Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 6, 1990 TAG: 9006060008
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Brill
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Olympic movement is not exactly flourishing in the good ol' U.S. of A.
The American volleyball team played the Japanese national team Monday night at Roanoke College, losing three games to one. Only two of the dozen players - Kim Oden and Tammy Liley - were on the team that finished seventh in the '88 Olympics at Seoul, Korea.
But that's the way sports operates in the United States, which is a good reason we don't dominate in many international meets, including the Olympics.
"The entire world has a different sports scheme," said U.S. coach Terry Liskevych.
"Everywhere else, there's a World Cup, world championships and the Olympics," Liskevych said. "Here, our emphasis is on the Super Bowl, the World Series and the Final Four. Not that that's bad; that's just the way it is."
In the United States, there is no government support. Athletes perform if they choose, and usually at a financial sacrifice.
The American volleyball players, for example, receive stipends ranging from $10,000 to $30,000, said Ken Grosse, director of USA team events. Nobody is getting rich, and there is insufficient support to sustain an experienced team long enough to become world-quality.
While Americans are concerned with football, baseball and basketball, the biggest sport worldwide - by far - is soccer.
"When we don't win a game in the World Cup . . .," Liskevych said. "The only reason there's interest is because we [the United States] have the World Cup in '94. But people don't know the national team. It's not on TV."
The second biggest world sport is - would you believe? - volleyball. The International Volleyball Federation is composed of 179 countries.
It also is big in America among women, with more than 280,000 playing at the high-school level.
"There is a huge pool of talent," Grosse said. "It's a popular game."
That doesn't mean the United States will be a medalist in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. In fact, Americans are longshots to make the eight-team field; only in 1984, at Los Angeles, did the U.S. team win a medal [silver].
How good could the U.S. team be? Consider that the men's team, which won back-to-back Olympics in '84 and '88, was composed exclusively of players who lived within 150 miles of each other on the California coast. What if the player pool had been nationwide?
In other nations, volleyball players - and athletes in other sports - play for club teams. Their goal always is to advance to the national team. And - we're not talking democracy here - there is no choice. "At Seoul, the Chinese had players who didn't want to be on the team, but they weren't permitted to quit," Liskevych said.
That, of course, is not the American way.
Financial support is another problem. Liskevych spends most of his time fund-raising. "You don't think the Russian and Cuban coaches worry about that?" he said.
Grosse, U.S. teams' man Friday, does a little bit of everything. In another nation, he would be on a well-staffed committee. "People on the other teams can't believe what I do," he said.
In order to win, Liskevych stressed, it takes money, time and experience. "Gone are the days when you can get teams together and win," he said. "You've got to have a budget intact, so the coach doesn't have to worry about money."
In his sport, he said, "You've got to sell it, and it's a real tough sell."
Not everywhere. American men star in the pro circuit in Italy, where Olympic stars Karch Kiraly and Scott Timmons make well into six figures. As is the case in basketball, only two Americans can play on a team, Grosse said. Kiraly and Timmons play for the same firm that employed basketball stars Danny Ferry and Brian Shaw.
In the summer, the men can make another $100,000 playing pro volleyball on the California beaches.
"There are so many alternatives," Grosse said in explaining why many Americans disdain the spartan life of a national-team athlete. They might do it once, but not forever.
He spoke of two members of the Russian volleyball team who had played together since 1979.
It was evident in Monday's match. Americans, all college women, were slightly older. The younger Japanese were far more experienced, having been programmed all along for this task. They had played together, their familiarity instantly apparent.
How organized were the Japanese, rated fourth in the world? Numbered one through 13, they are listed according to age. No. 1 is the old woman at 25. No. 13 is the 19-year-old.
Simple and unencumbered, if not democratic.
There is an American way. In international sports, we have to understand that it is not necessarily a winning way. That is our challenge. If the status quo is maintained, Olympic heroics will become mostly a memory.
by CNB