how they got there?
And what about the history of the sport? Not many of us know it very well, if at all. For Americans it doesn’t even seem to exist prior to the USA men winning gold at the 1984 Olympics. Many of the key developments in volleyball, however, took place during the 1960s and 1970s. Sadly, too few realize or appreciate that.
I wanted to share the people and the stories, putting together the idea of respecting the contributions of coaches at all levels of the sport, and in all parts of the world, with the desire to share their stories. What you end up with is the “Volleyball Coaching Wizards” project.
Basically, Volleyball Coaching Wizards is about identifying great coaches — wherever they may be, at whatever level they coach — and interviewing them to hear their stories and gain insights into how they think.
Some coaches are well known nationally and/or internationally. This project is also about expanding the volleyball literature and perhaps encouraging others to go a step further and produce more, deeper content.
I managed to convince Mark Lebedew to be my partner on the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project. Honestly, it didn’t take much doing. He and I have, at this writing, recorded nearly 40 interviews. There are many, many more coaches still on our list to speak with (I think I counted something like 300 recommendations at one stage). In other words, we’ve only just started!
Bits of each interview we do are posted via social media as short-form content to share what these great coaches have to say. Mark and I also drill down on some of their observations, ideas, and opinions as part of a podcast. Definitely look us up on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and iTunes. I think one of the cool things you’ll find is that much of what the Wizard coaches say isn’t just about volleyball — or even necessarily just about sports.
Although the trend these days is toward shorter-form content, like what we have already been sharing, there is still something to be said about publishing a book. It brings a level of credibility to your work and, by extension, your subject. That’s one of the reasons we decided to develop a series of Volleyball Coaching Wizards books.
The initial one is due out shortly. Consider it an introduction to the project. It will contain eight of the interviews we’ve done so far. They were selected to be representative of the inclusive nature of the project. Both genders are included, and all levels. Half are American, while the other half are international. They combine for a truly impressive number of victories and championships, though that isn’t the only way to measure success. A couple are well known. Others definitely are not.
Eight interviews just provides a sampling of what we’ve got, of course. Even that, though, should be enough to enlighten, inspire, and perhaps even entertain volleyball coaches all over the world. To quote the foreword Kathy DeBoer wrote for us:
“So what is the lesson of these tales of wizardry?
“That excellent coaching, while not easy, is not magic.”
Hopefully, we are just at the beginning stages of developing the kind of resource that can positively influence coaches for years to come.
To keep up with the progress of the book and more things John Forman, go to http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/
Dan Apol, front row far right, attends the 2016 Olympic Games Preparation Seminar in Brazil, March 2016.
Editor’s note from Ed Chan:
I’m very sorry to report that Dan had an aneurysm while working a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference match Tuesday night in Colorado Springs. He was taken off life support Wednesday.
Dan and I have been friends for a long time and I really enjoyed interviewing him and writing this story about him working the Olympics. He was a calm, friendly and positive force on the court. Dan was 44, an avid fisherman, camper, and skier (Dan skied 51 days this year). He leaves behind his wife, Bonnie.
A memorial service will be held in Michigan in honor of Dan on Saturday, December 17, 2016. An exact time has not been set yet, but will likely be early afternoon.
Location is Hillside Community Church, 1440 68th St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49508. Click here for church website.
Dan’s friend Keith Murless posted the following Wednesday on Facebook:
To all of the many “Friends of Dan,
I can’t tell you why. Something to do with blood vessels in his brain. A random accident. Or perhaps he was “called home” or “called up” by some higher power. But we’ve lost him.
Last night, while reffing a local volleyball match (of course), my best friend’s time was called. He was disoriented for a bit. But there was no trauma, no pain. Professionals collected him quickly, and took him to the best of care. But he’s gone from us.
Teams and spectators come together in a silent vigil for Dan Apol following the RMAC quarterfinal in which Dan’s aneurysm ruptured/Photo by Katherine Proano
He’s still here in Colorado Springs, on life support in a beautiful hospital. His family, having flown through the night, is with him now. He looks great. But he’s not here.
Orion is upstairs too. You all know the mastiffs. Artimus has left us, but his picture adorns most of the referee badges in the world. And now Orion. Bright stars in the sky. Dan will be joining them.
Such a bright star. We’ve all been so lucky to work with him; to call him friend.
And now, proud organ donor that he is, Dan will save some forty lives this week. That brings a smile to Bonnie’s face. Even today, when we are all forced to say goodbye.
THANK YOU!
Bonnie, and all of the family, want you all to know just how important your support has been. Thousands of texts and emails. Millions of prayers. And the hospital courtyard is filled with local ski bums and vagrant referees, all here to say goodbye.
But I need to ask you all a favor: The family needs time to grieve. Time to rest, and to begin to heal. Your quiet prayers are what they need, just now.
Several of us will be setting up an information stream. Details, for those who want them. Also various means to say goodbye, through flowers, or donations, or what have you. I’ll be posting links to this information on Facebook, and publishing them through referee channels as well.
We will also publish the details of services, as soon as they are known.
Thank you for your understanding during this difficult time…. and please join me in breathing to the stars… WE LOVE YOU DAN!
Lori Okimura, chair of the USA Volleyball board of directors, talked about Dan.
Dan Apol was first and foremost an amazing and very dear friend. I had the privilege of working with Dan for many seasons on the FIVB World Tour. He was often the first one at the site and the last one to leave, always offering assistance and a kind word exactly where and when it was needed. I remember fondly Dan volunteering to work the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships for the under 19-age group in Bermuda back in 2006. When Hurricane Florence hit the island Dan was the first to grab the shovels and buckets to start bailing out court number 6 then court 5 then court 4 and eventually made his way with the backhoe, the shovels and the buckets all the way to court number 1.
He was one of the greatest ambassadors for USA Volleyball and one of our most accomplished Olympic and Paralympic international referees. His knowledge of the game, his professionalism, his kindness and sense of humor and his passion for those who played are among the many reasons why Dan was so well respected around the world. I was proud of him every time he stood up on the stand, and I was honored to call him a friend.
VolleyballMag.com will post more details here as we get them.
Feel free to comment about Dan below or visit our Facebook page, Facebook.com/Volleyballmag, where some of us have already begun to pay tribute to Dan.
This is our Q&A story that ran on this site just before the Olympics:
At the Rio Olympics, 20 indoor and 16 beach referees will be tasked with judging and administrating the matches fairly. VBM had a chance to chat with Dan Apol, the USA designated beach referee (Patricia Rolf, the former Marquette coach, is the USA designated indoor referee).
