| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| vb101 |
Posted - 05/07/2010 : 2:28:18 PM
... the game is sometimes more than the game, for some people it is a path in life. Can't say more.
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-volley/spec-rel/050410aaa.html
The two letters “AL” that Stanford players wear on their jerseys tell the story of the Cardinal’s improbable rise from the depths of college volleyball to its present status as the No. 1 seed in the NCAA men’s volleyball tournament, which begins Thursday on the Stanford campus and will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPNU.
“What a great story that team has,” said Pete Hanson, coach of No. 4 seeded Ohio State, which will play Stanford in a semifinal at 8 p.m. PT. “Three years ago, they were the worst team in the conference.”
Now Stanford is (22-6).
Three years ago, Stanford was 3-25 and had hit rock bottom.
“It was very demoralizing and frustrating,” said Stanford’s All-American setter Kawika Shoji, a freshman in 2007. “It took its toll.”
It was after that demoralizing season that long-time Stanford assistant coach Al Roderigues made the proclamation the team would embody for the next three seasons: “Worst to first.”
The team improved as talented recruits were added to maturing players, and two years ago, Stanford officials decided it was time to bid to host the 2010 NCAA tournament.
“We knew we were going to be pretty good, but we didn’t know how good,” said Stanford coach John Kosty, whose first season as the Cardinal’s head coach was that disastrous 2007 season. “But we figured if we were ever going to bring the NCAAs to northern California and if there was ever a chance we could be in it, this was going to be one of those times.”
It was a perfect convergence for Stanford, which will host the NCAA tournament for the first time. Unfortunately, Roderigues had to watch from a hospital bed as the Cardinal made his mantra a reality, climbing to No. 1 in the American Volleyball Coaches rankings by midseason.
His 16-month battle with stomach cancer ended on March 19, but the Cardinal has stayed atop the rankings and Roderigues continues to be honored by the team.
Players say they wear Al Roderigues’ first name on the shoulder of their jerseys to commemorate his spirit and optimism, not to mention his prescience. And the home floor and colorful Stanford student section may help the Cardinal’s bid to make Roderigues’ prediction a reality.
Shoji is hoping that Stanford can complete the journey from worst to first, just as Al Roderigues had predicted.
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| 2 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| vb101 |
Posted - 05/11/2010 : 12:02:15 PM
Volleyball reported by a volleyball player, Stanford's Canyon Ceman on AVP web site. There is the story and then the story.
Behind the scenes of a team that went from "worst to first"
By: Canyon Ceman, on 05/10/2010
http://www.avp.com/News/2010/05/Stanford.aspx
Disclaimer: I am biased in favor of Stanford, my alma mater. I have personal relationships with the coach and players. I attended the matches and I cried happy tears when Stanford won. But that doesn’t make this story any less cool.
The Stanford Men’s Volleyball team earned the 2010 NCAA Championship on Saturday night in front of a packed house on their home court with a 30-25, 30-20, 30-18 thrashing of Penn State.
If you are looking for a purely factual analysis of the match with quotes and stats, I can do no better than this article at GoStanford by David Kiefer. Please go read it, and come back to finish my story.
To be brief and technical, Stanford played a highly skilled brand of volleyball, with consistent and dominant passing, setting, defense and serving, punctuated by world-class leadership and execution by its Final Four co-MVPs Kawika Shoji (senior setter) and Brad Lawson (sophomore OH). In every sense of the word, this was a team victory by a bunch of college athletes and friends who played with passion, unity and purpose. You could sense they like each other by the way they played as a team.
Lawson, the MPSF player of the Year, had 24 diverse and powerful kills on 28 quick and accurate sets from AVCA Player of the Year Kawika Shoji. While Kawika and his fellow impact seniors Evan Romero and Garrett Werner will be tough to replace in years to come, Lawson’s presence for the next two years (along with All-American libero Erik Shoji, and one more year of Spencer McLachlin) guarantees that Stanford will contend. Lawson’s performance was hailed by all who saw it as one of the best Finals performances in history.
But I don’t really want to talk stats and volleyball; I want to talk about why this was a great human interest story. I want you to know why the 6,500 people who packed Maples Pavilion on May 8 didn’t want to leave after the last Lawson kill. Why everything just felt right, why the energy and happiness in that building was tangible. This victory was living proof that Karma exists, that good things happen to good people, that teamwork and unity and presence are more important than any physical attribute, that a coach can change a program’s culture, that hard work and small incremental steps can produce a great result.
