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Sidelines
Kalani Simpson
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To the top Sooner than expected
SANTIAGO Restrepo uses "OK" like a comma. Throws another one in there every couple of words. Whenever he takes a breath. With each pause. Whichever comes first. It's curiously appropriate, OK. Considering where he works, OK. What he's done, OK. Where he finds himself tonight. OK.
Definitely OK.
Yes, tonight Honolulu hosts an NCAA volleyball regional and the gang's all here. USC. UCLA. UH -- your Rainbow Wahine, of course. Oh, and Oklahoma. OK.
Oklahoma? Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain?
Yes, that Oklahoma, right here, with Hawaii and UCLA and USC. Under Restrepo, the Okies have joined the party, are dining with the Rockefellers, have become nouveau riche.
(Yes, you guessed it. That's French for "new riche.")
You wonder if the Sooners will know how to handle it all.
Luckily, "We got a lot of information from our bus driver," senior outside hitter Joanna Schmitt said.
Thank goodness.
And that's another thing. Restrepo seems oddly calm about the whole thing. Laid back. Relaxed. He has this bemused look on his face, a slight smile he can't quite suppress. Like maybe he knows something. Maybe he does.
Of course he does. He did the same thing at Southern Miss before this (went 27-6 in his last season there, 2003, two years after going 9-19 his first year). He went 75-32 at East Stroudsburg U. Now, a miracle in Norman. Oklahoma in the NCAA tournament for only the fourth time. Already the best season the Sooners have ever seen.
Yes, he knows something. And now he's here. The best single-season turnaround in Big 12 history (the 28-5 Sooners went 7-22 last year). Hanging out with Hawaii, USC and playing UCLA. Going to the beach.
Sure the Bruins have an All-American.
"We also have a very good player, Eliane Santos," Restrepo said.
Of course UCLA has more great players. Restrepo knows how good they are. Oh, does he know.
But ... "We have Joanna Schmitt," Restrepo said. It'll be interesting.
OK.
This is Oklahoma?
"It's been incredible," Santos said.
Restrepo knew this was coming. Is this arrival of Oklahoma's program ahead of schedule? "Everyone is asking me that," he said. But no. In fact he thought it might have been last year. He put too much pressure on the team, then. It backfired, the Sooners lost almost every close match. No more. He knew just what to do. This time, he had the touch.
This season has been "one point, one game, one match at a time," he said.
He said their goal: "Just work in the now."
"Have fun," Santos said. "Enjoy the volleyball game, leave the pressure behind and do just what we wanted to do -- which is play ball."
That's just what they've done.
Everywhere he's been Restrepo has had this touch. He's a coach. A volleyball coach. He'd always wanted to be one. He was a kid in Colombia, wanted to come to America. He knew volleyball was his chance. (He was a Division I-AA All-American at East Stroudsburg and later an AVP pro.) But when did he know he could do this, he would coach? He laughed. "From a very young age," he said. When he was a boy in Bogota, this was the dream.
Now, here are these Sooners, up with the traditional powers. Oklahoma, in the field with volleyball royalty. Tonight, playing UCLA. Nervous? No.
"We've been making history in almost every single match this year," Restrepo said. Why be nervous now?
He looked at his players. There was that little hint of a smile again. He knows something. Of course he does.
They were asked a question, yesterday, something like: Could the Sooners beat UCLA? Or maybe it was: Is Oklahoma really ready for this? Doesn't matter. The payoff was this: The players looked to him, then. He looked back. They all had that same smile, that relaxed, bemused look. Santos, Schmitt, Rachel Jackson, they decided not to answer, after a slight pregnant pause. "We'll just follow you," Schmitt said to her coach.
"OK," he said.