Apol, a ref since 1991, is a full-time volleyball official. He lives in Castle Rock, Denver, and is one of a handful of referees in the world who have both the International FIVB beach and International Para-volley (handicapped) certifications and is also an NCAA official. He has 12 years of International experience and was an Olympic referee in London 2012. As you might imagine, an international referee racks up plenty of frequent-flyer miles. Apol has officiated in 30 different countries and will spend 87 days this year officiating outside the U.S.
Referees must be selected by USA volleyball to become a national official. It takes a minimum of three years to become a national referee, candidates must attend a variety of training programs and be evaluated numerous times. What’s more, candidates must attend international referee school prior to age 41. There are one or two international clinics per year. International beach referees are forced to retire at age 55.
“Beach is an image sport, they want their officials to be youthful and be fit as well,” Apol said, adding that on the average international beach referees are 15 years younger than their indoor counterparts.
VBM and Apol visited on a number of topics, starting with the difference between the Olympics and major competitions.
Apol: “It’s all the same players, all the same referees, all the same delegates, all the same people telling us what to do, except that it’s two levels higher,” Apol said.
“It’s higher than the tour finals, it’s the Olympics, it’s every four years, it’s the highest sporting event in the world. The pressure is unbelievable. We probably only do two or three matches each day, but we go through three or four meetings every day for 19 days in a row. What we did wrong, what the proper protocol is, etc.
“One thing that’s new this year is they have the video challenge system, which is really cool. The last men’s Olympics ended on a questionable lines call. Who’s to say what happened, but now there’s indisputable video evidence. ”
“It helps us deal with the players. Instead of yelling and going all Tim Hovland, they just initiate a challenge. Everybody watches the review on the TV, and there’s no problem. It’s a good thing for us.” VBM:How do you deal with the pressure?
Apol: ”I try to relax a lot. You have to mentally prepare yourself. It depends on what you need. A lot of times, I’ll go for a walk, other folks read rule books and go through video footage, I try to relax and let it go, not dwell on it, good or bad.”
VBM:How do you deal with difficult coaches or players?
Apol: “I don’t normally deal with coaches, but I saw an event in Gstaad where a Brazilian coach was standing up in the bleachers and yelling at an official for several minutes. I’ve never seen that before, it’s a bit of an unusual situation. There’s a lot of time that we’re not on the center court, the side courts don’t have the video system, more of the personalities come out a little bit.
“It’s not always as difficult to deal with because it’s not always in the English language. If they’re arguing in their second language it’s not as difficult. For sure we don’t put up with as much discussion as we do on the AVP Tour. I can’t remember when the last time a player was awarded a delay for refusing to __play after a discussion (on the AVP tour). On the world tour, if someone talks for five seconds, then they have to play. And if they don’t play, then it’s a delay. The discussion period is definitely more brief on the FIVB. VBM: Are there any significant rules changes for the 2016 Olympics?
Apol: Generally speaking, any significant rule changes occur after the Olympics. They’re going to try some new things, because the FIVB is trying to speed up the game. The match has to fit into a one hour slot for television purposes, and if they don’t start their match at the top of the hour for NBC, then NBC puts a different sport on, and volleyball loses the TV time. They’re trying to keep every match within a 50-minute slot at the most because there’s a 10-minute warmup period.”
“This year we have had an emphasis on speeding up play. Our target is 12 seconds between plays, on a normal play, which is rampaging fast. It’s mind-boggling even how must faster it is than last year. They’ve done studies that show that a two-set match is three minutes shorter than it was last year, and a three-set match is six minutes shorter than last year.”
“It really pushes the athletes, and I think it’s going to be a great thing, because it keeps everybody more interested . If there’s 30 seconds between rallies, viewers can decide that they can go to the bathroom, get a snack, or change the channel. Keeping the pace up maintains the crowd involvement.”
VBM:Are you concerned about Zika?
“No. I refuse to be afraid, based on what I’ve heard in the U.S. media. I’ve been down there twice so far this year. Once we were out in the sticks a ways at the Brazilian training center, and I did get bit by a mosquito, and nothing happened. I don’t know if it was the Zika mosquito, it died when I smacked it. They’ve been spraying standing water for mosquitoes, when I was there in March I didn’t see a mosquito for 10 days.”
VBM:What do you do when you’re not blowing a whistle on a referee stand somewhere?
Apol: “I do a lot of camping, fishing, and skiing. I skied 51 days this season.”
The full list of Olympic officials:
Beach volleyball – Referees
Giovanni Bake (Republic of South Africa) Jonas Personeni (Switzerland) José Maria Padron (Spain) Charalampos Papadogoulas (Greece) Davide Crescentini (Italy) Roman Pristovakin (Russia) Osvaldo Sumavil (Argentina) Mário Ferro (Brazil) Elzir Martins de Oliveira (Brazil) Juan Carlos Saavedra (Columbia) Lucie Guillemette (Canada) Carlos L. Rivera Rodriguez (Puerto Rico) Daniel Apol (USA) Lijun Wang (China) Djamal Bergheul (Algeria) Kritsada Panaseri (Thailand)
Indoor Volleyball – Referees
Andrey Zenovich (Russia) Juraj Mokry (Slovakia) Fabrizio Pasquali (Italy) Susana Rodriguez (Spain) Piotr Dudek (Poland) Vladimir Simonovic (Serbia) Arturo Di Giacomo (Belgium) Paulo Turci (Brazil) Rogerio Espicalsky (Brazil) Nasr Shaaban (Egypt) Taoufik Boudaya (Tunisia) Denny Cespedes (Dominican Republic) Hernan Casamiquela (Argentina) Luis Macias (Mexico) Heike Kraft (Germany) Jiang Liu (China) Joo Hee Kang (Korea) Mohammad Shahmiri (Iran) Ibrahim Al Naama (Qatar) Patricia Rolf (USA)
From Osh Kosh, Wisconsin, for the Division III championship to the NAIA championship last week in Sioux City, Iowa, and back to the home office in Lexington, Ky. to this week in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for the NCAA Division II championship, AVCA executive director Kathy DeBoer is literally all over the map.
And it’s always interesting to catch up with her this time of year as she and her staff prepare for their version of the Super Bowl, the AVCA Convention in Columbus, Ohio, that coincides with the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship.
This one has a chance to be biggest yet.
AVCA executive director Kathy DeBoer
“Each Tuesday in our staff meeting we look at not only the convention numbers for this particular year but we go back seven years to see in each catetory to see if we’re ahead or behind” said DeBoer, who admits to being a numbers obsessed.
“We have a chance to have the largest convention we’ve ever had in Columbus.
“We’re running neck and neck with the Louisville convention (with about 2,400 attendees) we had in 2012. We’re slightly ahead and if historical trends continue and we pick up 160 to 190 on site, we’ll have the largest convention we’ve ever had.”
DeBoer goes non-stop at the convention.
