Post by roy on Mar 3, 2004 13:39:47 GMT -5
M. volleyball: On home court
As ineligibility abounds in NCAA volleyball, coach Scates wary of recruiting foreigners
By Diamond Leung
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
dleung@media.ucla.edu
From the sands of Hawaii to the stillness of suburban Chicago, the NCAA men's volleyball landscape has been shaken up by the influx of foreign athletes into the sport.
Yet UCLA coach Al Scates, a grizzled veteran of 42 seasons, stands his ground. As one of only three coaches in the MPSF who does not carry at least one foreign player on his roster, Scates instead continues to focus his recruiting efforts on the best players from just the United States and Puerto Rico.
Certainly, this philosophy does not give him a competitive advantage, as foreign players have led Brigham Young University, Hawai'i and Lewis to the past three NCAA titles.
UCLA has not won a national championship since 2000 – ages ago in Bruin time.
Scates does what he does because, according to him, he saw the bombshells coming – the ones that caused the legitimacy of the last two national championship teams to be questioned.
"I was hardly shocked with what happened," Scates said.
After all, he has heard the rumblings.
When Hawai'i publicly admitted last July that it violated NCAA rules by allowing an ineligible player to play on its 2002 national championship team, Scates was not surprised.
Hawai'i declined to name the player in question but Scates already suspected him to be outside hitter Costas Theocharidis, a two-time national Player of the Year and four-time All-American.
After all, he knew multiple players from the 1999 U.S. World University Games Team he had coached who saw Theocharidis play in Greece.
It was eventually revealed in published reports that Theocharidis had played professionally in his native Greece before entering school in 1999 – and the NCAA ultimately stripped Hawai'i of its national championship in September. Hawai'i has appealed the ruling.
Three months later, Lewis self-reported an NCAA violation regarding the use of an ineligible player on its 2003 team.
The Division II school in Romeoville, Ill., had garnered national attention after capturing the 2003 national championship.
"They turned themselves in when somebody presented evidence to them, which they didn't discover on their own, of course," Scates said with a laugh.
Junior outside hitter and Mexico native Gustavo Meyer, the MVP of the NCAA Tournament, and senior setter Jose Martins of Brazil appear to be in question. Neither All-American has played in a single match this season, though Martins will be in uniform against UCLA tonight.
"It could have been either one of them," Scates said. "I was just told they've played (professionally.)"
Scates said he heard Meyer accumulated statistics in a professional volleyball league in Switzerland.
Scates also said he was told by a Canadian coach during the Husky Invitational in Saskatchewan this January that he had players who played professionally with the 28-year-old Martins in France.
Lewis Athletic Director Paul Zakowski declined comment on the two players and coach Dave Deuser did not return phone messages.
The NCAA has yet to issue a ruling, but the damage to the legitimacy of Lewis' national championship has apparently been done.
"We haven't had a true national champion in two years," said UCLA middle blocker Chris Peña. "That's terrible for the sport."
Scates also has his suspicions about the 2001 BYU team that featured multiple foreign players and swept UCLA in the NCAA tournament final.
Asked if UCLA's national championship in 2000 was the last legitimate title, Scates laughed and said, "It's possible.
"I'm not going to say I have evidence. It's only what I hear through the grapevine."
Scates, who is against stripping teams retroactively of national titles, denied turning in any team to the NCAA. But that might change in light of what has gone on in the past year.
"My philosophy in the past has been to just beat them, but I would now because it's getting out of hand."
The influx of foreign players came during the mid-1990s, a decade in which UCLA won four of its 18 NCAA titles.
"(Other teams) couldn't beat us with American players," he said. "It's hard.
"(But) if you get a player who's older, who's been trained since he was 12, he's a good player the first day he steps on the court. It's certainly a lot easier than training somebody to be a great player."
Scates said he would recruit foreign players, but it is too difficult to confirm their eligibility.
His logic is this: Volleyball-rich nations generally do not offer high school or college programs. Instead, club teams generally pay talented athletes to play at a young age.
"It's like a farm system in baseball except it starts a lot younger," Scates said.
Therefore, it would be difficult for someone to have the ability to play NCAA volleyball without having gone through the club system.
Scates said he receives at least one e-mail per day from a foreign player inquiring about playing at UCLA that Scates does not believe to be an amateur.
"We just file them away and wait and see where they show up," Scates said with a laugh. "We want to see which school lets them in.
