UCLA men’s volleyball returns home to Pauley Pavilion on Wednesday night to take on Long Beach State in its first home game since Jan. 27. While the players might look forward to returning to their home court, their connection to the storied venue ranks second to that of their coach.
Coach John Speraw, who was a member of two national championship men’s volleyball teams as a Bruin, played in the arena for four years and has coached there for the past two, accumulating countless memories that he says make him “nostalgic” every time he walks through the doors.
“I have a real emotional connection to the experience that everyone has when they have the opportunity to play in such a historic building,” Speraw said. “There’s an emotional connection every single time I walk into the building because of all the memories that are there for me over all the years.”
Those memories add extra depth to Speraw’s coaching ability, as he says he can really relate to his players.
“It definitely adds to his breadth of experience,” said senior middle blocker Spencer Rowe. “He can pull out stories about similar situations that he was in as a player and how he dealt with it.”
Off the court, Speraw also understands the extra challenges that go into being a collegiate athlete.
“I have a great deal of empathy for the UCLA experience and what that means from the total process the student athlete goes through – the academics, the class load, the social side of things at UCLA as well as the athletics,” Speraw said. “I know exactly what everyone’s going through, I went through it myself. When they talk about where they’re living in Westwood, I lived down the street from there too. I think when you have such a vision for what it’s like to be a student-athlete it allows you to have empathy for your players and the experience they have.”
It’s this empathy that has helped Speraw navigate his team through the pressures of being a nationally top-ranked team. After a disappointing 3-0 loss at Pepperdine, UCLA rebounded to sweep USC on Sunday. Now the Bruins look to continue building on that success against the Long Beach State 49ers.
“We don’t see this as bouncing back,” said redshirt sophomore middle blocker Trent Kersten. “We approach every game the same way – we don’t buy into that momentum stuff.”