Coach Kosty and Coach Roderigues
Stanford Head Coach John Kosty waited a long time for his opportunity to lead a DI program. After he graduated from UCSB in 1987, a 2nd-team All-American MB, Kosty labored as an assistant for 16 long years under Ruben Nieves and Don Shaw, finally getting his chance for the 2006-2007 season. In four short years, Kosty led the team from “Worst to First” (3-25 in 2007 to 27-8 in 2010) with a blend of mature and positive leadership, savvy recruiting, and an understanding of both the volleyball and teambuilding skills necessary to win a title. He deserves National Coach of the Year honors.
What you don’t know about John Kosty is how big his heart is.
Laboring right next to Kosty for all of those 16 years was assistant coach Al Roderigues. Anyone who knew Al in life couldn’t help but be infected by his positivity and smile. And even as he faced the cruelest foe, stomach cancer, Al maintained a positivity and fight that was an inspiration to all who knew him. Though his original “goal” was to make it through the 2009 season, Al fought long and hard and survived all the way until March 2010. During Al’s final years and months, Coach Kosty served as his liaison to the world. Though no blood relation, Kosty became Al’s lead support mechanism during Al’s battle with cancer. He did it because he loved Al, and because it was the right thing to do for a friend in need. In his support for a dying friend, John Kosty gave an unforgettable lesson in friendship, strength and loyalty to his team of young men. In his life and in his death, Al Roderigues provided inspiration, emotional fuel, and purpose to Stanford Volleyball and especially to this year’s team. He coined the phrase “Worst to First,” and the 2010 National Champions delivered. Kosty attributes this year’s win to the idea of present tense and daily improvement: “We stayed grounded and focused in the process. We had daily goals... and we never looked beyond the next match.”
How better to learn that real-life lesson than to watch a man and his friend survive a battle with life’s final frontier a day at a time.
The Hawaii Connection/10,000 Hours
On a lighter note, one of the best breaks Coach Kosty ever received was when Kawika Shoji, a prized recruit from Hawaii, committed to Stanford in 2006. Let’s just say Stanford wasn’t getting all the best recruits in the 13 years since its last National Championship in 1997. So when the 2010 AVCA Player of the Year committed to Stanford, it signaled to the world that Stanford was back on the men’s college volleyball map. Kawika’s decision also opened the floodgates to a Stanford-Hawaii connection that hadn’t been open since Mike Lambert and Stewart Chong graduated back in 1997. Not that the change happened overnight…in 2007 Stanford was 3-25, they never won a postseason match until this year, and they even struggled through the early part of this year before ending strong with a 17-2 run.
That Hawaii pipeline eventually brought Spencer McLachlin, (junior, starting outside hitter), and Brad Lawson and Erik Shoji, four of the most important pieces of the championship puzzle…and I suspect it will continue to produce for years to come.
Speaking of Hawaii, let me introduce the concept of “10,000 hours” and how it relates this national championship and to volleyball in Hawaii. Chris McLachlin, father of Spencer McLachlin, and de facto assistant to the 2010 team, reintroduced the concept made famous by Malcolm Gladwell to the team as a way of demonstrating the commitment required to produce excellence. The basic concept is that true excellence in any endeavor requires 10,000 hours of commitment to achieve. Alumnus Eric Wells and I, in an unrelated conversation during the finals, opined that that was the simple and elegant explanation for the thrashing we were witnessing. While Penn State may have been jumping higher and hitting harder, they hadn’t put in the 10,000 hours that Stanford’s best players had.
Kawika and Erik Shoji had grown up gym rats around their father Dave Shoji (Hawaii Volleyball Coach), and beach rats around the Outrigger Canoe Club. Spencer McLachlin followed his father around Punahou where he coached basketball (famously coaching President Obama), coached volleyball, and was the Athletic Director. You know he logged his 10,000 hours. And Brad Lawson was an Iolani standout who thrived at the Outrigger…probably shagging balls for Wong and Metzger and Lambert, longing for the chance to play at their level.
He did.
So Stanford was simply more skilled. Better passing, setting, defense, and understanding of the game…they had put in the time to be fully mentally and physically prepared to win.
