Top 5 Volleyball

Elaina Oden "A Pitchfork at my Backside

As I procrastinated in writing this story, I watched the television show "60 Minutes". On this particular show, there was a segment on Carol Burnett and I really identified with something she said. Mike Wallace asked her how she got started.

She said that she had done a play in college where she played this character that people loved.  Although she had always considered herself a nerd, this was the first time she was really accepted. People were stopping her on campus and telling her what a great job she did and asking her out.  She finally fit in. This concept parallel's my story.

When I was six years old, my father was home permanently from the Vietnam War and we moved from Birmingham Alabama to a military base in Tustin, California. The south was very different from the west coast. I went from being around groundparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and almost a completely African American area to being around multi-cultural military kids at home and affluent white kids at school. It was a shock that took a long time to get used to, but I made some dear friends through it all.

In this new environment I was an easy target for the relentless teasing kids get for being different. I was a big black girl who's parents were struggling to make ends meet in an upper middle class environment. My wardrobe wasn't as extensive as theirs and I quickly grew out of what I had. My saving grace was that I was an athlete.

In elementary school, during recess I could always be found playing kick ball or handball or whatever else was in season. I was always the first girl picked and usually the top pick of the whole PE class or sport teams. This sport experience was the foundation for my love for sports and forged the beginnings of the competitor in me.

I started playing volleyball when I was in the 7th grade. I was about 5'10" and 180 pounds. I only tried out for the team because my sister Kim had been playing for a couple of years and she really enjoyed it. Plus I wanted to see if I could make the team. So with my father's encouragement, I tried out for club volleyball.

I made the team. Since I was playing for a privated club, I would not be identified by my peers at school as a volleyball player until I could play forthe high school team when I got to 9th grade.

Volleyball is a sport that requires a good player to be incredibly skilled in proper technique. I've never seen anyone that was good at it the first time they tried it. You don't have to be a great athlete, or 6 feet tall or jump 40 inches. All that would be nice, but it isn't a necessity to be a good volleyball player. I've seen too many people be great players that had one (or none) of these qualities. I'm more convinced you have to be smart, cagey, competitive, have great vision, or maybe even a quick arm swing. These are qualities I have found to be much more prevalent in my favorite players than the obvious characteristics.

For the elite athlete, the timing of the development of these skills and winning mentality is crucial. If they aren't honed and developed in some way during the early teen years, they might never develop to their full potential. Luckily I was able to develop my skills in one of the best places in the country.

For a time I resented the long hard hours I was putting in, while most of my friends were out being teenagers. But later on, I realized that people my age in the top volleyball countries in the world were training at least as hard as I was. Without that kind of training, I might have been a step behind in the world standards. It was a valuable experience, but a long way from fun.

Because I played club in 7th and 8th grade, I was ahead of most of the others when I tried out for the varsity High School team. There weren't too many other freshmen that lettered in their first semester of their freshman year and it was huge to be among the first in the class to have a letterman jacket. I wore it proudly around campus before my other classmates had earned a letter.

During that freshman year, I was able to play along side my sister Kim on the Irvine High School Varsity Volleyball team. We broke new ground for the Vaqueros winning the first CIF Championship in school history. The high school team was tight and proud of what was happening through the season and so was the school. On game days, we would dress funny to remind people to come and cheer for us. I remember going to the Thrift Store with my teammates to buy the most obnoxious jacket and hat I could find. We really thought we were something.

Like Mrs. Burnett for the first time in my life, something I was doing was popular. Being a good athlete on a winning team was a dream come true. People who were too cool to talk to me in Junior High School were now calling me a stud as they passed in the hallway. The idea that I might be an elite athlete affected the way my peers responded to me. A lot of them said "I'm going to say I knew you when...". That expectation made me feel obligated to become something special. It was if volleyball was my lifeline to being "someone".

Playing with my sister Kim was good and bad. She was a role model for me. she had that "classic" volleyball build - long and lean and she is a definite overachiever. During her high school career, she played in the summers with other elite players around the country in tournaments where international teams competed. My build was much different than hers and I wondered if I had to look like that-to do what she did. Regardless of what my weight was, I made it a goal of mine to achieve the things she had by about the same time she had. The drive that she inspired helped me to be the player I was.

If Kim's accomplishments were a carrot stick in front of me, my younger sister Bev's talent was a pitchfork at my backside. When I didn't feel like training, the thought of Bev easily achieving everything I had ever done made me work hard. Yes, I was the Jan Brady of my family. But I really, really wanted to be the one that came to mind when people asked who the best Oden sister was.

The pressure to be the best drove me to do some things that if I had to do all over again I wouldn't. I had been haeavy all my life and I assumed that I always would be. It would have been nice to be thinner, but I thought my volleyball was progressing nicely. I was getting better and making All-Tournament Teams consistently, so I was getting done what needed to be done, right? It was always in the back of my mind to do something about it...some day...until a scale was brought in for us to weigh in at practice and some day was now.