"These coaches claim they check into their background, but I don't know how you can fairly check."
In Scates' mind, the situation is bad, but it is slowly improving. On Feb. 11, the NCAA sent coaches a memo re-emphasizing the rules on amateurs in volleyball in light of reports of the two major violations in 2003.
The memo also stated coaches and players are ultimately responsible for determining amateur status, rather than the NCAA.
"Just as any other sport deals with ineligible players, it needs to be addressed from the moment (foreign players) get to the university," Peña said.
UCLA has had to deal with the issue in its recruitment of players from Puerto Rico.
Junior outside hitter Jonathan Acosta and former setter Jimmy Sepulveda played for UCLA in 2002, representing the first Puerto Rican players to compete for the Bruins since Rick Amon completed his eligibility in 1981.
Both players were also held out of matches in 2003 as UCLA officials worked to ensure they had not played on professional teams.
The background of freshman setter Julio Acevedo, also from Puerto Rico, was thoroughly researched, Scates said.
Scates also recalled how in the 1980s he brought in a talented 18-year-old Italian setter to Westwood.
"He was just too good," Scates said. "I had to take him into a broom closet, back him up against a wall, and get in his face. At that time, he admitted to me that he had taken money and played professionally, so he went back home."
Scates could not remember the player's name.
For the most part though, UCLA has had little reason to worry since only one player from foreign soil – All-American Asbjorn Volstad of Norway – has ever come through the program. Norway does not feature professional volleyball leagues.
Scates said the foreign athletes have improved the level of competition, but they have limited the financial options for deserving American players.
The NCAA limits the number of scholarships for foreign players to 4.5 in men's volleyball.
"Maybe there should be a quota," Scates said. "Maybe you should just give one to a foreign athlete. That might be a solution."
Peña has a simpler solution to dealing with foreign players.
"It's just a matter of us beating them. We can't be worrying about whether their kills should have counted. It's just a little more difficult to beat them because they have more experience."
******************
I am not too fond of this article. I tried to take my Hawaii-bias out as much as I could, but I still don't seem to like it. I think its the writer that I am not too fond of. He makes it sound as if Scates is laughing at the whole situation. I doubt Scates would do that. He knows that the stripping of 2 titles isn't good for the sport.
As ineligibility abounds in NCAA volleyball, coach Scates wary of recruiting foreigners
By Diamond Leung
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
dleung@media.ucla.edu
From the sands of Hawaii to the stillness of suburban Chicago, the NCAA men's volleyball landscape has been shaken up by the influx of foreign athletes into the sport.
Yet UCLA coach Al Scates, a grizzled veteran of 42 seasons, stands his ground. As one of only three coaches in the MPSF who does not carry at least one foreign player on his roster, Scates instead continues to focus his recruiting efforts on the best players from just the United States and Puerto Rico.
Certainly, this philosophy does not give him a competitive advantage, as foreign players have led Brigham Young University, Hawai'i and Lewis to the past three NCAA titles.
UCLA has not won a national championship since 2000 – ages ago in Bruin time.
Scates does what he does because, according to him, he saw the bombshells coming – the ones that caused the legitimacy of the last two national championship teams to be questioned.
"I was hardly shocked with what happened," Scates said.
After all, he has heard the rumblings.
When Hawai'i publicly admitted last July that it violated NCAA rules by allowing an ineligible player to play on its 2002 national championship team, Scates was not surprised.
Hawai'i declined to name the player in question but Scates already suspected him to be outside hitter Costas Theocharidis, a two-time national Player of the Year and four-time All-American.
After all, he knew multiple players from the 1999 U.S. World University Games Team he had coached who saw Theocharidis play in Greece.
It was eventually revealed in published reports that Theocharidis had played professionally in his native Greece before entering school in 1999 – and the NCAA ultimately stripped Hawai'i of its national championship in September. Hawai'i has appealed the ruling.
Three months later, Lewis self-reported an NCAA violation regarding the use of an ineligible player on its 2003 team.
The Division II school in Romeoville, Ill., had garnered national attention after capturing the 2003 national championship.
"They turned themselves in when somebody presented evidence to them, which they didn't discover on their own, of course," Scates said with a laugh.
Junior outside hitter and Mexico native Gustavo Meyer, the MVP of the NCAA Tournament, and senior setter Jose Martins of Brazil appear to be in question. Neither All-American has played in a single match this season, though Martins will be in uniform against UCLA tonight.
