Thursday, 5/1/97 The Usual Success
By Vytas Mazeika Daily Bruin Contributor When someone coined the
phrase practice makes perfect they never envisioned the UCLA men’s
volleyball team. The Bruins, who produced a factory of players,
which includes Karch Kiraly, Sinjin Smith, Jeff Nygaard and most
recently Stein Metzger, seem always to be better prepared than all
other college teams come playoff time. The two-time defending NCAA
champion Bruins are expected to be in the Final Four year after
year, and have won 16 of the last 27 national championships. Head
coach Al Scates and his UCLA squad always seem to peak as the NCAA
Final Four nears – and this year is no exception. Before suffering
a loss Saturday to Stanford, the Bruins had won 18 in a row. The
other three teams in the Final Four can bet that Scates will have
his Bruins ready for anything and everything. With UCLA just two
wins shy of their 17th NCAA title in 28 years, one question comes
to mind: How exactly do they do it? The answer is rather simple.
There is no exact recipe for UCLA’s success – there is just one
integral ingredient. The key to the Bruins’ long-lasting prosperity
is motivation. Every season the UCLA players begin with a clean
slate. Between May (the time the season ends) and September (the
beginning of exhibition season) the coaches hand the players a
great deal of freedom. There is no off-season training program. The
coaching staff just trusts the players to be ready to compete when
necessary. "The performance on the court is what is important and
they all know that," assistant coach Brian Rofer said. "And all
these guys are intrinsically motivated. Recruiting them, you can
kind of tell. Sometimes it is hard to see. But if you get good
athletes who are intrinsically motivated, as a coach you do not
have to worry too much about their competitiveness and their desire
to get better." When the season starts the coaches throw out all of
last year’s statistics and begin from scratch. No one player holds
a starting spot from one season to the next. The annual fierce
competition for starting spots carries through into the season.
Come Fall Quarter the players know that they have a brand new
chance to gain a starting spot if they prove themselves worthy.
Senior swing hitter Trong Nguyen has experienced this hectic
scramble for one of the first 12 spots four times now and is well
aware of the psychological effects. The top 12 players are allowed
to travel with the team, but even they aren’t guaranteed playing
time. So players must keep motivating themselves to work hard and
to patiently wait for that opening in the rotation that may never
come. "When you are not given that chance (to start), it weeds out
the people who are not mentally tough," Nguyen said. "It weeds out
the people that give up too easily … it is kind of cutthroat in
that way because it leaves the weak-minded behind. Nobody is going
to motivate you to work your hardest, play your best and improve
your game. You have to motivate yourself." Scates grins when he
talks about the kinds of players that the UCLA men’s volleyball
program attracts. He says that other coaches entice players to come
to their program by promising them a starting spot. UCLA does no
such thing. Scates and Rofer will simply mention to the recruit
that he will get a chance to compete for the job. "If they are not
(self-motivated) they go to Pepperdine where there are only six
good players and they do not really have to compete for a
position," Scates said. "A player like Brandon (Taliaferro, UCLA’s
freshman setter) will come here. Competing for a position does not
scare him. But guys who want to be assured of a position will not
come here." UCLA seldom has a player transfer out of the program.
All of its players want to win and they know that the Bruins will
be successful. So some players stick it out as reserves for one,
two or even three seasons. The more the team enjoys the privilege
of a player staying three years on the bench waiting for a starting
spot, the more likely that the player will have both the maturity
and mental toughness to contribute. A perfect example of someone
who has had to wait for his chance is Ben Moselle. Moselle did not
look to have much of a chance to gain a starting spot before the
season started. But when James Turner failed out of school and a
starting spot became vacant, a four-man competition brought out the
attitude that makes the Bruins such a volleyball powerhouse year in
and year out. "Some guys wait four years pushing the guy in front
of them and then they get a shot because the guy graduates," Rofer
explained. "But the guy in front of (the player) would never be as
good as he is unless there is that guy behind him." In UCLA there
will always be someone like Moselle who gets a break and earns a
starting spot. But many times a player will spend his entire career
on the bench and never really get a shot to break through. The fact
is, the players know that UCLA is the best program out there. If
they fail to earn a starting spot and receive extended playing
time, at least they will never have any regrets. "If they cannot
make it here, they will continue their education, graduate from
school and get better," Rofer pointed out. "They will not go to
some place else just to play at a lower level. They just make it
here or they do not. They gave it their shot at the top level."