“I have as many face-to-face interactions with as many AVCA members as possible, particularly in the context where they are meeting about issues in their particular area. I go to a lot of meetings.”
And not just NCAA, but those involving high school, club and, well, everything. She also makes sure to visit with AVCA sponsors.
In addition there’s an AVCA board meeting on Tuesday of next week and DeBoer, the former head coach at Kentucky, has her last meeting scheduled for Sunday morning, the day after the national-championship match.
Illinois coach Kevin Hambly just finished his term as past president. Christy Johnson-Lynch, the Iowa State coach, is midway through her two-year term as AVCA president. Mark Rosen of Michigan will follow her.
They are overseeing a sport that is doing very well.
“I’m as optimistic as I’ve been in a long time for a couple of different reasons,” DeBoer said. “One is the steady growth that we saw in the early 2000s is continuing and the reason I’m optimistic because in the middle of that we’ve had the great recession. We’ve also had other organizations great real aggressive. AAU has grown tremendously, USA Volleyball is growing at six or seven percent every year and the JVA is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
“Collegiately we were at 96 percent of the schools having women’s volleyball and we still are 96 percent.
“What’s exciting is what’s starting to happen with our fan base,” DeBoer said. “I’d love to tell you it’s happening absolutely all over the country — it isn’t — but we are showing steady growth at the attendance at (the NCAA Tournament). We don’t have official numbers yet, but we look at the unofficial numbers for the first and second rounds and we’ve averaged 2,700 per night.”
She said that’s the second-highest ever and then the change with top four seeds being hosts for the regionals will obviously boost attendance. There have already been more than 13,000 tickets sold for the semifinals in Columbus.
She’s also excited that ESPNU will carry four of the eight first-round regional matches Friday.
“We’ve been winning the participation battle and we haven’t been winning the spectator battle and we’re now starting to see some traction in the spectator marketplace,” DeBoer said.
“The last hurdle is the ratings battle. We’ll have to see if our spectator numbers are going up and there’s more of the championship on television does that help our ratings? Because we haven’t had a lot of success there yet.”
DeBoer is always looking for ways to grow the game and, for lack of a better term, think outside the box about volleyball. That’s why the NAIA tournament was intriguing to her.
“It always strikes me during this time of year ishow the different sectors do college volleyball in their own unique ways,” DeBoer said. “The NAIA has about 225 women’s volleyball teams. By the way, they have almost 40 men’s and will be sponsoring a men’s championship in the next couple of years. But they have those 225 women’s teams and they have 24 of them that come to their national championship. Many of them are small, private schools with a religious founding basis.
“And they have unlimited substitution, which they went to about12 or 13 years ago, so their teams are 20 kids. Nobody’s keeping track of subs. You can use serving subs and defensive subs and blocking subs. The core group of kids for each team is the same, it’s not like you’re gonna walk in and not recognize the sport.”
The NAIA, DeBoer said, starts with pool __play with the top two teams advancing from each pool into the round of 16. It’s a busy few days.
“It’s a lot, a lot of play, but this is also part of the intercollegiate experience,” DeBoer said. “They don’t apologize for the fact that there’s a lot of play. And you get to be there for a week to determine the national championship.”
Click here for the AVCA main page and here for more information about the AVCA Convention.
Taylor Crabb has a new partner for 2017 in Jake Gibb/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
The 2016 beach season had a couple of events in November, one pro and one college, and there are some partnership changes of note as the sport looks toward 2017.
In the last NorCECA event of 2016, Nov. 27 in Trinidad and Tobago, Canada’s Sam Schachter and Sam Pedlow and Melissa Humana-Paredes and Jamie Broder won gold medals.
Schachter/Pedlowoutplayed Cubans Nivaldo Diaz and Sergio Gonzalez 21-18, 21-19 in the final. In the bronze-medal match, Cubans Karell Pena and Daisel Quesada edged the USA’s Billy Allen and Theo Brunner 21-18, 16-21, 15-13. Brunner is one of those players who is making a switch for next season.
On the women’s side, Humana-Paredes/Broder claimed gold in a comeback win over the USA’s Kimberly DiCello and Summer Ross 17-21, 21-16, 15-12. Brooke Sweat and Emily Day of the USA defeated Cubans Yanisleidis Sanchez and Lidiannis Echeverria 21-15, 21-23, 15-10 for bronze.
LSU won the Collegiate Cup/LSU photo
LSU wins Collegiate Beach Bash
Six NCAA beach teams converged upon the Rally Point facility on Nov. 12 in Emerson, Ga., to take advantage of their fall competition date. The LSU Tigers took home the team cup with an overall record of 42-14 in a field that included the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Georgia State, South Carolina, Spring Hill, and UNC Wilmington.
“Winning the Team Cup is definitely something that every one of our players can be proud of,” LSU coach Russell Brock said. “They played really hard, and executed well against some tough competition.”
LSU’s boasts an infusion of youth on this year’s squad, with four freshmen: Claire Coppola (No. 1 pairing), Kristen Nuss and Olivia Powers (No. 3 pairing), and Taylor Bradley (No. 4 pairing).
Brock said he saw good things from those young players.
”We wanted to put them in a position to be challenged and by their records. They showed that they are capable and handled it well,” Brock said. “We were successful. we were very pleased with the whole team, but the freshmen contributed in a fun and exciting way.”
Georgia State finished 30-26, South Carolina 42-38, UAB 13-11, Spring Hill 14-42, and UNCW 11-21.
Preseason beach competition will resume in February, culminating in the NCAA championships at Gulf Shores, Ala., May 5-7.
Theo Brunner will partner with Casey Patterson for the 2017 season/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
New beach teams formed
The off-season typically brings a few partnership swaps as teams look to improve their chemistry and/or points, and this year is no exception.
Phil Dalhausser will still __play with Nick Lucena, John Hyden and Tri Bourne are still together and John Mayer and Ryan Doherty will let it ride and start 2017 together in Fort Lauderdale for the first announced AVP site on Feb. 7-12.
But with the breakup of Casey Patterson and Jake Gibb, we have three new teams for 2017:
Casey Patterson joins Theo Brunner, Jake Gibb will match up with Taylor Crabb, and Sean Rosenthal gets with Trevor Crabb. They will be under the gun to work out the kinks before the Florida FIVB event.
“I’m super excited at the opportunity to __play with Casey,” Brunner said. “I think our games and personalities compliment each other really well. We have already been practicing for a few weeks and can’t wait to get started at the Florida FIVB in February.”
Even the Crabb brothers broke up.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be playing with Jake,” Taylor Crabb said. “He’s someone that I have looked up to since being around the AVP. I can’t wait to learn from him being a three-time Olympian. And with Tyler Hildebrand coaching us I feel we can be a top contender on the AVP and international level.
