Post by bigfan on Dec 18, 2004 11:53:10 GMT -5
Volleyball, and so much more
By Bob Keisser
Staff columnist
It was just one small line of type in his bio. Minnesota's fine women's volleyball coach Mike Hebert, who sends his Gophers against Stanford today in the NCAA title game at the Long Beach Arena, was born in Long Beach, Jan. 7, 1944.
Native! Yes, but his stay here was brief. He remembers little of Long Beach, his family moving to San Bernardino while he was a toddler. So there will not be any emotional hometown moments for Hebert if the Gophers win the title.
The story, however, does not end there. Hebert's saga is as unique, so good that you want to call him a hometown hero.
His family moved to San Bernardino because his father, Bob, was in the Air Force and stationed at Norton Air Force Base. His dad had flown extensively in World War II, and he was recalled to active duty during the Korean War.
His mother contributed to the war effort at the same time as a real-life Rosie the Riveter at a manufacturing plant in Long Beach, where she worked on cockpit instruments.
Bob Hebert, who could fly almost anything, from B-29s to Humps to cargo planes, was lost in action when his plane was shot down in Korea.
The impact of his father's passing was predictable. Hebert was proud that his dad served his country, but lost him in the process before he was even 10, and in a war that ended up a stalemate. Years later, in the '70s, when Mike was working on his doctorate at Indiana University, he was active in Midwest war protests. "Me and a million others," he says quietly.
There are more rings of life in the Hebert tree.
Out of high school, Hebert attended UCSB and earned a degree in sociology. He planned to get a doctorate but decided after graduation to join the Peace Corp.
He spent two years in Nigeria as a teacher-trainer in science, showing young people there how to become a teacher. Going from Santa Barbara to Nigeria pretty much defines the concept of culture shock.
"It was always a fascination for me to do something different," last year's collegiate coach of the year said. "The Peace Corp was popular then. You're living in the jungle where food and drink is hard to obtain. It was an abrupt life change.
"But I enjoyed it. I learned as much from that as I did in college, especially about ethnocentric differences. It showed me that it's a big world."
You may have noticed by now that there's been no mention of volleyball since the first paragraph. And in 1974, when he finished his doctorate in philosophy at Indiana, he fully expected he would become a teacher.
He knew and loved volleyball, but his actual experience was low-key. He learned to play on a backyard sand court of his fraternity in UCSB, and would eventually play on the UCSB club team. When he landed in Indiana, he met a few of the Midwest's best known volleyball players and coaches, including Olympic coaches-to-be Doug Beal and Mick Haley.
He played on a club team and helped organize leagues. He loved the sport, but was an average player and never trained as a coach. His volleyball friends encouraged him to apply for a part-time coaching job at Pitt, salary $2,000. Meager, but he accepted, then asked when he could meet the guys.
The Pitt official said he would meet the girls soon. "Girls? I thought it was the men's team. I had never even seen a women's volleyball match," Hebert said.
He turned the job down, but it was offered again more than a month later, and he accepted it, mainly because be would eventually coach both volleyball programs, which he did in 1978 and 1979.
"I set out to teach what I knew as a player," he said. "But I was a terrible player. I remember going to my first practice wearing a baseball cap and polyester coaching shorts with a whistle around my neck. I ran the team through some stupid drills and the players all looked at me as if I was crazy."
Hebert was smart enough to immerse himself in volleyball, attending every clinic he could. He learned fast. His first Pitt team went 27-5. He stayed at Pitt four years before getting the New Mexico job, taking the Lobos to their first-ever NCAA tournament. He stayed there for three years before moving to Illinois.
With the Illini, he won four Big Ten titles, earned postseason berths 11 times in 13 years, advanced to the Sweet 16 four times and into the Final Four twice, losing to Hawaii each time in the national semifinals.
Minnesota hired him in 1996, and he turned a program with no history of success into a powerhouse. Last year, the Gophers got to the Final Four and lost to USC. Now they're in their first title game.
He is widely respected among his peers because of his coaching style. His volleyball background may have been shallow to start, but his years of studying sociology and philosophy had taught him a lot about working with people and team-building.
"I don't know more Xs and Ox as other coaches," said Hebert, who wrote a book on his life experience in 1992. "I think I have an intuitive sense about working with players, some insight into the human condition and why people act the way they do.
"I monitor the psychology of a match a lot, moving people around to give the team its best chance to win. I always preach to them that winning comes from every player addressing the needs of the team."
It works. This year he became one of just five active coaches with 800-plus career wins.
People on this coast are beholden to California being the center of the volleyball world, and 61 of the 96 berths in the Final Four since the NCAA held its first tourney in 1981 have gone to teams from California (50) or the rest of the West (11).
Aside from Nebraska (eight berths, two titles), the Midwest in general hasn't matched up. Hebert has four of the eight Final Four tickets among Big Ten teams, two with Illinois and two with Minnesota. Ohio State made two visits and Michigan State and Wisconsin one each. (Penn State is not included since it did most of its winning before joining the Big Ten).
A title would make Minnesota one of just four colleges to break-up the California-Hawaii hold on the title. But based on his intriguing life and the path he took to today's title game, maybe Minnesota won't mind if we claim a small piece of his title for ourselves.