Something I had feared came true, but I knew that things worth having never came easy. One of my goals was to become an Olympian. But if I was going to become an Olympian, I would have to find a way to shed the weight. But seeing this weight loss through meant that my commitment went from being 3 hours three times a week at practice toa commitment 24 hours a day 7 days a week becasue of the weigh-ins. Now when I came home after practice, I couldn't partake in my vice-eating.  I learned how to lose weight in all the wrong ways.

As I shared this story with a few people, I've realized how common and destructive some of the things I did were. At first I had no idea how I was going to get the extra weight off. I thought that to lose weight, you had to eat only the foods that were specified on a diet. I didn't know the concept of burning off more calories than you take in or making calories count. All I knew was that keeping it on was simply not an option.

Basically I found myself in a cycle of fasting before practice to make weight, then binging afterward. To get the weight off for the next practice, I would do everyting from excessive exercise to diet pills. I made a game of beating the scale and it was miserable. I won't get into details of the things I did to lose weight, but if I had it to do all over again, I would have been more conventional.I would have sought professional help, read a book or two on the subject or got advice from someone who had lost weight and kept it off. I still have ugly memories of my high school weight loss experiences  and I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

Throughout my 17 year career, I never did manage to get my weight down to something that any of my coaches nor I would have liked. I had to endure things like obnoxious fans at other schools in college yelling rude things at me, and panicking about having to weigh in. But somewhere  along the line I learned to play harder and smarter when I was heavy becasue I would convince myself that the other team thought I was fat and slow. I was going to show them that I was a force to be reckoned with, no matter what I weighed.

Looking back at my career, I managed to accomplish most of my goals. I was the Number One high school recruit in 1985.  I won a State Championship in track my senior year. I received a full scholarship to the University of the Pacific where I was a four year starter (and won back to back National Championships) and started for two Olympic Teams. I have a Bronze Medal from the 1992 Olympics and was a member of the All 1980's Decade Team and the All Millenium Volleyball Team according to Volleyball Magazine.

The trick...was finding a way to be good... despite my disposition. For more information on Elaina Oden: Volleyball Player, Elite Athlete Special Recognition, Awards Coaching Volleyball Volleyball Fans DVD's, Videos, Books

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Teee Williams "Faith"

When I first started I was at the age of 12.

I was not really interested in volleyball because I was not all that good. I was a much better basketball player and track runner. I was blessed with the natural ability to jump. So, in track and field -all the field events, for example high jump and long jump came very easy to me. Being a Laker fan at the time or a Magic Johnson fan I wanted to play basketball more than any other sport.

Then, some of my friends decided to try out for our Junior High School Volleyball team and suggested I go with them. I had never heard of volleyball before and when they tried to explain it to me, I didn't understand.

I did go to tryouts and I do not know how I made the team but I did. Because I wrote with my left hand I couldn't tell the coach if I was left handed or right handed. The first day of practice was very frustrating - I could not do anything. Basketball was much easier. I went home thinking this game is not for me. I wanted to just stick to the sport that came naturally. I did not want to work at getting better at volleyball. I talked to my friends who had also made the team and said we can try for a week.

Well, after a week, I decided to stick with it. I did not stop because I was improving fast and was anxious to learn more. At the end of the season I was asked to tryout for Ichiban Volleyball Club. To my surprise I made it. After some time I learned a lot more than expected yet there were many older girls that were better than me. It was very frustrating.

There were times when I wanted to quit and go back to basketball. It was then the coaches who forced me to choose between volleyball and basketball. It was now an easier decision for me.  Basketball was getting too physical and the girls much bigger and stronger. What I liked about volleyball was the fact that it was not so rough and I didn't have to run alot.

But seriously, looking back I am glad I did not quit when it was frustrating because I could not foresee how many good things I was to experience because of volleyball. Through the experience I kept the faith that something good would come out of me.

My favorite quote:
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" Hebrews 11: 1

For more information on Teee Williams: Volleyball Player, Elite Athlete Special Recognition, Awards Coaching Volleyball Team Captain, Leader Photos Volleyball Fans DVD's, Videos, Books

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Kim Oden "Be Proud"

Going through the teenage years can sometimes be hard. You are always trying to define who you are as a person, your body is changing and being  accepted by your peers takes center stage.

To be accepted, teenagers feel they have to find some way to fit in with their classmates. This process can be confusing, disappointing and long. In addition to these very difficult aspects of growing up, many times people try to pick out those who are different. If you are smaller than most people in your school, darker than most, lighter than most, heavier than most, poorer than most, you probably already have been or will be singled out.

The feeling you get from being singled out is not good, but you know you are not alone and that this period will not last forever. The folks who are making fun of you are only trying to mask their own differences. Be strong, be yourself, and use the talents that God has given you, no matter how much opposition you face.