“We haven’t practiced yet but Jake has been driving up to Hermosa two days a week just so we can work out together. I can’t wait to see what 2017 has in store for us. I feel this partnership will bring out the best in each other and I can’t wait to see what that is.”
Gibb shares Taylor’s enthusiasm.
“The kid has been working his ass off this off season. I’m excited.”
Excited is the key word, obviously.
“Excited to play with Rosie,” Trevor Crabb said. “He has a lot of experience winning on the world tour and AVP. “I feel we complement one another in that we both are good at every skill and are true volleyball players. I feel we can give any team in the world a run for their money and I’m stoked to get after it with someone that is just as hungry as I am.”
Angelo State setter Meghan Parker has had a great freshman season and has the Belles in the NCAA round of eight for the first time/Angelo State photo
VolleyballMag.com‘s corporate headquarters, using the term loosely, is split between my home in Baton Rouge and Ed Chan’s in San Diego.
It’s colder than normal this week in Louisiana and I’ve actually worn a jacket. Where Ed lives, well, he’s played beach volleyball this week.
I’m telling you that because later I’ll have a story later talking about the AVCA Convention and more with AVCA director Kathy DeBoer, who is on her way to the NCAA Division II championships.
In Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Where it’s supposed to warm up on Thursday to the high teens.
NCAA DII Championship
Unlike Division I, eight teams gather all in the same place, in this case at the arena called the Sanford Pentagon, for quarterfinals Thursday, semifinals Friday and the final Saturday.
They re-seeded once the tourney gets to the final eight. So Thursday’s matches have:
Top-seeded Concordia St. Paul (Minnesota) playing No. 8 American International (Massachusetts) and No. 4 Wheeling Jesuit (West Virginia) vs. No. 5 Lewis (Illinois) on one side of the bracket;
And on the other side, No. 2 Palm Beach Atlantic (Florida) against No. 7 South Carolina Aiken and No. 3 Angelo State (Texas) facing No. 6 Alaska-Anchorage.
Concordia, which won seven titles in a row from 2007-2013, is 32-2 and has six in a row in the postseason — three matches in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Tournament and three more to win the NCAA Central Region Tournament — and has won 15 in a row overall.
American is in the round of 8 for the first time ever. The Yellow Jackets are 28-6.
The defending-champion Wheeling Jesuit Cardinals are a whopping 41-2, while Lewis is 28-7. Wheeling Jesuit won the Atlantic Region and in doing so gave coach Christy Benner her 500th career victory. It is the sixth year in a row for the Cardinals to make the round of eight. Jesuit, which went 16-0 in the Mountain East Conference, lost back-to-back matches on Sept. 10 — interestingly against Concordia and Angelo State — and has won 36 in a row since.
Lewis won the Midwest Regional, the first time for the Flyers. Lewis was 17-1 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
Palm Beach Atlantic, which lost in last year’s title match to Wheeling Jesuit, is 31-3. The Sailfish opened the season with losses to Lewis, SW Minnesota State and Augustana and haven’t lost since. South Carolina-Aiken is 31-4 and has advanced this far for the first time. For that matter, it had never won a set in NCAA __play before.
Angelo State is 34-3. The Belles, who won the Lone Star Conference, are in the round of eight for the first time under coach Chuck Waddington and will __play Alaska Anchorage (32-2).UAA won the Great Northwestern Athletic Conference Championship and the West Regional.
All the DII matches will be streamed live on NCAA.com, where can also go to get scores and updates.
NCAA Division I round of 16
Here’s another look at the schedule. The first-round regional matches are Friday and the finals are Saturday, all four one after another and all on ESPNU.
Nebraska Regional
No. 1 Nebraska (29-2) vs. No. 16 Penn St. (24-9), 11 a.m., ESPNU
No. 8 Washington (28-4) vs. Arizona (20-14), 1:30 p.m., ESPN3
Saturday’s final 3 p.m, ESPNU
Wisconsin Regional
No. 3 Wisconsin (27-4) vs. Ohio St. (22-12), 1 p.m., ESPNU
No. 6 Stanford (23-7)vs. Florida St. (26-5), 3:30 p.m., ESPN3
No. 7 North Carolina (29-3) vs. No. 10 UCLA (26-6), 9:45 p.m., ESPNU
Saturday’s final 9 p.m., ESPNU
We will have a comprehensive breakdown of all eight Friday matches here on Thursday. One last note about the weather: The weather.com 10-day forecast for Columbus shows ahigh of 18 degrees next Wednesday, when most people arrive for the NCAA Championship and AVCA Convention, and Thursday, the night of the national semifinals. Brrrr ….
Oh, and by the way, today — Wednesday — is Ed Chan’s birthday. Happy birthday to a great partner!
The vote is still split, with five different teams getting first-place nods, but the top six teams all stayed the same in the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll.
Western Kentucky is No. 1, followed by BYU, San Diego, Creighton, Hawai’i and Dayton. All of those teams won both their matches last week. WKU, 13-0 in Conference USA, is 26-2 with the second-best overall record in the nation, behind Dayton, which is 26-1, 12-0 in the Atlantic 10.
Missouri State is No. 7, trading places with No. 8 Marquette.
There were no major jumps, but Cleveland State, which has ruled the Horizon League this season at 22-4 overall and 13-1 in the conference, broke in at No. 25.
Rank
School
Total Points Adjusted
First Place Votes Adjusted
Win/Loss Record
Previous Rank
1
Western Kentucky
239
4
26-2
1
2
BYU
237
1
22-3
2
3
San Diego
230
3
21-3
3
4
Creighton
224
1
20-6
4
5
Hawai’i
209
1
18-5
5
6
Dayton
204
0
26-1
6
7
Missouri State
183
0
21-7
8
8
Marquette
180
0
21-5
7
9
Wichita State
162
0
18-7
10
10
Long Beach State
158
0
17-9
9
11
Coastal Carolina
151
0
21-4
11
12
Northern Iowa
140
0
19-8
12
13
Arkansas State
135
0
22-7
13
14
Colorado State
114
0
17-7
14
15
Loyola Marymount
93
0
17-9
15
16
Boise State
83
0
20-6
19
17
Lipscomb
80
0
18-7
19
18
Southern Illinois
75
0
20-9
17
19
Miami, Ohio
64
0
20-5
16
20
Cal Poly
51
0
15-8
22
T-21
SMU
38
0
19-7
21
T-21
UNLV
38
0
21-5
17
23
UT San Antonio
33
0
18-6
24
24
UC Santa Barbara
24
0
16-9
25
25
Cleveland State
21
0
22-4
NR
Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Northern Illinois 16, UCF 15, Cincinnati 14, Northern Arizona 11, Florida Gulf Coast 9, Wyoming 4.
4 teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 16 combined points.
