NORCECA Men’s Volleyball Olympic Qualifier

Olympic Trials Adventure #5- The NORCECA Olympic Qualifier for Men’s Volleyball in Long Beach, California, May 10-13. A quick explanation of the format:

Pool Play (Mon-Wed)- Eight teams, four in each pool. A- Cuba Canada,  Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic  B-Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago, Mexico and the United States. Each team played the other teams in their pool once.

Quarter-Finals/Semi-Finals (Thurs-Fri)– Each team played a team from the other pool, determined by their win/loss record. Established the seedings for Saturday’s finals.

Finals (Sat)- #7 vs. #8, #5 vs. #6, etc. finishing with the Championship Final. Of eight teams, only the winner would be qualifying to the Olympics.

We arrived in Long Beach on Thursday for the last two matches of cross pool play. Jim and I brought along our own resident expert and favorite son, Shane. Shane coaches for Colorado United, a girl’s club volleyball program in the Denver area. To say that he’s passionate about coaching and volleyball would be an understatement!  So having his enthusiasm and expertise (not to mention irreverent wit) was a bonus! So were the early Mother’s Day flowers!

Eager to check out the action, we headed to the Walter Pyramid (yes it really is a pyramid) on the Long Beach State campus. And to our surprise….. there wasn’t much action! We were among only a handful of spectators there to cheer on Trinidad/Tobago vs. Cuba. It was a little disheartening to see the athletes not being well supported. (Average attendance for non-USA games was about 150-200 spectators). But we were excited to be there and it was a good match to warm up our volleyball eyes on and get a feel for the level of competition.

During the second match, three athletes from the Cuban team sat behind us, so we asked if they’d take a picture with us. With no hesitation, they jumped up, organized the pose & flashed huge smiles. And then to our surprise, one of the players pulled out his camera and asked if he could take a picture too!  Somewhere in Cuba a mom is laughing at the short white people!

 

Over the three days we saw 10 matches, 30+ games (or sets as they call them). The gap in skill level between the top four teams and the bottom four was fairly significant. What we thought was some pretty decent volleyball the first day paled in comparison to the better teams we watched later. The power teams were USA, Cuba and Canada. But all the countries had some outstanding players and executed a number of unbelievable plays.

On paper, the Championship match should have been Cuba vs. USA. But Cuba was upset by Canada earlier on, making it a USA/Canada final. The Pyramid was packed to the rafters for both the USA’s semi-final and final matches. Lots of red, white & blue attire, some crazily garbed fans, USA Volleyball kazoos and cowbells, made for a raucous, energetic, totally exciting Championship Final. While Canada challenged the USA in the first game, they couldn’t continue to match their execution and intensity and TEAM USA won in 3 games.

Again, there are no words to adequately describe the level of TEAM USA’s play. The team was a hard hitting, well oiled machine that is looking like a good bet to successfully defend its 2008 Gold Medal.

Final Thoughts and Observations:

• Volleyball is an intricate combination of strength, power, finesse, skill, quickness and awareness blended into a well choreographed dance by six very large men.
• My well trained gymnastics eye does not see 12 people at once. Shane patiently tried to teach me what to look for. Once again I was annoyed by my lack of knowledge and ability to watch as intelligently as I would have liked.
• I can’t begin to describe how DANG HARD they hit the ball! Several balls were hit so hard they went 15 rows up in the stands on the bounce. Others almost knocked over the opposing player!
• The six team members not playing are not allowed in the competition area. They’re required to stand behind a line in the corner, off the floor. It looked like they were being sent to “time out!”
• We heard that recently several Cuban athletes and coaches had defected during competitions in the US. The delegation was being watched very closely at the awards ceremony. We would have taken them home with us in a minute!
• Cuba and Canada (and maybe some of the others) have one final opportunity to qualify to the Olympics. Only 12 teams will earn the honor to compete in the Games.
• Because of individuals overseas team commitments the men’s team had only been practicing 10 days together before this tournament. Yet they completed the tournament with an impressive 15-1 record!
• On a personal note- We were fortunate enough to reconnect with two cousins, Dan and Kevin whom we haven’t seen in so many years, none of us could remember when the last time was. We loved catching up & reminiscing. Thanks guys!
• How could a very dark skinned player with dreadlocks from Costa Rica be……………………….. Richard Smith?

In Celebration of Sport!