I was always tall. Taller than anyone else my age and in elementary school, taller than some of my teachers! There was just no hiding it.  This resulted in some serious teasing.

And it didn't end in third grade; it escalated through high school. I was called anything and everything that had to do with skinny,tall, lanky people or things. "Hey Spaghetti Legs" was quite popular for awhile, then there was the typical "daddy long legs", "beanpole", "Olive Oyl" from the Popeye cartoon...the list seemed endless.

Although these are just words, they hurt my feelings and made me wish I were shorter. To try to achieve a shorter height, I began to hunch my shoulders a bit and slouch down.  I was hoping that the slouching would bring me closer to my classmates' height. But what it did was make me look even more different and the slouching brought more attention to me--more of the kind I didn't want.

My grandmother was the first to tell me not to hide it, to be proud of it and stand tall. She was right. It is a futile effort to try to hide who you are and what you are made of.

If you are tall...be proud. if you are heavy...be proud. If you are small...be proud. If you are dark...be proud. If you are poor...be proud.  You have reason to be proud because you were created with gifts inside you to share with the world (academically, athletically, otherwise) and if God entrusted you with these gifts, you must be worth a lot.

In 8th grade, I started playing volleyball. Now, the height I wanted to hide was a help to me in this sport.  As I continued to play, I got better and coaches in the area thought that I could be very good. Like my grandmother said all those years ago, I now stood tall, and was very proud of my height and my classmates noticed the positive change in my attitude toward myself.

However, the improvement in the acceptance of my peers brought other problems. Now people asked me Why volleyball? Why not basketball or track? My answer was that I liked volleyball and I was good at it. My parents stressed to my sisters and brother and I not to let anyone else define who you are, but you. As I gravitated to and excelled in sports in high school, classmates and teachers began to make certain assumptions about me. We all know what people think about the brain capacity of jocks. I hate when people look at you and assume you can't do something. As women, we deal  with that a lot, and as people of color we do too. I have dealt with it many times.

When I was high school age, it was difficult to hear negative things about myself, without the comment really getting to me by making me wonder if the people who said it were right. I gave those negative comments way too much attention. Letting those things in your mind, can do no good whatsoever. They put your focus on what others think you are or what they are trying to define you to be, not on what you are or can be in reality. I now realize that I don't have to listen to, or dwell on negative comments from anyone. I now strive to let it roll off my back and keep going. One time in particular I remember experiencing a negative situation in a computer class in high school. It was my senior year and I was being heavily recruited in volleyball. One of the schools recruiting me was Stanford University. After a campus visit, I was leaning towards going there.

One day in computer class, my teacher came up and I thought he was going to encourage me or give me advice about the decision I was going to make. Instead he told me that he thought I should forget about Stanford because the academics were tough, he didn't think I'd be able to make it. I had good grades, and I knew I would work my hardest to graduate; yet he took none of that into consideration. Knowing myself better than he did and with the encouragement of my parents...I chose Stanford.

I graduated in 4 years and one quarter. I started on the volleyball team for four years and played in 4 NCAA Division I Final Four Championships. I was elected along with three others to the 1986 Slate of Class Presidents. I enjoyed Stanford immensely and it added a lot to my life.

Had I listened to the negative teacher, I would have missed out on all that and perhaps that was his intention. I'm just glad I didn't listen to him, nor did I allow his comment to slow me down in taking advantage of a good opportunity.

In life, there are always people to tell you what they think you aren't capable of doing. Don't listen to them. If you feel you are gifted in a certain area and you know you will work hard to accomplish what you set out to do, don't let anyone stop you. Keep trying until you make it. You'll be glad you did. For more information on Kim Oden: Volleyball Player, Elite Athlete Special Recognition, Awards Coaching Volleyball Team Captain, Leader Photos Volleyball Fans DVD's, Videos, Books

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Mary Jo Peppler "Let Your Life Live You"

I acquired my first piece of athletic equipment in the 1940's when I was just past toddler stage. The handle bars of my scooter were almost as tall as me. Sometime before we moved to Texas my scooter and I must have been surgically separated because that is the only way it could have happened. I still have phantom "scooter pangs" in the deep of night while dreaming.

As a six year old, I had become a Texan. I was not however, a human Texan, but I had become a Texas Wild Horse. My best friend Nancy and I spent every free moment galloping, whinnying, and tossing our manes in the wild Texas country, Apache country, even though we lived in the Dallas suburbs.

Growing up in the forties and fifties was not easy for a future Olympic athlete. There were no youth soccer leagues, no real sports equipment and no organized sports programs of any kind. There was only open space and imagination. From this kind of childhood I learned that there is no such thing as boredom, people who think they are bored are only people who allow themselves to be bored. As a child, I never considered being bored. It was my job to imagine my life and find ways to live it. Children of the forties and fifties were expected to entertain themselves, not wait to be entertained by others.