Dropped Out: South Dakota 23.
The VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll includes all teams not in the “power-five” conferences, the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12.
Chris Fleming goes airborne for the punch up/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
SAN DIEGO — It wasn’t exactly a surprise when the top seeds came through Saturday at the Pacific Beachfest.
On the men’s side, Derek Olson and Paul Araiza took home the top prize 21-14, 21-16 with their version of “small ball”, both measure 6-foot-1.
For the women, Kelley Larsen (AVP 2015 Mason, Ohio champion) and Kelly Reeves (fifth-place finishes at AVP Huntington and San Francisco this year), aka “Team Kelly”,earned the championship 19-21, 21-17, 15-8.
Kelley Larsen attacks/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
Pacific Beachfest was Team Kelly’s first event together.
“Well, I heard about this tournament, and I heard it was a really fun tournament and wanted to __play in it, so I gave Kelly a call to see if she wanted to play,” Larsen said. “I knew she was down in San Diego. We’re both from San Diego, so Team Kelly. I thought it had a good ring to it.”
“I do like the ring of it.” Reeves added, although the two spell their names differently, so it could have been Team Kelley.
The women’s final was a tough matchup against AVP New Orleans champion Kim DiCello and AVP stalwartLynne Galli.
Lynne Galli makes the play/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
“The finals was a good match, a three setter,” Larsen said. “We played a good team, I thought we passed well andcommunicated well. It was a grind for sure. We fought through some good points, made some plays, and ended up on top.”
It wasn’t easy, especially the first set, where Team Kelly (or Kelley) was up 19-16, but their momentum stalled and they lost the set 21-19
“I take full credit for that,” Reeves said. “I kind of got rocked in the face, it got me off my game a little bit and got me out of rhythm for a bit. We came back in set two, didn’t let it get to us, and we answered and adjusted. We got on our pass and set grind and just started serving tough.”
Larsen added, “We just started bouncing back. After the first game we reset, forgot about that game, and moved forward. I thought we made some really good plays on defense that gave us some momentum.”
“We got them out of system,” Reevessaid. ”Made some key defensive stops, which was huge for us, and then we just capitalized on it.”
Derek Olson stretches out/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
The men’s final was more straightforward, as Olson/Araiza were simply more consistent on the day and controlled the match against transplanted Midwesterners Bill Kolinske and Raffe Paulis.
“I think the key was being aggressive,” Araiza said. “Having fun, and staying in the moment. We haven’t played in five days, and I think the break helped. We were fresh, loose, and eager to play. We’ve played a few events together, we’re comfortable with each other, honestly I think it’s being loose. It’s a big event, but it’s not the same pressure as a big AVP event, so you can go out, have fun, and __play with the crowd a little bit. We have good chemistry, so I think all that combined is when we play our best ball.”
Regarding their version of “small ball”, Olson said: “It’s fun, for sure. It’s challenging, I feel like we have to work extra hard. It’s kind of surprising, we still get blocks, and we still force hitting errors,without having that big presence at the net. When we’re focused, I think it’s not that much of a drop off, whatever we lack in size at the net we make up for it in ball control. If we side out well we can win games.”
Raffe Paulis attacks/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
We asked Olson/Araiza if they were looking forward to the off-season.
“I’m looking forward to not touching a ball for a month,” Araiza said. “I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but I needa little break, and then ease back into it.”
“Yeah, I train with this guy like every day,” Olson added. “Whatever he’s doing, I’m doing as well. I don’t know, playing some basketball, staying in shape, making something out of wood. Volleyball is such a big part of my life, it’s fun to take a step back and take some time off.”
Paul Araiza takes a swing during the finals/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
Jeff Stork is one of the 42 new hall nominees/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
A news conference was conducted Wednesday to anounced the forming of the Southern California Indoor Volleyball Hall of Fame (SCIVBHOF). It will be located at the American Sports Centers (ASC) in Anaheim.
The initial 42 nominees include 13 from UCLA and nine from USC. The final 25 will be announced in early February for the May 7, 2017 induction ceremonies at the Highway 39 Event Center in Anaheim.
Three-quarters of the 42 nominees have competed in or been the head coach for the USA Olympic teams and most have won NCAA indoor volleyball titles.
The list of nominees include Karch Kiraly, Steve Timmons and Misty May-Treanor.
“Having an indoor hall of fame to honor the top volleyball players from the Southern California area is something that is long overdue and American Sports Centers is proud to be the host site,” said Mike Gallups, President of American Sports Centers.
“American Sports Centers is a natural site because the USA national teams have been training here as well as housing the offices and major events for the Southern California Volleyball Association.”
The main wall will be built in the Sidelines Café ASC and hall of fame information will be available on the ASC website at www.americansportscenters.com . Sports Anaheim has been supporting the project since day one.
The American Volleyball Coaches Association on Tuesday announced its 31st annual Division I region teams and awards, which include the top 14 players, coach of the year, freshman of the year, and six honorable mentions in 10 geographical regions:
East: Resurgent Creighton may be in Omaha, but it plays in the Big East and hauled in six awards, as Lydia Dimke, Taryn Kloth, Marysa Wilkinson, and Jaali Winters all made the team, libero Brittany Witt was freshman of the year as well as honorable mention, and Kirsten Bernthal Booth was coach of the year.
East Coast: North Carolina’s Taylor Leath, Julia Scoles, and Taylor Treacy are on the East Coast team, Julia Scoles is the top freshman, and Joe Sagula coach of the year.
Midwest: Kansas’ Ainise Havili, Kelsie Payne, Madison Rigdon, and Cassie Wait were listed with the top 14 players of the region and Tayler Soucie earned an honorable mention.
North: No surprise here, as Nebraska landed nearly its entire starting roster on the all-region team, including Mikaela Foecke, Briana Holman, Kelly Hunter, Amber Rolfzen, Kadie Rolfzen and Justine Wong-Orantes. Nebraska’s John Cook is coach of the year.
Northeast: Wisconsin cleaned up with Lauren Carlini, Molly Haggerty, Haleigh Nelson, and Tionna Williams on the all-region team, Haggerty is freshman of the year and Wisconsin’s Kelly Sheffield is the coach of the year.
Pacific North: Stanford led with Inky Ajanaku, Merete Lutz, and Kathryn Plummer, who was also the top freshman. Audriana Fitzmorris got an honorable mention.
Pacific South: UCLA and BYU earned the lion’s share of the awards here, as UCLA landed Taylor Formico, Jennie Frager, and Torrey Van Winden on the all-region team, as well as Jordan Anderson and Reily Buechler receiving honorable mention.
BYU’s McKenna Miller was both all-region and freshman of the year, Amy Boswell was all-region, and Heather Olmstead was coach of the year. Whitney Young Howard received an honorable mention.