By Bob Keisser
Staff columnist
It was just one small line of type in his bio. Minnesota's fine women's volleyball coach Mike Hebert, who sends his Gophers against Stanford today in the NCAA title game at the Long Beach Arena, was born in Long Beach, Jan. 7, 1944.
Native! Yes, but his stay here was brief. He remembers little of Long Beach, his family moving to San Bernardino while he was a toddler. So there will not be any emotional hometown moments for Hebert if the Gophers win the title.
The story, however, does not end there. Hebert's saga is as unique, so good that you want to call him a hometown hero.
His family moved to San Bernardino because his father, Bob, was in the Air Force and stationed at Norton Air Force Base. His dad had flown extensively in World War II, and he was recalled to active duty during the Korean War.
His mother contributed to the war effort at the same time as a real-life Rosie the Riveter at a manufacturing plant in Long Beach, where she worked on cockpit instruments.
Bob Hebert, who could fly almost anything, from B-29s to Humps to cargo planes, was lost in action when his plane was shot down in Korea.
The impact of his father's passing was predictable. Hebert was proud that his dad served his country, but lost him in the process before he was even 10, and in a war that ended up a stalemate. Years later, in the '70s, when Mike was working on his doctorate at Indiana University, he was active in Midwest war protests. "Me and a million others," he says quietly.
There are more rings of life in the Hebert tree.
Out of high school, Hebert attended UCSB and earned a degree in sociology. He planned to get a doctorate but decided after graduation to join the Peace Corp.
He spent two years in Nigeria as a teacher-trainer in science, showing young people there how to become a teacher. Going from Santa Barbara to Nigeria pretty much defines the concept of culture shock.
"It was always a fascination for me to do something different," last year's collegiate coach of the year said. "The Peace Corp was popular then. You're living in the jungle where food and drink is hard to obtain. It was an abrupt life change.
"But I enjoyed it. I learned as much from that as I did in college, especially about ethnocentric differences. It showed me that it's a big world."
You may have noticed by now that there's been no mention of volleyball since the first paragraph. And in 1974, when he finished his doctorate in philosophy at Indiana, he fully expected he would become a teacher.
He knew and loved volleyball, but his actual experience was low-key. He learned to play on a backyard sand court of his fraternity in UCSB, and would eventually play on the UCSB club team. When he landed in Indiana, he met a few of the Midwest's best known volleyball players and coaches, including Olympic coaches-to-be Doug Beal and Mick Haley.
He played on a club team and helped organize leagues. He loved the sport, but was an average player and never trained as a coach. His volleyball friends encouraged him to apply for a part-time coaching job at Pitt, salary $2,000. Meager, but he accepted, then asked when he could meet the guys.
The Pitt official said he would meet the girls soon. "Girls? I thought it was the men's team. I had never even seen a women's volleyball match," Hebert said.
He turned the job down, but it was offered again more than a month later, and he accepted it, mainly because be would eventually coach both volleyball programs, which he did in 1978 and 1979.
"I set out to teach what I knew as a player," he said. "But I was a terrible player. I remember going to my first practice wearing a baseball cap and polyester coaching shorts with a whistle around my neck. I ran the team through some stupid drills and the players all looked at me as if I was crazy."
Hebert was smart enough to immerse himself in volleyball, attending every clinic he could. He learned fast. His first Pitt team went 27-5. He stayed at Pitt four years before getting the New Mexico job, taking the Lobos to their first-ever NCAA tournament. He stayed there for three years before moving to Illinois.
With the Illini, he won four Big Ten titles, earned postseason berths 11 times in 13 years, advanced to the Sweet 16 four times and into the Final Four twice, losing to Hawaii each time in the national semifinals.
Minnesota hired him in 1996, and he turned a program with no history of success into a powerhouse. Last year, the Gophers got to the Final Four and lost to USC. Now they're in their first title game.
He is widely respected among his peers because of his coaching style. His volleyball background may have been shallow to start, but his years of studying sociology and philosophy had taught him a lot about working with people and team-building.
"I don't know more Xs and Ox as other coaches," said Hebert, who wrote a book on his life experience in 1992. "I think I have an intuitive sense about working with players, some insight into the human condition and why people act the way they do.
"I monitor the psychology of a match a lot, moving people around to give the team its best chance to win. I always preach to them that winning comes from every player addressing the needs of the team."
It works. This year he became one of just five active coaches with 800-plus career wins.
People on this coast are beholden to California being the center of the volleyball world, and 61 of the 96 berths in the Final Four since the NCAA held its first tourney in 1981 have gone to teams from California (50) or the rest of the West (11).
Aside from Nebraska (eight berths, two titles), the Midwest in general hasn't matched up. Hebert has four of the eight Final Four tickets among Big Ten teams, two with Illinois and two with Minnesota. Ohio State made two visits and Michigan State and Wisconsin one each. (Penn State is not included since it did most of its winning before joining the Big Ten).
A title would make Minnesota one of just four colleges to break-up the California-Hawaii hold on the title. But based on his intriguing life and the path he took to today's title game, maybe Minnesota won't mind if we claim a small piece of his title for ourselves.