For as long as I can remember, I knew I would go to the Olympics. Everyone has things in their life that they just know. I think that children today don't "just know" things like we did when I was a child because they are never quiet enough to hear the messages. When you are busy, busy, busy, there is no time for self reflection. When I was quite small, my father used to ask me, "How tall are you going to be when you grow up, Mary Jo?", And I always replied, "Six feet tall!". I just knew.

By the time I was in fourth grade, I had become a reluctant Californian. I had lots of fights in school insisting that Texas was indeed much better than California. This seemed obvious to me because there were certainly no Texas Wild Horses in California. Undaunted, I became a basketball player because we had a basketball court in our backyard. My sailor cap and my basketball became inseparable. Somehow the two were invisibly connected. It is from this time in my life that I learned that things are mysteriously and invisibly connected and this later translated into a passion for quantum physics.

I didn't have any heroes or models for my life while I was growing up. There were few women of prominence at that time. Recently, Life Magazine published their 100 most prominent people of the century. Only two women were in the top fifty  and according to Life, only a total of nine women influenced the century.

When I grew up, locating a hero was slim pickens! If I had had a hero though, I'll tell you what I wish they would have told me. "You sit at the very center of a universal presence for good. And it also sits at your very center. You cannot be separated from that infinite perfection." This is what my study of religion and quantum physics has taught me. If I had known this during my life when I felt alone, insecure and abandoned, I wouldn't haven given a second thought to my many struggles. Everything I have gone through has brought me safely to here. I've been protected and blessed and its all been good.

By the time I was in Junior High, my school offered after-school sports as a club called Girls Athletic Association (GAA). We had a few Playdays with other schools where we could play a variety of sports and not keep score.  But in the summer, my friends and I would go to the park and play the jukebox, flirt with the Director (a handsome married man who was the model for the Marlboro billboards) and play some softball.

A few years later, all my girlfriends and I were drawn to the park to play co-ed volleyball where we could all press into one or two cars (yippee!) and drive to other parks to play against their co-ed teams. Now, just as with the scooter, and the Texas Wild Horse, and the sailor cap and the basketball, I became inseparable with the sport of volleyball.

In my senior year of high school, I finally got to play an organized sport. My whole life revolved around that one day a week when I would go to volleyball practice with a team in Long Beach, California that was the National Championship amateur team in the nation. This level represented virtually the only real volleyball in the United States. When I was 17, I played my first organized volleyball and went to my first National Tournament. When I was 19, I did what I always knew I would do-I went to the Olympics.

I've played volleyball in four decades, during all that time, I have also coached, many times as a player/coach. I have picked a hard road. Somehow, I never felt as if I made a decision. Though looking back now, my life developed in an unlikely manner, yet , my life was always as it should be. When a door closed, another opened. I've done almost everything in my life because I had to.

The Japanese were the first country to host volleyball as an Olympic sport in 1964. Unfortunately in 1963, the USA did not qualify its volleyball team. I had hoped, even though I had only seriously played volleyball for one year, to be an Olympian in the sport of volleyball. This was not possible so I turned to track. This was not so much a decision as what happened. I joined a track club and my prospects looked promising.

I was 17, my family was going to move from the San Fernando Valley to Northern California. One morning, I was protesting the move because it would jeopardize my chances of going to the Olympics when my father and I had angry words, again. He said to stop talking about or get out. I moved out within the hour. Of course, no one had any reason to believe that I would go to the Olympics on that sunny morning in Southern California. There was no evidence to support it. My father and I have seldom spoken and since that day I had almost no contact with my family for almost ten years.

I went to live temporarily with a friend and her father, sold encyclopedias door to door, did market research on the street and for a while was homeless.

In that time I did go to the Olympics and spent most of my waking hours training (on my own with no formal structure) like a maniac.

Nine years later, with some help from friends, a paper route, and work-study, I realized another thing that I knew would happen, I graduated from college. I never considered that I would not finish college. In this respect, I kind of had no choice. You cannot be separated from your beliefs.

From this time in my life I learned two things. First I learned that in all the compromised situations I have experienced, the world is good, and I remain safe in the hands of my creator. Second, if you lock your sights clearly on anything, you will eventually yield to your target. I've done lots of things in my life that were at the time "Impossible". Luckily I didn't know it at the time.

My advice to anyone is to let your life live you. You don't have to rule yourself with an iron hand, because if you let it, the divine plan of your life will direct you. Anything is possible if you can think it clearly and hold it passionately. Anything unrealized is not important; what is important is the quality of each step that you take along the way. Everything you do is important, even if it doesn't seem so at the time. If you apply your full attention, everything will always be just  as it should be.

For more information on Mary Jo Peppler: Volleyball Player, Elite Athlete Special Recognition, Awards Coaching Volleyball Beach Volleyball Player Team Captain, Leader Photos Volleyball Fans DVD's, Videos, Books

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Laurel Iversen Brassey "The Runt"

When I was in elementary school, I loved all sports. I had a brother, three years older whom I loved to tag along with, much to his dismay.