South: Texas A&M not only had Stephanie Aiple, Jazzmin Babers, and Kaitlyn Blake named to the all-region team, but Hollann Hans was listed as freshman of the year and honorable mention.
Southeast: Florida placed five players on the all-region team, Rhamat Alhassan, Alex Holston, Caroline Knop, Allie Monserez, and Carli Snyder.
Southwest: Texas scored big as Chloe Collins, Ebony Nwanebu, Paulina Prieto Cerame, and Micaya White received all-region honors. Some might be surprised to see that Catherine Repsher of Southern Miss was given the freshman of the year award over standout Micaya White, but only true freshmen are eligible for the award.
Nebraska’s Kadie Rolfzen, Wisconsin’s Carlini, Stanford’s Ajanaku, Alabama’s Krystal Rivers, Florida’s Alex Holston, and Missouri’s Carly Kan are all four-time recipients of AVCA regional recognition.
Three-time recipients are Abbey Bessler of Xavier, Katie Brand of Kansas State, Ainise Havili of Kansas, Lily Johnson of Missouri State, Abbie Lehman of Wichita State, Autumn Bailey of Michigan State, Briana Holman of Nebraska, Haleigh Nelson of Wisconsin, Taylor Sandbothe of Ohio State, Lutz of Stanford, Boswell of BYU, Penina Snuka of Arizona, Babers and Aiple of Texas A&M, Alyssa Cavanaugh and Jessica Lucas of Western Kentucky, Alhassan of Florida, Marion Hazelwood of Oklahoma, and Markie Schaedig of Arkansas State.
Two-time recipients include Corinne Bain of Harvard, Katie Horton of Florida State, Winters of Creighton, Janey Goodman of James Madison, Taylor Louis of Marquette, Treacy of North Carolina, Jordan Tucker of Duke, Teegan Van Gunst of Georgia Tech, Kelsie Payne of Kansas, Danielle Rygelski of Saint Louis, Foecke, Hunter, Amber Rolfzen, Wong-Orantes of Nebraska, Samantha Seliger-Swenson and Hannah Tapp of Minnesota, Faye Adelaja and Danielle Cuttino of Purdue, Haleigh Washington of Penn State, Mary-Kate Marshall of Oregon State, Sierra Nobley of Boise State, Nikki Taylor of Hawaii, Taylor Formico of UCLA, Lisa Kramer of San Diego, Sarah Sponcil of Loyola Marymount, Jesse Earl of Auburn, Kaz Brown/Ashley Dusek of Kentucky, Carli Snyder of Florida, Daja Boskovic of UTSA, Collins, Cerame and Nwanebu of Texas, Marion Hazelwood of Oklahoma, Markie Schaedig of Arkansas State, Ashley Smith of TCU, and Mallory Warrington of Arkansas State.
Freshman-of-the-year honors also went to Brittany Witt of Creighton, Payton Caffrey of West Virginia, Alexis Hart of Minnesota, Leah Edmond of Kentucky, and Catherine Repsher of Southern Miss.
Other coaches of the year included Melissa Stokes of Missouri State, Shawn Garus of Boise State, Travis Hudson of Western Kentucky, Wayne Kreklow of Missouri, and Amanda Berkley of Southern Miss.
Co-Publisher Lee Feinswog thought it would be a good idea to choose my 10 best beach photos of the year. For a photographer, that’s a lot like selecting your favorite children.
In the end, I whittled it down to my top 10, but also threw in the five other candidates that I agonized over. Let me know below if you think the bottom five should have been included in the top 10, or if I missed one of your other favorite photos.
These 10 photos are the result of a (very round estimate) of 100,000 photos.
I shoot with the Canon 1DX II (14 frames per second max) and the Canon 1DX (12 frames per second max). At those frame rates, the numbers add up pretty quickly, which explains why I end up backing up 12 terabytes to remote external drives, local external drives, and blu-ray 25GB disks.
My favorite lenses are the Sigma 120-300 f2.8 OS Sport model, the Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS Mark II, Canon 24-70 f2.8L Mark I, Canon 16-35mm f2.8L Mark II, and the Canon 8-15mm f4L circular fisheye.
If you would like to see more of my shots, please visit my website VBshots.com.
10, Taylor Crabb, AVP Chicago, 9/4/2016
Taylor Crabb has rapidly become one of the best defensive players on the tour. Here he absorbs the full force of a Billy Allen spike.
I probably waste over 10,000 exposures a year trying to capture this sort of image. As soon as the spiker hits the ball, I’m pre-focused on the defender and fire two or three exposures just in case something happens. Over 99 percent of the time, nothing happens, and I end up spending more time deleting images and depreciating the value of my camera. Every once in a while, I’ll get an interesting image like this, where the defender makes an interesting one handed stab, an overhand dig, whatever. It happens often enough that I’m still convinced that it’s a sound practice.
9, USC, USAV Beach Collegiate Challenge, Hermosa Beach, 4/9/2016
Allie Wheeler, Nicolette Martin, Kelly Claes, Sara Hughes, Abril Bustamante, Jenna Belton, Zoe Nightingale, Sophie Bukovec
Nicolette Martin and Allie Wheeler are congratulated by their USC teammates as they clinch the championship match. If you haven’t experienced the drama of women’s college volleyball, you should check it out.
8, Miles Evans, AVP Huntington Beach, 5/7/2016:
During most of 2016, the AVP fields were weakened due to the grueling Olympic qualification process. At AVP Huntington Beach, former UCSB Gaucho Miles Evans took full advantage, scoring his first fifth-place finish (previous best of 17th). If he keeps making digs like this, he will score more fifths and beyond.
7, Maryna Samoday, NVL San Antonio, Sideliners Grill, San Antonio, 6/25/2016:
Sorry all you blockers out there, but it’s difficult to get a great photo of you. The diggers get great photos of themselves laying out for balls, but all blockers typically get is nice jubilation photos after scoring a block.
This photo is a nice exception. Maryna came down off the block and had to chase down an errant Kim Hildreth dig. This photo is what I call “Jim Wolf style.”Jim loves the low angle perspective, which gives you a different look than the typical eye level perspective.
For this shot, I set up on an open court to avoid being run over by a player, laid on my belly to get as low as possible, and placed a towel underneath me to separate the sand and my equipment. I was lucky enough to capture the photo with Maryna’s fist inside the ball, my favorite shot of the tournament.
6, Brandon Joyner, NVL Port St. Lucie, Club Med Sandpiper Bay, Florida, 5/21/2016:
Frustration and disappointment are as much a part of the athletic experience as celebration and joy. As a photographer I have accepted the fact that it is part of the event and should therefore be documented as well, within limits.
