USA men begin training for 2004 Olympic Games

by Paul Soriano USA Volleyball Manager, Public Relations & Publications

Following a well deserved break, the USA men's national volleyball team begins preparations for the 2004 Olympic Games -- sort of -- when it resumes training on Monday, Feb. 9.

More than half of the players on the national team roster to begin the year are currently playing professionally overseas. Lloy Ball (Woodburn, Ind.), Ryan Millar (Palmdale, Calif.) and Kevin Barnett (Naperville, Ill.) are all playing in Italy, while Clay Stanley (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Dave McKienzie (Littleton, Colo.) are competing in Greece.

Riley Salmon (League City, Texas) and Erik Sullivan (Encinitas, Calif.) are both playing in Russia. Brook Billings (Santa Barbara, Calif.) has taken his game to Japan, Gabe Gardner (San Clemente, Calif.) is in Brazil, Rich Lambourne (Tustin, Calif.) is playing in the Netherlands and Donald Suxho (Korce, Albania) just joined a team in Turkey.

"If I could design the best preparation for Athens, it would not be the preparation that we have this summer," admits Team USA head coach Doug Beal. "We're not going to play enough matches; I'm sure of that. We're not going to have enough training time; I'm sure of that. But the world is the way it is, and we can't change it.

"We've got all these guys playing in different leagues abroad," he adds. "They're all going to get done at different times. They're all going to come back in different states of readiness. We certainly are keeping our fingers crossed that nobody comes back injured.that they're all healthy. We're just going to try to keep them that way."

Depending on when the overseas players return, Beal would ideally like to have all of his players in the gym by June 1.

While a majority of the national team is currently playing professionally overseas, Beal still has nine players that will be practicing at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs beginning Feb. 9: Scott Bunker (Beaver, Utah), Tom Hoff (Park Ridge, Ill.), Adam Naeve (Los Angeles, Calif.), Vernon Podlewski (Maui, Hawaii), Jim Polster (Laguna Nigel, Calif.), Reid Priddy (Richmond, Va.), Chris Seiffert (Laguna Nigel, Calif.), Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, Calif.) and Mac Wilson (Palmdale, Calif.).

Those athletes have been on a break since Team USA qualified for the Olympics by winning the NORCECA Olympic Qualifying Tournament on Jan. 10. The squad breezed through the first five matches of the qualifier, losing just one set along the way, and then came back from a 2-1 deficit after three sets to defeat Cuba in five sets in the championship match.

Now the Americans must shift their focus to preparing for the 2004 Olympics, which run from Aug. 13-29. The most important keys to successful preparation, says Beal, is for the team to play meaningful matches prior to Athens and to avoid injuries.

"We feel if we can get a half-dozen or so matches against some of those teams that are ranked ahead of us that will help us a great deal," explains Beal, who will be taking a team to the Olympics for a record-tying third time (1984, 2000 and 2004). "We just haven't had an opportunity with our best team to play the top European teams or Brazil enough to get comfortable with how they play and the level that they play at right now. That is maybe as important as anything.

"The second thing for us is just to be healthy and fresh," he added. "We need to train and we need to be cohesive as a unit, but it is probably going to be more beneficial for us to be healthy and fresh. If you look back at the 2003 year and you look at the guys who missed substantial time.if we can avoid that this year it will be a big plus for us."

Starters like Stanley, Hoff, Priddy, Billings and Gardner all missed significant time last season with a variety of injuries.

"If we can avoid those things-and we're certainly going to do everything we can to try to make sure that we don't over-train guys or fatigue them or whatever-that's going to help us a great deal," said Beal. "Having a group of eight or nine guys -- your top eight or nine guys -- together and healthy is really key."

The United States nearly qualified for the Olympics last November when it finished fourth at the first Olympic qualifier, the World Cup in Japan. Despite that disappointment, Team USA still rose in the world rankings from No. 10 to No. 6.

World Cup champion Brazil is ranked No. 1, followed by Italy, Serbia and Montenegro, France and fifth-ranked Russia.

"I think that we can be fighting for a medal in Greece," admits Beal. "It's not a pie in the sky to believe that we can win every time we walk on the court against any team. But there are teams that are ahead of us today that on most days play a little better than we do. And so we certainly would like to try to make that difference up if we can between now and Athens."

For more information, go to the USA Volleyball web site.