"It could have been either one of them," Scates said. "I was just told they've played (professionally.)"
Scates said he heard Meyer accumulated statistics in a professional volleyball league in Switzerland.
Scates also said he was told by a Canadian coach during the Husky Invitational in Saskatchewan this January that he had players who played professionally with the 28-year-old Martins in France.
Lewis Athletic Director Paul Zakowski declined comment on the two players and coach Dave Deuser did not return phone messages.
The NCAA has yet to issue a ruling, but the damage to the legitimacy of Lewis' national championship has apparently been done.
"We haven't had a true national champion in two years," said UCLA middle blocker Chris Peña. "That's terrible for the sport."
Scates also has his suspicions about the 2001 BYU team that featured multiple foreign players and swept UCLA in the NCAA tournament final.
Asked if UCLA's national championship in 2000 was the last legitimate title, Scates laughed and said, "It's possible.
"I'm not going to say I have evidence. It's only what I hear through the grapevine."
Scates, who is against stripping teams retroactively of national titles, denied turning in any team to the NCAA. But that might change in light of what has gone on in the past year.
"My philosophy in the past has been to just beat them, but I would now because it's getting out of hand."
The influx of foreign players came during the mid-1990s, a decade in which UCLA won four of its 18 NCAA titles.
"(Other teams) couldn't beat us with American players," he said. "It's hard.
"(But) if you get a player who's older, who's been trained since he was 12, he's a good player the first day he steps on the court. It's certainly a lot easier than training somebody to be a great player."
Scates said he would recruit foreign players, but it is too difficult to confirm their eligibility.
His logic is this: Volleyball-rich nations generally do not offer high school or college programs. Instead, club teams generally pay talented athletes to play at a young age.
"It's like a farm system in baseball except it starts a lot younger," Scates said.
Therefore, it would be difficult for someone to have the ability to play NCAA volleyball without having gone through the club system.
Scates said he receives at least one e-mail per day from a foreign player inquiring about playing at UCLA that Scates does not believe to be an amateur.
"We just file them away and wait and see where they show up," Scates said with a laugh. "We want to see which school lets them in.
"These coaches claim they check into their background, but I don't know how you can fairly check."
In Scates' mind, the situation is bad, but it is slowly improving. On Feb. 11, the NCAA sent coaches a memo re-emphasizing the rules on amateurs in volleyball in light of reports of the two major violations in 2003.
The memo also stated coaches and players are ultimately responsible for determining amateur status, rather than the NCAA.
"Just as any other sport deals with ineligible players, it needs to be addressed from the moment (foreign players) get to the university," Peña said.
UCLA has had to deal with the issue in its recruitment of players from Puerto Rico.
Junior outside hitter Jonathan Acosta and former setter Jimmy Sepulveda played for UCLA in 2002, representing the first Puerto Rican players to compete for the Bruins since Rick Amon completed his eligibility in 1981.
Both players were also held out of matches in 2003 as UCLA officials worked to ensure they had not played on professional teams.
The background of freshman setter Julio Acevedo, also from Puerto Rico, was thoroughly researched, Scates said.
Scates also recalled how in the 1980s he brought in a talented 18-year-old Italian setter to Westwood.
"He was just too good," Scates said. "I had to take him into a broom closet, back him up against a wall, and get in his face. At that time, he admitted to me that he had taken money and played professionally, so he went back home."
Scates could not remember the player's name.
For the most part though, UCLA has had little reason to worry since only one player from foreign soil – All-American Asbjorn Volstad of Norway – has ever come through the program. Norway does not feature professional volleyball leagues.
Scates said the foreign athletes have improved the level of competition, but they have limited the financial options for deserving American players.
The NCAA limits the number of scholarships for foreign players to 4.5 in men's volleyball.
"Maybe there should be a quota," Scates said. "Maybe you should just give one to a foreign athlete. That might be a solution."
Peña has a simpler solution to dealing with foreign players.
"It's just a matter of us beating them. We can't be worrying about whether their kills should have counted. It's just a little more difficult to beat them because they have more experience."
******************
I am not too fond of this article. I tried to take my Hawaii-bias out as much as I could, but I still don't seem to like it. I think its the writer that I am not too fond of. He makes it sound as if Scates is laughing at the whole situation. I doubt Scates would do that. He knows that the stripping of 2 titles isn't good for the sport.