His friends never wanted me around and would always complain saying "Can't you get rid of the runt?. I was little, but tenacious. I absolutely hated the nickname and they always called me that. The more they tried to lose me, the harder I fought to stay close to them. My greatest satisfaction however was that I was always one of the first chosen when we were forming teams to play baseball, or touch football or other neighborhood games.

At the same time, at school, I was labeled a tomboy, which in the sixties, was not really a popular designation. I didn't mind at all, but I was also called because I was very skinny. As a young child I hated those names and I was very conscious about my body. It seems silly now to think those things bothered me so much that I cried often about it, but kids can be very cruel to each other, when we are young, being accepted is so important.

My parents encouraged me to participate in sports and never discouraged me from playing with the boys or from playing sports for that matter. My mother was an athlete in her day, playing lots of sports and my Dad played semi-pro baseball.

My Mom was a great role model for me. Also when I was in the fourth grade, we learned about the Olympic Games and I became enraptured with Wilma Rudolph. Wilma overcame great adversity to become an Olympic champion, winning gold medals in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. I wanted to be like her and run in the Olympic Stadium with thousands cheering as I broke the finish line tape first.

I loved all sports, but I didn't even know about volleyball until I reached high school. This sport was different. I soon realized that I loved to JUMP! I also loved to get down on the floor and dig, roll and dive for the ball. This was my Sport. I got more satisfaction and had more fun playing volleyball than any of the other sports I had played.

I also remember the frustration of learning some of the skills, spiking in particular. But it seemed that I was always driven harder to excel at things that were difficult. If I couldn't do something, it just made me want to do it even more.

I was also constantly told that I was too small to play volleyball. That just made me want to prove them all wrong.

I really believe that fighting to keep up with my brother all those years and be accepted as one of the best players in the neighborhood are some of the elements that helped me strive for excellence in volleyball later on.

For more information on Laurel Brassey Iversen: Volleyball Player, Elite Athlete Special Recognition, Awards Coaching Volleyball Team Captain, Leader Photos Volleyball Fans DVD's, Videos, Books girls volleyball womens volleyball coaching volleyball volleyball team play volleyball teee williams

Sharkie Zartman "Obsessed"

Sports and games were always my passion. When I was young, the kids went out and played--We made up our own games, our own rules, our own teams and would have fun for hours and hours on end.

I always loved PE, but we had a teacher who was very strict and took most of the fun out of sports. Still, it was worth putting up with to get to run, jump, compete and play with my friends at school. When I was old enough to make the school teams I tried out for all the sports. Even though I wasn't the best athlete in those days, the competition to make a team was somewhat limited, since most girls that I knew had "moved" to other more important feminine things--like makeup and boys.

I loved all sports and continued to play them in high school. My parents were a great support to me, but I knew they were a little concerned that their second daughter had not outgrown her "tomboy" stage. Most of my grammar school friends stopped playing sports in high school and became cheerleaders, which did not appeal to me at all. I didn't want to cheer, I wanted to play!

At some point, I gravitated towards volleyball as my favorite sport. It wasn't that I was good at it--I just liked how I felt when I played. After school I would go to the beach and play with my friends. We used to pretend that we were the US playing against Japan. When my friends went home I would stay and go up and down the beach looking for games. I guess you could say that I was obsessed. One day my high school coach asked if she could talk to me. I thought that she was going to tell me how good I was since I used to throw my body on the floor all the time to get the ball--it didn't matter how many bruises I had.

To my surprise, she told me that she thought I should QUIT volleyball. She said that I was too short, too uncoordinated and I should stop playing before I hurt myself. I was shocked! I was mad! I was hurt! I also think that this moment turned my life around. I felt very determined to prove her wrong.

My search began for someone who would help me. I wasn't ready to give up volleyball and I didn't just want to play anymore--I wanted to be good! One of my friends told me of a teacher at our school who went on trips to the volleyball nationals and played on a team. He told stories of how great the teams were, and about some outstanding female players---like Mary Jo Peppler.

I knew I had to talk to him and ask him to help me. I asked Mr. Zartman if he would teach me how to be good enough to go to a National Tournament like the ones he described. He told me if I got some friends that were athletes together that he would coach us! So I did! Unfortunately, most of my friends were not what you would call athletes, even though Pat taught us how to play, the "Ramrods" did not play well enough to go to the Nationals. Some of the girls would scream and duck when the ball came to them.
Get Shark Sense!

The next year, we got some great players. Linda Lehde and Rose Duncan to name a few. We also changed our name to the Spoilers! We actually qualified for our first National Championships! We were off to Hawaii! I remember how excited I was to see all the great players that Pat had talked abut. We even got to play against Mary Jo Peppler!

