It was the most difficult sacrifice Matt McKinney made in his
entire life. But it was one he had to make in order to nurture his
health problems. It was in June 2005 when McKinney announced his
medical retirement to the Bruin community, as he decided to step
down from college sports and put all his energy into battling his
medical problems head-on. While at UCLA, the basketball
forward/volleyball opposite went through a gauntlet of medical
issues, including limited stamina due to a slow heart rate and a
related gastro-intestinal disorder. But the sacrifice has finally
paid off. Now, a year later, after finding a doctor who could solve
his medical ailments, McKinney is healthy and back on the
volleyball court as a member of the U.S. Men’s National
Training Team. “I feel like myself again,” McKinney
said. “Sports had been my life. I definitely had something
missing last year. It feels great to be back in it.”
Nurtured back With his health problems
unanswerable through tests and treatments at UCLA, McKinney and his
parents sought help elsewhere, eventually coming across a
homeopathic doctor in January earlier this year. Homeopathy, which
is a new and unconventional way of treating patients, is based upon
the principle of curing like with like. But it appears to be
exactly what McKinney has been searching for. “My family and
I really worked hard to find a doctor who could help me (and my)
slow heart rate,” McKinney said. “It was about four or
five months in my fourth year when I found a homeopathic doctor.
After two months of taking (the natural medicine) it’s been
all right.” Once unable to run the span of the basketball
court for longer than a minute and a half, McKinney now can breathe
easy once again. The homeopathic doctor used a machine to find
which parts of McKinney’s body were weak, eventually
discovering that his adrenal glands and liver were the cause of his
heart problems, McKinney said. The doctor then gave him natural
medicine to flush out the toxins that were building up in the
adrenals. “I’m good. I’m healed,” said
McKinney, ecstatic to be free from his medical dilemma. “I
still see my homeopathic doctor. I believe strongly in homeopathy;
it’s done wonders for me.”
A second chance As the No. 1 recruit in the
nation for volleyball coming out of Santa Ynez High School in 2002,
McKinney was expected to bring those same star-quality skills to
the UCLA volleyball team under coach Al Scates. But McKinney was
never really able to showcase them, as he put volleyball on the
back burner to play basketball. In fact, McKinney came to Westwood
under former basketball coach Steve Lavin, who gave McKinney a full
scholarship. It was only after the basketball season had ended each
year that McKinney turned his full attention to the volleyball
court. But this left only a few weeks in the volleyball season for
the opposite hitter to compete, as the two sports’ seasons
overlapped. “He would be available after basketball
season,” Scates said. “But we were playing two matches
a week at that time and we didn’t train hard. We might have
one good opportunity to have a good training day. The fall
practices are when we really trained hard and worked on the
techniques.” So with his truncated college volleyball career
and his medical retirement, not to mention a shoulder injury that
hampered his swing, McKinney was not able to play to his full
potential while at UCLA. Scates also claims McKinney missed out on
some crucial volleyball training and weightlifting, but that the
young athlete is fortunate to be able to finally get his
higher-level training under U.S. national team coach Hugh
McCutcheon. “He’s in the right spot now because he can
train for six hours a day with the U.S. team in Anaheim,”
Scates said. “I think he can be one of those world-class
players.” Now he can pick up where he left off in high school
““ as one of the nation’s top volleyball prospects. And
Scates says McKinney has a lot to offer. “He was an
outstanding blocker,” Scates said. “He could reach
outside his body and block a ball. He had a wide arm span. He could
be short of the antenna three or four feet and still reach out and
block the ball.”
Happy to return Even with very little college
playing time, McKinney was invited to try out for the national
team. And he gladly accepted the offer. “I had enough units
to graduate (in 2006) … and I only had to take one class over the
summer,” McKinney said. “So I had decided to come back
and play volleyball again. I know I had the invite open to come and
play with national team, to focus 100 percent on what I want my
career to be.” Scates is happy as well that McKinney is
getting the opportunity to live up to his potential, even if it
wasn’t while he was at UCLA. “This was his best sport
anyway,” Scates said. “He had this dream of switching
sports and playing basketball, but his body wouldn’t let him
do that. So now he’ll play what he was good at in the first
place. It was a good decision.” “All my life I’ve
been more of a basketball guy, but I had the heart problem and had
to start making decisions on the future,” McKinney said.
“The fact is, I was a much more accomplished volleyball
player; I have potential in that sport. It’s a lot higher
than in basketball. I love both sports, it’s just that
I’ve been playing basketball my whole life. It was tough
giving up volleyball. But now I’m happy with my decision,
happy to be part of the volleyball world.” Since completing
his units at UCLA, McKinney moved down to Anaheim where the
national team has been training. The training center has recently
moved from its home in Colorado Springs, and the move has attracted
many of the top Southern California players. The competition has
been stiff, but McKinney is hanging in with the other top-level
college players. “From all the guys that were invited, only
two guys got sent home. So now it’s a competition as to
who’s going to be a part of the national team this coming
summer.” If McKinney makes the traveling squad, he will join
the team for their globe-trotting in the World Championships for
the 2006 FIVB World League. He foresees a long future in the sport
he has put off but has excelled at all his life. “To tell you
the truth, I’m only thinking about it working out,”
McKinney said. “I’m thinking about it for the long run.
I see many years to come for volleyball and play over in
Europe.” And if it doesn’t work out, he can fall back
into sports broadcasting, something he gave a stab at last year,
calling volleyball games.
FIVE OTHERS ON U.S. TRAINING TEAM: In addition
to McKinney, five other former Bruins are in training in Anaheim.
Four have graduated in the past two years, including Nick Scheftic,
Damien Scott, Kris Kraushaar and Gray Garrett. They join four-time
NCAA All-American setter Brandon Taliaferro, who has been with the
national team since 2001. “We haven’t had anybody go
out for the U.S. team lately,” Scates said. “Our best
players from recent years are playing on the beach, since they
didn’t want to train in Colorado Springs ““ they prefer
the lifestyle out here. So I encouraged the guys to go to Anaheim
and they all went there.”