Maturation and Mentors
This championship is also a story of maturation of boys into young men. I watched it happen firsthand… molded by adversity, a mindful coach, a sobering experience of life and death, and a growing sense of destiny. Every individual surely had his own path, but the standouts that led to the title were:
Brad Lawson was able to refine his skills on an accelerated schedule. He improved from a talented but forgettable player in 2009 to the most dominant collegiate player in 2010.
Kawika Shoji emerged from a skilled outsider to a leader who imposed his emotional and physical will on his team and each match he played.
Evan Romero (E Ro), over 4 long years, evolved from a physically talented but inconsistent opposite, to the heart and soul of a National Championship team. He was unquestionably the emotional leader of the team and a key to the passionate way they played and their soulful connection to their fans and friends.
One of Kosty’s first moves as head coach was to reengage dormant Alumni support. In emails, personal calls and actions, Coach Kosty brought Stanford’s prideful past players back around the program. We shared stories of teamwork, achievement, great memories…showed up at home and road matches, we became unofficial mentors, and we probably even donated more money too. More importantly, meaningful relationships were created among current and former players that became important sources of rejuvenation and intergenerational knowledge transfer. If I, or any of you, ever need to reinvigorate an athletic program, this is a subtle and effective way of accomplishing that goal. As coach Kosty said, “This win represents decades of teamwork.”
As a show of support to Coach Kosty, Al Roderigues and the 2010 team, Matt Fuerbringer and I, among a number of other Stanford Alumni including Andy Fishburn, Scott Fortune, Dan Hanan, Dave Goss, Bob Hillman, Eric Wells, Mike Hoefer, Craig Lauchner, etc…all congregated at Stanford to celebrate the reemergence of the Stanford program. It had been 13 long years since Fuerbringer’s block secured Stanford’s first national championship in 1997. Since then, there had been some dark days and no postseason wins. So when Stanford was named the No. 1 seed, the same year it was the first Northern California school to host the National Championships (and the regionals), it was a no-brainer for all of us to come out in support. Fuerbringer even flew back early from an FIVB event in Shanghai to bring his family up to share in the glow. We weren’t the only supporters in attendance. In fact, Maples Pavilion was basically a packed house of cardinal and white (more fans than I have ever seen at a men’s collegiate volleyball match in California), filled with costumed fraternity brothers, a raucous band, emotionally involved friends and family, and love and smiles from all corners.
When things went as well as they did, it basically became a big party and a trip down memory lane. I have to admit, we even ended up at a fraternity party late Saturday night…a bunch of cougars and reminiscent men who wanted to relive the glory days for a few minutes and pass on our appreciation to the team in person. There was a multi-generational group “shotgun” (beer pound) and some passionate speeches…and then we left appropriately to let the boys enjoy the spoils of their victory. (Link to YouTube video here…just kidding, all video evidence has been destroyed).
OK…a little wordy as usual...but I just wanted people to know the cool elements to the back story of the Stanford National Championship. You might not know these guys, but if you did, you would like them. They deserve love and support from the volleyball world. You will hear from many of them again as they ascend into beach and indoor professional careers…and the ones you won’t hear about will be making their own marks in the academic and business worlds. (Senior Garrett Werner will graduate with a 3.9 + GPA in Engineering…he is not alone in his intellectual capabilities.)
And if you are wondering how any of this relates to beach volleyball AVP style??? The 10,000 hours guys from Hawaii and California are exactly the type of skilled, physical and passionate players that end up on the AVP Tour. (See Scott, Wong, Lambert, Metzger, Legrande, etc.) This concept resonated with me as a former AVP player, because I know that I had an early advantage in my collegiate and pro career because of the 10,000 hours I had devoted to volleyball at the gyms and beaches of California. When my competitors who had not grown up in California or Hawaii achieved their 10,000 hours…to go along with their physical superiority, my advantage vanished, and my career slowly faded.
So what to do with his 10,000 hours? Kawika Shoji has a tough call to make… he loves the indoor game and is likely being wooed to compete for a national team job or overseas next winter, but his Shoji/Iolani/Outrigger upbringing and all-around game must beckon him to the beach. Could we see him in the AVP main draw in 2010? If not now, I guarantee he makes his way to the beach in the future.
Time will tell…but until then, I hope Kawika and his teammates are enjoying the precious present…it doesn’t get any better than this for a young man…ever.
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| vb101 |
Posted - 05/11/2010 : 11:35:06 AM
Powerful motivator - a tribute to AL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADDqikn5qME
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