Tuesday, August 31, 1999
There’s no room at the top
By Cindy Luis
Star-BulletinThere are no fast-food franchises in college women's volleyball.
It is serious cuisine.
In the 19 years of NCAA championship sponsorship, only 18 schools have made it to the final four. And out of those 76 slots, just eight schools have won national titles.
The winners have shared key ingredients that have led to their consistency: veteran coaching, solid recruiting and a commitment to women's volleyball by their respective university administrations. Those elite eight -- Hawaii, Stanford, Long Beach State, UCLA, Nebraska, Texas, Pacific and Southern Cal -- are in the Top 10 when it comes to NCAA Tournament winning percentage and All-American certificates.
With the exception of Southern Cal and Texas, the deans of women's volleyball are at these schools: Andy Banachowski (UCLA, 29 years); Dave Shoji (Hawaii, 24); Terry Pettit (Nebraska, 22); Don Shaw (Stanford, 15); John Dunning (Pacific, 14) and Brian Gimmillaro (Long Beach State, 13). Only three coaches ranked in the top nine of winning percentages -- Elaine Michaelis (BYU, 30), Russ Rose (Penn State, 20) and Mary Wise (Florida, 12) -- have never won an NCAA title.
The coaches at the top say it's increasingly more difficult to stay there. The second-tier coaches feel it's getting harder to break into the Top 10.
"You do see a lot of the same teams every year but we work harder than people realize to stay there," said Shaw, coach of the Star-Bulletin's preseason No. 1 team.
"Recruiting is a big part of it. You have to work real hard and never rest on your laurels.
"It's hard to crack the Top 10. Some teams might have a break-through year like Michigan State (in 1995) but they haven't been there since."
Mike Hebert knows the feeling. He had Illinois among the elite in the late 1980s, with final four appearances in 1987 and '88; injuries and an increasingly competitive Big Ten saw the Illini slip to second-tier status.
Now at Minnesota, his Gophers are the opening home opponent for Hawaii this Friday night. Hebert is trying to find the recipe for success in the Twin Cities.
"I think the going is slower than it used to be to build a program," said Hebert, who played volleyball at UC Santa Barbara with Shoji in the late 1960s. "There is a big bottlenecking of quality teams that limits the access to the Top 10. Draw a circle around the top players in volleyball and it's a very small circle. There are still 8-10 schools that people consider the automatics when it comes to deciding where to play."
Arizona coach Dave Rubio is trying to get his program into the circle. The Wildcats are coming off their best-ever finish in the Pac-10 (fourth) and will host Hawaii at the Thanksgiving Invitational in Tucson Nov. 26-27.
"I think we're probably one or two players away from that elite group," said Rubio, whose team is No. 20 in the AVCA Top 25 preseason poll.
"Recruiting, without a question, is the key to being in the elite. It's all about getting horses like a (Hawaii's) Heather Bown or Lily Kahumoku. You've got to bring in those kind of kids.
"Dave (Shoji) has done a great job, going with the changes. He's gone international when he's had to and he's developed his own talent locally. It's getting tougher for him to recruit on the mainland and Dave has made the decisions that keep him in the elite."
Shoji knows it's not easy. Even though the Wahine are the most popular program in the country -- averaging more than 7,000 fans per match since the Stan Sheriff Center opened in mid-1994 -- Hawaii is still an ocean and a five-hour flight from the mainland.
"Recruiting is the key," he said. "When you're successful, you have something to sell."
Is it possible to build a successful program from scratch now? Hawaii had phenomenal success from the beginning, placing second in 1974, the first year of the intercollegiate competition, and never finishing lower than third in the first six seasons.
"To do it now, you need to start with a good school, somewhere that is going to attract the players," said Shoji, who begins his 25th season at UH this week.
"You need to be a great coach, be able to develop the players, train them and get them a lot better than when they started.
"I think the only way it could be done now is if someone like a Brian Gimmillaro (Long Beach State) or Russ Rose (Penn State), coaches who are great trainers, go to another school. Their teams will be in the Top 20 within three or four years.
"I don't know if I could attract the players at another school. But I'm not about to leave and find out."
Rich Feller left a successful program at Colorado State to join the U.S. national women's volleyball team two years ago. He's now at Cal and will host Hawaii tomorrow night in the season opener for both teams.
"Most programs are playing catch-up to the established winners," he said. "You may have a team of 7-9 very good players but an injury or a defection can spell disaster for a building program.
"I think teams stay in the Top 5 because the best recruits want to play for the established winners. They want to make a trip to the final four. Often these teams stockpile talent and many of those players will get very little playing time but they are on a top team."
Sometimes stockpiling helps. It allows coaches to develop young talent instead of shoving them into collegiate play as freshmen.
"What you see at the top programs is that they seldom start freshmen, unless they are a Kerri Walsh (Stanford) or a Veronica Lima (Hawaii)," said Florida coach Mary Wise. "We're all affected by graduation but the Stanfords and the Nebraskas of volleyball fill in their spots with players that didn't have to step in right away, players they could bring along. You don't see major dips in the rebuilding process. These programs never seem to miss a beat."
Next to Stanford, UCLA has the reputation of attracting the top talent every season. The Bruins have three NCAA titles, four runner-up finishes and have had 17 NCAA all-Americans, just behind Hawaii and Nebraska, both with 18.
"The continual top recruiting classes is what keeps the good teams up there at the top,'' said UCLA's Banachowski, whose team will compete in this weekend's Hawaiian Airlines Classic. "Once a team realizes what it takes to get there, they keep expecting it of themselves and of their teammates.
"Of course, coaching comes into play. But we're all better coaches with better recruits."
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
Ka Leo O Hawaii