We have all experienced a frustrating loss, and to me, this image offers a view into Brandon’s frustration. Fortunately for him, his season went much better after this, so much so that he was named the NVL’s Most Improved Male Player.
5, Taiana Lima/Brazil, World Series of Beach Volleyball, Marina Green park, Long Beach, 8/25/2016:
Every photographer has a small group of players in mind for a specific photo, for defense, for spiking, for jubilation. I’m sure Taiana Lima is at the top of every photographer’s defense lists because she is the most athletic and acrobatic digger on the women’s side, in my opinion. She’s quick and has extraordinary hustle and timing.
On this play, she was caught out of position on the line, when her opponents went jumbo. She recovered to make a spectacular dig and score the point.
4, Sara Hughes, Merle Norman stadium, USC, Pac-12 beach championships, 4/29/2016:
Sara Hughes is a baller. She and partner Kelly Claes have won a ridiculous number of consecutive college matches going back to their sophomore year. And more than that, they are both sweet, nice, and down to earth. A pleasure to interview.
I was having a pretty average day of shooting (read: I was frustrated and missing a bunch of shots), so I tried to visualize the shot that I wanted. I visualized one of the Witt twins (Hughes/Claes opponents at the time) hitting a high line shot and Sara diving to retrieve it. This shot usually requires you to pre-focus on a spot because the AI servo autofocus usually isn’t fast enough to give you a tack sharp photo like this one.
Anyway, less than five points later, it all came together. One of the Witt twins (don’t ask me which one, the one that plays left) hit high line, Sara made a great save, and I was pre-focused and got the shot. Better than that, the photo renewed my confidence that day and ended up with some pretty nice captures.
5, Dave Counts, Dinosaur tournament, Kalapaki Beach, Kau’ai, Hawai’i, 3/20/2016:
Let’s lead off with the fact that Dave should have gone for this dig with his left hand, but it is a much more interesting photo using his right hand.
For those of you not familiar with the Dinosaur tournament, it’s a reference to age. The total age of the two players must exceed 80 for the men, and 70 for the women. For every four years that you exceed the age of your opponents, you earn one point, to a maximum of four points.
The tournament is played on an old school 30×30 court, has old school side-out scoring, no net serves, all of those pre-2000 rules. The final wasn’t played due to a medical condition, so Dave Counts/Mike Bruning were co-champions with Jim Nichols/Greg Lyle. Tarin Locascio and Laura Ratto won on the women’s side.
Anyway, for those of you in your 40’s and beyond, you need to come out to this tournament. Beach doubles with a bunch of your friends in Hawaii? Yes, please!
2, Priscilla Piantadosi-Lima and Angela Lewis Akers, NVL Hermosa Beach, 8/12/2016:
With an unexpected injury to Kristen Batt-Rohr, Priscilla went deep into the Rolodex to recruit Angela Lewis Akers. The pair had not played together since 2008, but managed to eke out a fifth-place finish despite Angela having played sparingly in the last few years.
I’ve known Angela since she was 14-years-old, so I really enjoyed seeing this team together again.
1, Mark Burik AVP Chicago, 9/2/2016:
OK, there are two types of photos that are popular. First, a peak action photo that brings the viewer into the action, and second, a photo that shows something that the viewer hasn’t seen. And that’s hard, because we’re all inundated with photos these days.
This photo is an example of the latter. Sure, technically it’s not a great photo, the light isn’t very good, there’s no ball and not much face in the photo, but yes, it’s different and when I took the time to see it after the tournament, I knew it was a winner.
The almost top-10
Katie Spieler, AVP Chicago, 9/3/2016: Katie, one of the stalwarts of the Hawaii Wahine beach program, gets sandy at AVP Chicago.
The younger Sanjay, Mexico Classic volleyball tournament, Rosarito, Mexico, 6/26/2016: I so wanted to be able to sneak in a photo from Mexico into the top 10. This year the dates conflicted with an NVL event, so I jumped off my plane when I landed in San Diego and drove down to Papas and Beer in Rosarito in time for the quarterfinals to keep my streak alive, my 25th consecutive year attending this event! By the way, a father-son duo won the tournament and this is of the 16-year-old son. Sadly, I never got their first names.
Paul Araiza, Pacific BeachFest, San Diego, 10/1/2016: Love this wide angle of Paul spiking. It’s rare that you can get the sun in the frame perfectly at the net. The lens flare adds to the shot, and I like how the official, John Rodriguez, is leaning to get an angle on the blocker.
Jennifer Snyder, NVL Port St. Lucie Player’s Championship, 9/10/2016: Love those Florida clouds, because we don’t get anything like that in Southern California.
Lori Okimura, far right, with the USA men's team at the 2015 World Cup. In the center is United States Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy/USAV photo, Lori Okimura
Lori Okimura is the chair of the USA Volleyball board of directors. She’s as intertwined in all aspect of volleyball in America as anyone and probably leads the sport in miles flown. Her board term expires in 2019, but she will still be involved with international beach, indoor and sitting volleyball at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. We caught up with her after she decompressed from two weeks in Rio for the 2016 Olympics in which she tried to keep pace with both our USA indoor teams and all the beach action.
VBM: Let’s start with the Olympics. General thoughts now that you’ve had time to reflect?
LO: It comes down to one word, and it’s from a quote I’m borrowing from (USA men’s coach) John Speraw, and it’s courage. I think about our teams that went down there and the coaches and the tasks they had and I’m thinking about the staffs. You had fewer staff and that had to cover more ground. And the word that comes to mind that sums everything up is courage. And I think about the Brazilian people, who took this on with having so many things happen in their country that don’t happen in other countries generationally and having to deal with all that at one time and still pull off what was basically a successful Olympic Games.
It was different from other Olympics I’ve been to, but the different made it kind of special. And I come back and think that our teams had a hell of a lot of courage to fight the way they fought.
VBM: So if I told you ahead of time, any of the four beach teams or the two indoor teams, OK, you’re going to get a bronze, would you take that now? None of them would have said yes, we want gold. But as it turned out bronze put a nice touch on the end of things.
LO: Yeah, one of the phrases I heard down there, whether it was the athletes or the coaches or the parents, is that hey, you end on a win with bronze. You kept hearing that bronze is the new gold or bronze is beautiful and I think it kind of is in this case. If you look at the whole week in review it didn’t look like there was going to be a real positive outcome in some cases. The men really struggled early on and the fact that they could re-group in that environment was really something. Even if you could have heard a pin drop, but I have to say this was one of the most aggressive sporting environments I’ve ever been in where people were outright booing and jeering and heckling the U.S. in particular. No matter who we were playing, the people from Brazil were cheering for the other team. And not just cheering for the other team, but it was the cheering against. And for me that makes it more special that our teams were able to fight back, and maintain their game plan, and maintain their professionalism and their composure and have an outcome where they ended on a win. They brought home a medal and ended on a win. I thought that was tremendous. The environment was so hostile.