As the years went on we had several great athletes come onto our team. I'll never forget when Flo Hyman came to play with us! What a sweet person. I remember at the start she was very shy and somewhat self conscious about her height (6'5"). It didn't take Flo long to fit in with our energetic style and enthusiasm. We also had Elaine Roque in her first year of club. She was so young and timid at the start we used to call her '"Pampers".

In 1977, the Spoilers won their first National title! We beat an "unbeatable" Adidas team. What a feeling! We were so excited that we all jumped in the pool at the hotel after and one of our players broke her toe.

Volleyball has given me alot in my life--many titles,awards,experiences, best friends,a sense of accomplishment, and oh yes, my husband. Eventually I married Pat. We have been married for 28 years. Our daughters both play volleyball. We even revived the "Spoilers" for Teri and Chrissie and their friends.

My family has learned a lot about ourselves, each other, and everyone we have come in contact with through this sport. I really believe that the purpose in our life is to experience it as fully as we can. It's almost ironic how things come to be. I could have quit when my coach suggested that I do so for my own good.
However, I think we all intuitively know what we want to do with our lives. Following your heart will always get you where you want to go. Let God work out the details.
For more information on Sharkie Zartman: Volleyball Player, Elite Athlete Special Recognition, Awards Coaching Volleyball Team Captain, Leader Photos Volleyball Fans DVD's, Videos, Books
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Nina Matthies "Faster Than Most Boys"

I am not sure that I had any huge hurdles during my career in volleyball, because of the time and era things have changed so much and with four decades of being involved I am not sure where to start! But here is a little piece of "My Story".

There were no organized sports for girls when I was growing up, no volleyball, no soccer, no softball/baseball no nothing. My only options were to be a cheerleader or work in the snack bar with my Mom while supporting my older brother, Greg, in his athletic endeavors. I thank my father for including me in every work out at home. We would run pass patterns for hours, shoot hoops, throw baseballs, run sprints and the mile in the soft sand at the beach.

Whatever it was, I tried to be better, faster,stronger. I competed with my brother in everything that he did. I would race home from school, I would race anyone.

I knew that I was faster than most of the boys, so we would race off the bus, up the stairs anything! Needless to say I was very competitive and enjoyed winning at a very early age.

I started playing volleyball in the seventh grade. We had a great PE teacher, Mrs. Morton who set up a girl's doubles ladder where we came and played volleyball before school, during recess, after school, on the asphalt courts with nets that were strung quite haphazardly. It meant everything to win that ladder and I had fallen in love with volleyball.

We lived at the beach so I played some doubles with my parents and watched a young Kirk Kilgour and his friends play in front of my house. I was hooked. I started playing in USVBA and Beach tournaments when I was 13 and am still coaching and playing at 46.

Volleyball for me has always been my outlet, release, what I do for pure enjoyment. I love and respect the game, all aspects of it. The teamwork that it takes, the hours and years that it has taken to perfect skills. I have always loved to workout and I try to make everyday fun, different and challenging.

I was the one at workout with a smile on my face yelling "What else do you have? Is that all we're doing/". I was taught to always give 100% and to never let on that I was tired or fatigued but always be ready for the next play or ball.

Since I grew up with relatively little organized coaching I have had to be very self motivated. I hold myself accountable for my actions at all times, both on and off the court. I truly believe that you practice how you play, so how you practice must be very intense and have meaning everyday. If I have any advice for young athletes, it is to follow your heart, enjoy what you do, play because you love it, not for the money you think you can make, college you can get into, or where you think it can take you.

After 35 years in this silly game I still love what I do. I come to work everyday with a huge smile on my face, every morning I run 3 miles at Zuma Beach in Malibu watching the dolphins and whales cavort in the waves. I have a wonderful husband/best friend of 21 plus years and two beautiful sons.

Life is good.

For more information on Nina Matthies: Volleyball Player, Elite Athlete Special Recognition, Awards Coaching Volleyball Team Captain, Leader Photos Volleyball Fans DVD's, Videos, Books

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Debbie Green Vargas "Too Short To Play"

At 5'4" and 105 pounds, I was not exactly a volleyball coach's dream setter! If I would have listened to everyone that told me or my dad that I was too short to play volleyball, I never would have even gone out for my high school team. Thank goodness, my dad wouldn't let me listen to those people. He would always tell me, "Debbie, no one knows how good of a volleyball player you can become. I don't know, your coaches don't know, and even you don't know how good you can be. The only thing you know is that you can be better today than you were yesterday."  In 1984, I competed in the Olympics, in a sport I was considered too short to play.

When I was in the eighth grade, a top high school and club coach told my dad, "If Debbie works real hard maybe by her senior year she could make the varsity high school team".  For the next three years I did work real hard. I practiced six days a week, 3-4 hours a day during the week and 6-9 hours on Saturdays and Sundays. By my junior year in high school, I made the U.S.A. Team for the World Championships.

