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Thursday, 5/1/97 The Usual Success

By Vytas Mazeika Daily Bruin Contributor When someone coined the phrase practice makes perfect they never envisioned the UCLA men's volleyball team. The Bruins, who produced a factory of players, which includes Karch Kiraly, Sinjin Smith, Jeff Nygaard and most recently Stein Metzger, seem always to be better prepared than all other college teams come playoff time. The two-time defending NCAA champion Bruins are expected to be in the Final Four year after year, and have won 16 of the last 27 national championships. Head coach Al Scates and his UCLA squad always seem to peak as the NCAA Final Four nears - and this year is no exception. Before suffering a loss Saturday to Stanford, the Bruins had won 18 in a row. The other three teams in the Final Four can bet that Scates will have his Bruins ready for anything and everything. With UCLA just two wins shy of their 17th NCAA title in 28 years, one question comes to mind: How exactly do they do it? The answer is rather simple. There is no exact recipe for UCLA's success - there is just one integral ingredient. The key to the Bruins' long-lasting prosperity is motivation. Every season the UCLA players begin with a clean slate. Between May (the time the season ends) and September (the beginning of exhibition season) the coaches hand the players a great deal of freedom. There is no off-season training program. The coaching staff just trusts the players to be ready to compete when necessary. "The performance on the court is what is important and they all know that," assistant coach Brian Rofer said. "And all these guys are intrinsically motivated. Recruiting them, you can kind of tell. Sometimes it is hard to see. But if you get good athletes who are intrinsically motivated, as a coach you do not have to worry too much about their competitiveness and their desire to get better." When the season starts the coaches throw out all of last year's statistics and begin from scratch. No one player holds a starting spot from one season to the next. The annual fierce competition for starting spots carries through into the season. Come Fall Quarter the players know that they have a brand new chance to gain a starting spot if they prove themselves worthy. Senior swing hitter Trong Nguyen has experienced this hectic scramble for one of the first 12 spots four times now and is well aware of the psychological effects. The top 12 players are allowed to travel with the team, but even they aren't guaranteed playing time. So players must keep motivating themselves to work hard and to patiently wait for that opening in the rotation that may never come. "When you are not given that chance (to start), it weeds out the people who are not mentally tough," Nguyen said. "It weeds out the people that give up too easily ... it is kind of cutthroat in that way because it leaves the weak-minded behind. Nobody is going to motivate you to work your hardest, play your best and improve your game. You have to motivate yourself." Scates grins when he talks about the kinds of players that the UCLA men's volleyball program attracts. He says that other coaches entice players to come to their program by promising them a starting spot. UCLA does no such thing. Scates and Rofer will simply mention to the recruit that he will get a chance to compete for the job. "If they are not (self-motivated) they go to Pepperdine where there are only six good players and they do not really have to compete for a position," Scates said. "A player like Brandon (Taliaferro, UCLA's freshman setter) will come here. Competing for a position does not scare him. But guys who want to be assured of a position will not come here." UCLA seldom has a player transfer out of the program. All of its players want to win and they know that the Bruins will be successful. So some players stick it out as reserves for one, two or even three seasons. The more the team enjoys the privilege of a player staying three years on the bench waiting for a starting spot, the more likely that the player will have both the maturity and mental toughness to contribute. A perfect example of someone who has had to wait for his chance is Ben Moselle. Moselle did not look to have much of a chance to gain a starting spot before the season started. But when James Turner failed out of school and a starting spot became vacant, a four-man competition brought out the attitude that makes the Bruins such a volleyball powerhouse year in and year out. "Some guys wait four years pushing the guy in front of them and then they get a shot because the guy graduates," Rofer explained. "But the guy in front of (the player) would never be as good as he is unless there is that guy behind him." In UCLA there will always be someone like Moselle who gets a break and earns a starting spot. But many times a player will spend his entire career on the bench and never really get a shot to break through. The fact is, the players know that UCLA is the best program out there. If they fail to earn a starting spot and receive extended playing time, at least they will never have any regrets. "If they cannot make it here, they will continue their education, graduate from school and get better," Rofer pointed out. "They will not go to some place else just to play at a lower level. They just make it here or they do not. They gave it their shot at the top level." Throughout the season, the players know that Scates will not hesitate to bench any player who is suffering through a disappointing match. The coach knows the team has enough depth and talent to bench any player at any time. If one