VBM: Was that even for the beach teams?
LO: Yeah … There was this situation where every time Phil (Dalhausser) and Nick (Lucena) went back to serve there was this boo, but it transitioned into this “Boo-Zika.” This happened to a lot of the American teams, not just volleyball. But it was pretty surprising, because I have been to a lot of events in Brazil and I had not recalled the booing. I was surprised there was so much negative cheering.
VBM: One quick question about the nuts and bolts about our Olympic teams. The two indoor teams are truly teams. They may __play independently throughout the year around the world, but they come together, they spend time together, they have a coaching staff, they’re all for one and one for all. The beach teams are more or less independent contractors who also seem to be part of a very convoluted selection system. Should there be more unity and should there be beach trials?
LO: That’s a good question and I’ve gotten asked that question quite a bit. Let me give some background. In the past, given the structure of beach volleyball, especially with the pro tours and FIVB system of qualification and the calendar being so populated, it was not a favored thing by many of the athletes to have trials. Olympic Trials to me are very important. I could see the argument and understood what the sport could accept and accommodate. But the last few years my opinion is changing and after seeing Rio — and I’m not talking about the results on our side, because I think it’s tremendous that Kerri and April came away with the bronze — but the level of __play was so high from the quarterfinals on. And that’s why I’m changing my opinion. I look at some of the other countries that have adopted trials. They still allow for the individual of a two-person team, but they’ve adopted more a national beach-team concept. You can look at them and know, that’s the delegation from Germany. That’s the delegation from Brazil. And that’s the delegation from The Netherlands. And note that those three countries did quite well. Same thing with the Italians. While the Italians manage their teams individually, they all answer to the federation and the federation has responsibilities to them for support. It’s a two-way street.
So coming out of Rio I still see that because the beach game is so different than indoor that there can be separation of the two-person teams and them having their own trainer and having their own coach and some additional personnel. But looking ahead to Tokyo I also feel like there’s been some transition to the mindset of full national beach team. It’s never going to be what the indoor teams are because the sport is not exactly the same, but there has been some recognition that there is a benefit to having a delegation for support, for data, for the technical aspects, for the logistics alone. I think it was more difficult for our beach team leader Sean Scott because he had to manage four teams that had their own logistics. It was very difficult and did as good a job as anyone could have, considering sets of schedules for eight different athletes. So there should be more discussion of what a trial system would look like in the United States … There has to be some commitment to it early so the athletes need to know how to prepare and there have to be dollars put into it.
United States Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy with Lori Okimura/USAV photo, Lori Okimura
VBM: USA Volleyball has to hire a new leader with Doug Beal retiring. Please share some insight.
LO: I can’t. I would and when the moment comes when I can I will. But there is an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) for the search committee. What I can tell you is that the search has been ongoing since February and it’s gone through different stages and it’s now getting to where it will now be turned over to an executive search firm to finalize the last few names we are considering. I don’t have a timeline. The ultimate decision will be made by the board of directors by vote. The goal that has been expressed not only by the members of the search committee but the board that we are looking for a person with business expertise primarily and volleyball IQ that can either be cultivated through folks that person will surround themselves or in other ways, but we’re looking primarily for a person with a business background with financial expertise.
(Note: Okimura stated again that she has not applied for nor is she a candidate, although her name has often been associated with the opening).
From left, Andre Trottier of Canada, Lori Okimura, Geir Dahle of Norway, (both FIVB referee delegates in Rio overseeing the beach volleyball competition), and Nathan Trodahl/USAV photo, Lori Okimura
VBM: And finally, best meal in Rio?
LO: Oh, my gosh, that is a no-brainer. It was with a bunch of FIVB friends and it was an all-you-can eat Brazilian barbecue and seafood. Marius, on the beach. A lot of people know it. It is the most god-awful tacky place you’ve ever seen. Weird stuff on the walls and ceilings but it was great. I have never seen people eat so much food in my life! And it was the best meal I’ve had in a long time.
This interview was edited for clarity and content.
Hawai’i is the No. 1 team in the inaugural VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll.
The Rainbow Wahine of the Big West Conference got nine of the 10 first-place votes. The other went to Creighton of the Big East, which is ranked third. The No. 2 team is BYU of the West Coast Conference.
The VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll includes teams from the 27 non power conferences and is the first of its type in NCAA volleyball.
Hawai’i lost to Minnesota in the NCAA Tournament regional final last December and returns its top player, Big West player of the year Nikki Taylor.
“We’re honored to be ranked No. 1 in this inaugural poll and proud to represent the Big West Conference,” Hawai’i associate head coach Jeff Hall said. “The ranking is a testament not only to what our players accomplished last year, but also to the possibilities ahead.
“Now the hard part begins. We have a lot of work to accomplish and a very tough schedule, particularly early on. But I’m confident our team will be up to the challenge.”
BYU last season was ousted from the NCAA Tournament by eventual-champion Nebraska. Creighton was a big surprise on the national scene and lost to USC in the round of 16.
Rounding out the top 10 are Loyola Marymount, Western Kentucky, Colorado State, San Diego, Arkansas State, Wichita State and Marquette.
Rank
School
Total Points Adjusted
First Place Votes Adjusted
Win/Loss Record
Previous Rank
1
Hawai’i
249
9
0-0
NR
2
BYU
234
0
0-0
NR
3
Creighton
222
1
0-0
NR
4
Loyola Marymount
217
0
0-0
NR
5
Western Kentucky
208
0
0-0
NR
6
Colorado State
200
0
0-0
NR
7
San Diego
197
0
0-0
NR
8
Arkansas State
173
0
0-0
NR
9
Wichita State
163
0
0-0
NR
10
Marquette
154
0
0-0
NR
11
Long Beach State
151
0
0-0
NR
12
Dayton
144
0
0-0
NR
13
Missouri State
107
0
0-0
NR
T-14
Northern Arizona
102
0
0-0
NR
T-14
Santa Clara
102
0
0-0
NR
16
SMU
83
0
0-0
NR
17
Villanova
67
0
0-0
NR
18
Southern Illinois
63
0
0-0
NR
19
Wyoming
59
0
0-0
NR
20
Lipscomb
55
0
0-0
NR
20
Ohio
55
0
0-0
NR
22
Boise State
49
0
0-0
NR
23
Northern Iowa
42
0
0-0
NR
24
Xavier
32
0
0-0
NR
25
American
24
0
0-0
NR
Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Saint Louis 14; New Mexico State 11; Illinois State 10; UT San Antonio 8; Northern Colorado 7; Rice 7; Pacific 6; 9 teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 37 combined points.