I represented the United States for twelve years. During those twelve years, I always felt that I had to make up for my handicap, my height. I knew I wasn't going to get any taller, but I knew that I could always improve on my vertical jump, setting and all the other skills.

As a setter, my coaches would always work extra with me, before or after our team practices. I'd spend hours every week jumping to a beam in my garage so that I'd jump higher. What I gave up on height, I tried to make up by being able to set almost any pass and by giving to my team in other ways, like enthusiasm,energy and talk.  I knew that I'd always be considered a detriment in the front row, so my goal was to be the best setter there was, short or tall.

There were many times in my playing career that a coach's "dream" setter (6' feet tall!) and my worst nightmare (just kidding) would come into the program. What kept me as a starting setter was the thousands and thousands of hours setting and my years of experience.

There were many Friday and Saturday nights while I was in high school that I wondered if I was missing out being a "normal" teenager because my team always had practices all weekend long, while all of my B.V. (before volleyball)friends were going to high school football games, parties and the mall! I always thought I was missing out on that part of my high school experience.

I remember I had one Friday night off when I was a junior in high school. I got to go to a party! It was not at all what I had pictured in my mind. I basically spent the evening watching people drink, act stupid and smoke pot. I felt so out of place because I didn't do what everyone else was doing. I left that party realizing I had not been missing out on anything. I would much rather spend my weekends with my teammates in a gym practicing volleyball than going to parties "hanging out". I loved being with my best friends, my teammates. We had a common goal that we worked towards six days a week, and that was to become the best and become Olympians someday.

There were many times in my career that I felt like quitting. There were days that I just didn't think that I could train 6-8 hours a day, six days a week anymore. There were days when I doubted my ability and thought maybe I wasn't good enough. There were weeks when I felt like I wasn't getting better, but I was getting worse. Sometimes my plateaus and slumps seemed to go on for weeks. At these times, it would have been much easier for me to quit than work through the aches,pains,injuries,plateaus and slumps. But I didn't because that's what most people would do. It's easy to be a quitter. It's much more difficult, but much more rewarding to work through the hard times and be on the "up".

During those doubtful and tough times, I would picture myself being the best setter. I would imagine my teammates and I, winning our next big compettiton. I would picture a huge crowd cheering for my team. I would picture us in the Olympics.Then I'd picture myself watching my teammates on TV (without me, becasue I've quit) competing in the Olympics, while I'm sitting on the couch being a spectator. I knew that I would always regret my decision if I quit.

There will be days that you feel like quitting because you're not performing to your expectations or your coach's. If you're in a slump and you quit how will you know if you were just ONE practice away from reaching the next level as a better player?

If your setting skills are in a slump and extra practice isn't helping, try focusing on improving another part of the game. Use your energy into becoming better at something else, not focusing on the negative! So, your setting is off- work on becoming a better defensive player. You know what? By not dwelling on the negative you will be setting better before you know it. I know, because for my first years, I'd get a long face whenever I made a mistake. Believe me, I made alot of mistakes, so I wasted a lot of important time and energy sulking over my mistakes.

The worst thing you can do to your team is become quiet and into yourself because you're not playing well. When you do that, most likely you'll dig yourself into a hole. And worst of all you'll emotionally drain your team. They'll be trying to cheer you up and worrying about you that they'll lose focus on their game. If I could go back I would change that about myself as a player. I was down too much fter a mistake. Luckily I had wonderful teammates who helped me.

Another thing that kept me from quitting volleyball was that I wanted to show all those people who didn't think I could do it that they were wrong.  I wanted to prove that 5'4" wasn't too short to play volleyball, even though I'd get asked frequently if I was the manager of the team!

My best friend was my teammate, Carolyn Becker. We played together on a junior club team, the Junior National team, at USC, and on the Olympic team. There were many times that one of us would leave practices crying and wanting to quit. We had made a pact when we were 15 years old. We would not let each other quit. We dreamed of playing in the Olympics together and we promised to help each other reach our dreams. If it weren't for Carolyn, I might have hung up my volleyball shoes at a young age. Thank goodness my best friend was always at my side and would make me laugh when I wanted to cry, and would be honest with me when she thought I was wrong. We shared a lot of laughs, tears, tough times and good times. We kept our promise to each other, we played in the Olympics together.

I was very fortunate that I had the teammates that I had. They made my job as setter easy. I had the best passers and hitters in the world! Sue Woodstra, Debbie Landreth (Brown), Rita Crockett, Terry Place, Laurie Corbelli, Patty Dowdell and Flo Hyman taught me by example what hard work and dedication meant. (Sorry I can't name all my ex teammates.)

I have to say that if it weren't for my two coaches, I would have never reached the level that I did. Chuck Erbe, my junior club and Junior National Coach gave me invaluable hours to teach me how to set. When Chuck realized that he was stuck with me as his setter (because the better setters quit) he had to teach me how to set because there was no one else. He would take me to the gym and toss balls to me for a couple of hours, so that I could set into a basketball hoop.