player is having a bad day, that just means another one gets a shot to prove that he is better. "They are all trying hard to beat each other up in practice," Scates said. "That is the way we do it here. Show me you are better and you can have (your starting spot) back. That is the way it works. Every day is a battle in the gym and we are going to have another one today." So hitting a slump and having your play deteriorate is a luxury a UCLA starter cannot afford. The Bruins one and only goal is to win a national championship. Without a ring to show for the season's effort, the entire team will be disappointed with the results. And while aiming for such a steep goal at the beginning of every season, all that the coaching staff cares about is who the most talented six players are and who plays best together. It is of little concern to them whether or not any of the players get along or not. The Bruins just want to win. "We are not real big with team bonding and having little retreats with our team," Rofer said. "We could care less if they hate each other. If there are personal differences or whatever, that is not important to us. They know that when they get on the court it is a common goal to be the best that we can be." One motivational tool that Scates uses is the blue curtain. Every day in practice there are three courts: one for the starting six, one for the second team and a third for the last 12 players on the roster. The third court is shielded from the view of Scates and Rofer, so the progress of these players is rarely noticed by the top coaches. The blue curtain originally came about as a mistake. In the men's gym both the men's volleyball team and the women's gymnastics team practiced at the same time - with only the blue curtain separating them. Once the gym expanded and the men's volleyball players had it to themselves, the blue curtain was used to simply separate the third court to prevent balls from crossing over and creating any ankle sprains. Scates himself has said that he would rather have it be transparent so that he can monitor the progress of the other players. Nevertheless, it lends itself to the Bruins as a motivational tool. Known to Rofer once as the Brown court because of former Bruin Dave Brown who would always be there and called sometimes the bronze medal court because the players were neither part of the first nor second teams, the court separated by the blue curtain is used not as punishment but rather to get players to improve on their overall game. Nevertheless, the psychological effects are rather large. "I can only imagine that it plays with your mind in that no matter how well you are playing the coach is never going to see you," senior opposite Paul Nihipali said. "The assistant coach is not going to see you. The report from behind the blue curtain could be so-and-so is playing well. But if there is no opening for so-and-so to step into in the first court they will just sit there and keep on working. "The good ones just keep on working hard until the openings are there. And the ones that tend to crack under pressure situations at game time are the same ones that crack behind the blue curtain. If you can produce behind that blue curtain and get yourself to the top court then you are most likely the same player that is going to help bring home a national championship." Practice in UCLA breeds winning. Nihipali never actually played behind the blue curtain because his talents were needed immediately as a freshman for the 1994 squad. This season two more freshmen, Taliaferro and Adam Naeve bypassed the whole experience. But all-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation first-team middle blocker Tom Stillwell had to pay his dues. The one season he spent away from the view of the coaching staff strengthened him both physically and mentally. Stillwell has become the most consistent player on the team, day in and day out. He puts forth an all-out effort, and although he is aware that his starting spot is relatively safe, he will hustle simply because of his desire to win, and because he is motivated to become better every time on the court. "It is so awesome to see someone like Tom Stillwell or Adam Naeve dive to the floor," said Nguyen. "To see them hustle on defense. I love it when they do that. Because they are huge guys and they are definitely slower than the average-sized man, but they still hustle and still dig the balls up. And that is impressive." The reason most freshmen are incapable of joining the top 12 players on the team right away is physical maturity. For example, freshman Donald Puathasnanon started this season holding the sixth starting spot, but he hit a wall physically and his play deteriorated. Few players are physically mature enough when they arrive in Westwood to have an immediate impact. But in the long run the coaches know that if the players work hard enough and dedicate themselves,they can become an integral part of the team's success. "With the freshmen it all depends on what they do from spring to fall," Rofer said. "Guys physically are pretty immature when they get here," Rofer said just as Nihipali runs by and starts jabbering out loud to disrupt the interview. "Some of them are still pretty immature when they leave and when they have been here for a while." Mature or not, the Bruin players are motivated. Motivated to get better. Motivated to win national championships. Motivated to gain a starting spot. Motivated to push the next guy. Motivated to get past the blue curtain. The UCLA men's volleyball program will always attract these kinds of self-motivated players. And that is what is needed to create a dynasty.