When Dennis Gonzalez arrived on campus three years ago, the
first response he received from men’s volleyball coach Al
Scates was not quite what he expected.
“Rich Nelson is our setter,” Scates said.
Nearly three years later, Gonzalez is the starting setter as he
leads the Bruins this Saturday in the MPSF playoffs against
Hawai’i.
“I won’t lie to you,” Gonzalez said.
“Not being given the opportunity to play frustrated me, but I
didn’t come to UCLA to be a bench player.”
Last summer, Gonzalez set himself to the weight room, training
similarly to his amateur days with Puerto Rican coach Julio
Figueroa.
Gonzalez realized that with Nelson graduating, he’d be
given a golden opportunity to compete for the starting
position.
“We always knew he had the potential to be a great
player,” Scates said. “But not until last summer did he
finally prove that he was ready to step up his level of
play.”
When the season started this year, Gonzalez and sophomore
transfer Beau Peters were embroiled in a battle for the setter
position.
But Gonzalez fell sick after winter vacation, a problem that had
haunted him before, and he fell behind for the starting spot.
“It had always been a major problem for him in the
past,” assistant coach Brian Rofer said. “He was always
hampered by little and nagging injuries.”
But with his newfound weight training program and renewed
commitment to the game, Gonzalez came back stronger than ever to
overtake Peters as setter and maintain a hold on the position for
the rest of the season.
Gonzalez led the Bruins to a 19-5 record as starter and had a
13.7 assists-per-game average on the season.
A major change in Gonzalez’s game this year has been his
compact, mechanical approach to setting, a great divergence from
the flashy, dynamic style he grew up playing in his home Puerto
Rico.
“That was one of his biggest problems when he got
here,” assistant coach Mike Sealy said. “He was trying
to do too much and not playing within his own game.”
To overcome these problems, Gonzalez went back and worked with
his old coach, Figueroa, to regain the basics that made him a great
setter.
“I learned all my fundamental skills and ball control
techniques from him,” Gonzalez said. “And I just needed
to get back to doing that.”
Figueroa, a friend and teammate of Gonzalez’s father,
Jorge Gonzalez, was the starting setter for the Puerto Rican
national team and started coaching Dennis when he was 10 years
old.
Gonzalez was coached by Figueroa for eight years and during that
time, he participated as a member of the Puerto Rico junior
national team.
“I knew from the moment I saw him that he was going to be
a special player,” junior Jonathan Acosta said, a teammate of
Gonzalez for six years on the national team.
But everything was not perfect for Gonzalez growing up. In the
seven years he participated in the Junior Olympics, his team won
four bronze and three silver medals, but never the gold.
“That inability to win has always haunted me,”
Gonzalez said. “But it has only motivated me more.”
That drive has not only enabled Gonzalez to become the starting
setter but a more determined leader on the court.
“Dennis has made a 180-degree turn,” senior middle
blocker Chris Peña said. “He has always had the talent,
but now he is one of the most confident and mature leaders on the
team.”