When I was younger I didn't appreciate that much. But, now that I'm coach I cannot believe he did that. After I toss for ten minutes in practices I'm ready to go on to another drill!

I will always be grateful to my Olympic coach Arie Selinger. When people were saying I was too short to play internationally, Arie believed in me. He changed the game of volleyball in the U.S. He made volleyball entertaining and exciting to watch. He taught me how to set with style. His dream was two-fold: qualify for the 1980 Olympics and promote volleyball throughout the United States.

I realize that I was given a wonderful opportunity to be coached by the best. He was tough and demanding but I always felt he believed in me. No matter what, I knew he was there to make me the best setter that I could be. He made me a "too short" setter into a world class setter.

If you would have seen me as a thirteen year old volleyball player you would have laughed. I was not only a short player, I was a terrible player! I truly believe that if you surround yourself with positive friends, coaches/teachers and if you work hard, and I mean real hard to overcome your obstacles you will be successful on and off the volleyball court. If I could do it, you can do it!

For more information on Debbie Green Vargas: Volleyball Player, Elite Athlete Special Recognition, Awards Coaching Volleyball Team Captain, Leader Photos Volleyball Fans DVD's, Videos, Books

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Liz Masakayan "Little Sense of Balance"

First, let me explain that everything I'm about to write could only come from me now that I am an adult, and with that, a much more of an aware and in touch person with what I feel.

It's easy to look back and know now where my choices came from. If you were to ask me then about any obstacles I had to overcome when I was a teenager, I would have told you that everything was fine, except for the fact that I felt cheated that all my friends had more material things than I did and that I had the strictest mom in the world.

As an adolescent and a young adult, I never knew how competititve and athletic I was. I just played, worked hard, had fun and enjoyed being popular for it. It was all very simple for me at the time. It was so simple that when I was 16, going into my senior year of high school and starting to get letters from universities wanting me to play volleyball at their school, I had no idea that I could get free college education because of my athleticism. I was very excited and very appreciative of what I was being offered, never once thinking I had actually earned it because I was always just doing what I loved  to do--sports.

I can truly say that I felt as though there were no hurdles that I had to overcome. The biggest barrier then, which is not as big of an issue now, was the lack of opportunities available for girls to play sports. I played Little League Baseball at 10 years old when they first allowed girls to play. Then when I was a junior in high school, we finally got the opportunity to form the first ever girl's soccer team. I already had been playing club soccer for 5 years and really wanted to play in high school like all the boys did.

Also, the closest club volleyball was about 30-45 minutes away. Today, there's about 10 different one's in the area. I relied a lot on the other girl's moms to bring me to practices and competitons since my mom was working all the time having to raise four kids.

Because I believed I didn't really have any hang ups or handicaps, it gave me every opportunity in my mind to do whatever it was I wanted to do. That was a good thing and bad thing all in one.

On a positive note, I worked very hard and had a lot of desire to be better at sports and academics. That gave me alot of attention and love that any kid in a big family with one parent subconsciously wants to have. But, unknowingly, my sense of self was very wrapped up in my success. My value as a person was determined by winning or losing and that can be a very dangerous mindset. If I succeeded, I was a "good" person and everyone liked me. And if I failed, I was worthless.

It was a very conditional love I had for myself which attacked my self esteem and led to self criticism and negativity. This motivated me to improve and do more at all costs because I was never satisfied, but it came from an unhealthy place and at the expense of having a lack of balance in my life. It was an extreme focus,  but not worth the things I was sacrificing and compensating.

Even though my mother and the nature of a single parent home installed a lot of great qualities, it also left me with a little sense of balance. We were all in survival mode, and if we were to stop and really feel and assess the situation, it would have been counterproductive to enduring our circumstances. This lack of balance that I experienced in my youth has been a huge hurdle in my young adult life. It led me to lose a sense of self awareness- enough to get injured numerous times, lose a sense of perspective in life, enough to not fully enjoy the process that got me the result, and lose a sense of how to choose quality relationships enough to not have had the confidence to be a good wife and mother in order to have a healthy marriage.

But these are all things I know now and am lucky that desire and determination I learned as a child has given me the courage to improve my sense of balance today. I'm grateful for the hard lessons I have learned, but hope that young kids today have a different and healthier avenue to encounter them.

More important than anything I have accomplished in sports I have learned and strongly believed in one thing. I think the most significant purpose for anyone is to put effort into figuring out a way to have a healthy marriage so that as parents one can raise your children together (in the same house) to be complete and balanced individuals. After all, our children are society's future and we need to be great role models as parents and people.

For more information on Liz Masakayan: Volleyball Player, Elite Athlete Special Recognition, Awards Coaching Volleyball Team Captain, Leader Photos Volleyball Fans DVD's, Videos, Books

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