Throughout the season, the players know that Scates will not
hesitate to bench any player who is suffering through a
disappointing match. The coach knows the team has enough depth and
talent to bench any player at any time. If one player is having a
bad day, that just means another one gets a shot to prove that he
is better. "They are all trying hard to beat each other up in
practice," Scates said. "That is the way we do it here. Show me you
are better and you can have (your starting spot) back. That is the
way it works. Every day is a battle in the gym and we are going to
have another one today." So hitting a slump and having your play
deteriorate is a luxury a UCLA starter cannot afford. The Bruins
one and only goal is to win a national championship. Without a ring
to show for the season’s effort, the entire team will be
disappointed with the results. And while aiming for such a steep
goal at the beginning of every season, all that the coaching staff
cares about is who the most talented six players are and who plays
best together. It is of little concern to them whether or not any
of the players get along or not. The Bruins just want to win. "We
are not real big with team bonding and having little retreats with
our team," Rofer said. "We could care less if they hate each other.
If there are personal differences or whatever, that is not
important to us. They know that when they get on the court it is a
common goal to be the best that we can be." One motivational tool
that Scates uses is the blue curtain. Every day in practice there
are three courts: one for the starting six, one for the second team
and a third for the last 12 players on the roster. The third court
is shielded from the view of Scates and Rofer, so the progress of
these players is rarely noticed by the top coaches. The blue
curtain originally came about as a mistake. In the men’s gym both
the men’s volleyball team and the women’s gymnastics team practiced
at the same time – with only the blue curtain separating them. Once
the gym expanded and the men’s volleyball players had it to
themselves, the blue curtain was used to simply separate the third
court to prevent balls from crossing over and creating any ankle
sprains. Scates himself has said that he would rather have it be
transparent so that he can monitor the progress of the other
players. Nevertheless, it lends itself to the Bruins as a
motivational tool. Known to Rofer once as the Brown court because
of former Bruin Dave Brown who would always be there and called
sometimes the bronze medal court because the players were neither
part of the first nor second teams, the court separated by the blue
curtain is used not as punishment but rather to get players to
improve on their overall game. Nevertheless, the psychological
effects are rather large. "I can only imagine that it plays with
your mind in that no matter how well you are playing the coach is
never going to see you," senior opposite Paul Nihipali said. "The
assistant coach is not going to see you. The report from behind the
blue curtain could be so-and-so is playing well. But if there is no
opening for so-and-so to step into in the first court they will
just sit there and keep on working. "The good ones just keep on
working hard until the openings are there. And the ones that tend
to crack under pressure situations at game time are the same ones
that crack behind the blue curtain. If you can produce behind that
blue curtain and get yourself to the top court then you are most
likely the same player that is going to help bring home a national
championship." Practice in UCLA breeds winning. Nihipali never
actually played behind the blue curtain because his talents were
needed immediately as a freshman for the 1994 squad. This season
two more freshmen, Taliaferro and Adam Naeve bypassed the whole
experience. But all-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation first-team
middle blocker Tom Stillwell had to pay his dues. The one season he
spent away from the view of the coaching staff strengthened him
both physically and mentally. Stillwell has become the most
consistent player on the team, day in and day out. He puts forth an
all-out effort, and although he is aware that his starting spot is
relatively safe, he will hustle simply because of his desire to
win, and because he is motivated to become better every time on the
court. "It is so awesome to see someone like Tom Stillwell or Adam
Naeve dive to the floor," said Nguyen. "To see them hustle on
defense. I love it when they do that. Because they are huge guys
and they are definitely slower than the average-sized man, but they
still hustle and still dig the balls up. And that is impressive."
The reason most freshmen are incapable of joining the top 12
players on the team right away is physical maturity. For example,
freshman Donald Puathasnanon started this season holding the sixth
starting spot, but he hit a wall physically and his play
deteriorated. Few players are physically mature enough when they
arrive in Westwood to have an immediate impact. But in the long run
the coaches know that if the players work hard enough and dedicate
themselves,they can become an integral part of the team’s success.
"With the freshmen it all depends on what they do from spring to
fall," Rofer said. "Guys physically are pretty immature when they
get here," Rofer said just as Nihipali runs by and starts jabbering
out loud to disrupt the interview. "Some of them are still pretty
immature when they leave and when they have been here for a while."
Mature or not, the Bruin players are motivated. Motivated to get
better. Motivated to win national championships. Motivated to gain
a starting spot. Motivated to push the next guy. Motivated to get
past the blue curtain. The UCLA men’s volleyball program will
always attract these kinds of self-motivated players. And that is
what is needed to create a dynasty.