From the sands of Hawaii to the stillness of suburban Chicago,
the NCAA men’s volleyball landscape has been shaken up by the
influx of foreign athletes into the sport.
Yet UCLA coach Al Scates, a grizzled veteran of 42 seasons,
stands his ground. As one of only three coaches in the MPSF who
does not carry at least one foreign player on his roster, Scates
instead continues to focus his recruiting efforts on the best
players from just the United States and Puerto Rico.
Certainly, this philosophy does not give him a competitive
advantage, as foreign players have led Brigham Young University,
Hawai’i and Lewis to the past three NCAA titles.
UCLA has not won a national championship since 2000 ““ ages
ago in Bruin time.
Scates does what he does because, according to him, he saw the
bombshells coming ““ the ones that caused the legitimacy of
the last two national championship teams to be questioned.
“I was hardly shocked with what happened,” Scates
said.
After all, he has heard the rumblings.
When Hawai’i publicly admitted last July that it violated
NCAA rules by allowing an ineligible player to play on its 2002
national championship team, Scates was not surprised.
Hawai’i declined to name the player in question but Scates
already suspected him to be outside hitter Costas Theocharidis, a
two-time national Player of the Year and four-time
All-American.
After all, he knew multiple players from the 1999 U.S. World
University Games Team he had coached who saw Theocharidis play in
Greece.
It was eventually revealed in published reports that
Theocharidis had played professionally in his native Greece before
entering school in 1999 ““ and the NCAA ultimately stripped
Hawai’i of its national championship in September.
Hawai’i has appealed the ruling.
Three months later, Lewis self-reported an NCAA violation
regarding the use of an ineligible player on its 2003 team.
The Division II school in Romeoville, Ill., had garnered
national attention after capturing the 2003 national
championship.
“They turned themselves in when somebody presented
evidence to them, which they didn’t discover on their own, of
course,” Scates said with a laugh.
Junior outside hitter and Mexico native Gustavo Meyer, the MVP
of the NCAA Tournament, and senior setter Jose Martins of Brazil
appear to be in question. Neither All-American has played in a
single match this season, though Martins will be in uniform against
UCLA tonight.
“It could have been either one of them,” Scates
said. “I was just told they’ve played
(professionally.)”
Scates said he heard Meyer accumulated statistics in a
professional volleyball league in Switzerland.
Scates also said he was told by a Canadian coach during the
Husky Invitational in Saskatchewan this January that he had players
who played professionally with the 28-year-old Martins in
France.
Lewis Athletic Director Paul Zakowski declined comment on the
two players and coach Dave Deuser did not return phone
messages.
The NCAA has yet to issue a ruling, but the damage to the
legitimacy of Lewis’ national championship has apparently
been done.
“We haven’t had a true national champion in two
years,” said UCLA middle blocker Chris Peña.
“That’s terrible for the sport.”
Scates also has his suspicions about the 2001 BYU team that
featured multiple foreign players and swept UCLA in the NCAA
tournament final.
Asked if UCLA’s national championship in 2000 was the last
legitimate title, Scates laughed and said, “It’s
possible.
“I’m not going to say I have evidence. It’s
only what I hear through the grapevine.”
Scates, who is against stripping teams retroactively of national
titles, denied turning in any team to the NCAA. But that might
change in light of what has gone on in the past year.
“My philosophy in the past has been to just beat them, but
I would now because it’s getting out of hand.”
The influx of foreign players came during the mid-1990s, a
decade in which UCLA won four of its 18 NCAA titles.
“(Other teams) couldn’t beat us with American
players,” he said. “It’s hard.
“(But) if you get a player who’s older, who’s
been trained since he was 12, he’s a good player the first
day he steps on the court. It’s certainly a lot easier than
training somebody to be a great player.”
Scates said he would recruit foreign players, but it is too
difficult to confirm their eligibility.
His logic is this: Volleyball-rich nations generally do not
offer high school or college programs. Instead, club teams
generally pay talented athletes to play at a young age.
“It’s like a farm system in baseball except it
starts a lot younger,” Scates said.
Therefore, it would be difficult for someone to have the ability
to play NCAA volleyball without having gone through the club
system.
Scates said he receives at least one e-mail per day from a
foreign player inquiring about playing at UCLA that Scates does not
believe to be an amateur.
“We just file them away and wait and see where they show
up,” Scates said with a laugh. “We want to see which
school lets them in.
“These coaches claim they check into their background, but
I don’t know how you can fairly check.”
In Scates’ mind, the situation is bad, but it is slowly
improving. On Feb. 11, the NCAA sent coaches a memo re-emphasizing
the rules on amateurs in volleyball in light of reports of the two
major violations in 2003.
The memo also stated coaches and players are ultimately
responsible for determining amateur status, rather than the
NCAA.
“Just as any other sport deals with ineligible players, it
needs to be addressed from the moment (foreign players) get to the
university,” Peña said.
UCLA has had to deal with the issue in its recruitment of
players from Puerto Rico.
Junior outside hitter Jonathan Acosta and former setter Jimmy
Sepulveda played for UCLA in 2002, representing the first Puerto
Rican players to compete for the Bruins since Rick Amon completed
his eligibility in 1981.
Both players were also held out of matches in 2003 as UCLA
officials worked to ensure they had not played on professional
teams.
The background of freshman setter Julio Acevedo, also from
Puerto Rico, was thoroughly researched, Scates said.
Scates also recalled how in the 1980s he brought in a talented
18-year-old Italian setter to Westwood.
“He was just too good,” Scates said. “I had to
take him into a broom closet, back him up against a wall, and get
in his face. At that time, he admitted to me that he had taken
money and played professionally, so he went back home.”
Scates could not remember the player’s name.
For the most part though, UCLA has had little reason to worry
since only one player from foreign soil ““ All-American
Asbjorn Volstad of Norway ““ has ever come through the
program. Norway does not feature professional volleyball
leagues.
Scates said the foreign athletes have improved the level of
competition, but they have limited the financial options for
deserving American players.
The NCAA limits the number of scholarships for foreign players
to 4.5 in men’s volleyball.
“Maybe there should be a quota,” Scates said.
“Maybe you should just give one to a foreign athlete. That
might be a solution.”
Peña has a simpler solution to dealing with foreign
players.
“It’s just a matter of us beating them. We
can’t be worrying about whether their kills should have
counted. It’s just a little more difficult to beat them
because they have more experience.”