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Thursday, April 20, 2000
Zimet answers the call
By Dave Reardon
when the 'Bows need help
Star-BulletinWHAT is a sore back to a guy who grew up in the shadow of war?
What are a few noisy fans to a volleyball player who has competed at the highest level all over the world?
Eyal Zimet has the answers, but you must listen very closely.
The University of Hawaii's soft-spoken outside hitter from Israel lives up to the idea that freshmen should be seen, but not heard.
"Yes, I'm very quiet by nature. Maybe too quiet," he said yesterday after UH's last home practice before Saturday's playoff match at top-ranked USC. "Another reason I wasn't very vocal this year is because I want to set an example with my play, but injuries didn't let me do that."
Zimet has two words in front of his name that you rarely see together: freshman captain.
MPSF PLAYOFFS
WHO: No. 7 Hawaii (19-9, 13-6) at No. 1 USC (21-4, 16-3)
Wilton said Zimet is a captain partly because his experience (he was briefly captain of the Israeli national team) and low-key nature keep the Rainbows from getting in trouble with the officials.
"He will never get a yellow card. He's a quiet warrior," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "He's real dependable and has big up-side. We really want him to get stronger (through weight training)."
Perhaps he needs a personal trainer. Pumping iron put a damper on Zimet's mid-season performance. He strained his back while lifting, and didn't tell anyone, thinking the pain would go away.
Instead, it got worse. Zimet couldn't play in the second of two losses at USC nearly two months ago.
"The pain got unbearable," he said. "I wanted to play, but I couldn't move."
Hawaii led both matches in games: the first, 2-1, and the second, 1-0.
"It's a much different match (if Zimet is healthy)," Wilton said. "He was a non-factor in the first match."
It was just one of many injuries and illnesses that plagued the Rainbows in the middle part of the season, when they lost five of six matches. But healthy the past month or so, UH has won nine of its last 10 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches.
A fully recovered Zimet has helped. He managed to finish the season with a respectable .350 hitting percentage, and averaged 1.76 digs a game, second only to defensive specialist Russell Lockwood.
Trojans' coach Pat Powers recognizes that this is a different Zimet -- and hence, a different Rainbows' team -- than the one USC beat.
"They've improved a lot," Powers said. "Clay (Stanley) is really hitting the ball, and Eyal being healthy gives the team a different direction."
Zimet's compass guided him to Hawaii thanks to Yuval Katz and Sivan Leoni, former UH stars also from Israel.
"It's everything they said it was here," Zimet said with a smile.
He played internationally since high school graduation in 1995, so the potentially unfriendly confines of USC's North Gym don't faze him.
"In Turkey we played at a 6,000-seat gym that was full. It was so loud you couldn't hear the signals," he said. "People threw coins, screws and keys at us."
Even that didn't bother Zimet, since his national team won the match. Plus, he had already experienced much worse things being thrown in his general direction -- bombs.
Zimet, who grew up in Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz, near the city of Haifa, recalls the Iraqi Scud missile attacks of the Gulf War and the constant threat of full-blown conflict.
"It was of course more dangerous than here, but not as bad as what some people might think," said Zimet, who was in eighth-grade at the time.
While college volleyball is far from life-and-death, Zimet is definitely on a mission -- one of redemption.
"I don't feel like I've fulfilled what I came here for," he said.
With a healthy back and quiet confidence, Zimet gets another chance Saturday against the Trojans.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
