The new training base for the U.S. women's volleyball team is this lush setting at Coto de Caza in Southern California, where hopes are high for another run at an Olympic medal in 1984.

The team will be back in Colorado Springs at some time in the future for training and competition before heading to Mexico City.

Meanwhile, about fifty miles south of Coto de Caza in San Diego, the Men's National Volleyball Team is setting up headquarters for its new training center. Don Sammis, owner of a major real estate developing company in San Diego, worked for about six months to put the project together. Sammis has been a volleyball enthusiast for years and recently owned a franchise in a professional Volleyball League.

From 1977-1980 the men's team training center was located in Dayton Ohio. Many of the top young players attended colleges or universities on the West Coast on athletic scholarships and it has been difficult in the past to draw these players away from the coast to train for the Olympics. The players wouldn't come to the training centers so the training center has come to them.

The 1977 findings of the President's Commission on Olympic Sports, which criticized the shortcomings of amateur sports in the U.S. today, were; insufficient funds, lack of community support, facilities and equipment, organization and other problem areas.

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The San Diego program has been put together as a response to many of these issues. As a continuation of the Dayton program, players will be encouraged and aided in pursuing educational goals or career possibilities and at the same time to pursue their athletic goal of excellence. It is unrealistic in today's American society to expect young people to totally devote all their time to athletics without compensation from private sponsors, corporations, scholarships, or by allowing the athlete to work part-time.

Sammis, along with businessman Chuck Rolles, is coordinating a job placement program based on the USOC's Olympic Job Opportunities Program, whereby an employer contributes by hiring an athlete to work four hours a day but pays him for full time, the salaries commensurate with the type of job. An athlete will also receive broken time payment while he is away from his job traveling with the team. The older members of the team will be placed in career oriented jobs so that when they finish their careers in volleyball they will have training in another field. The athletes still in college will be placed in non-career oriented jobs such as work in restaurants, unless they want career opportunities. The program proved very successful in Dayton. A Board of Directors will be established for the program including civic leaders and businessmen of San Diego.

The U.S. Volleyball Association has hired 33-year-old Doug Beal as head coach for the quadrennial. Doug was a member of the Nation

al Team for 9 years and previously coached the team from 19771979. Doug selected Bill Neville, currently of Montana State University at Bozeman, to be the assistant coach.

The San Diego training center will operate on a nine month, full time schedule with a three month alternate activity such as a youth league and clinics. It will directly benefit from the USOC's programs of the National Sports Festival, U.S. Olympic Training Center, and Sports Medicine Program. Also a major contribution are the USVBA's fundraising programs and contracts with business corporations.

The staff has high hopes for the men's program and the team. The junior level and college programs in the U.S. are showing great progress. The Men's Jr. Team finished seventh in the Jr. Worlds and won the Pacific Rim Tournament in 1979. "We're making a strong move forward in U.S. volleyball," says Beal. "There are lots of young talented athletes." Many of the best athletes are getting into volleyball, as is evident when one considers 6'-9" Craig Buck of Pepperdine. He's tall, strong and quick and has lots of potential. When asked what he has in mind for the new team Beal had this to say: "We want to have sixty international matches a year with at least half of those inside the States so we can promote the sport. We'd also like to develop an annual international tournament in San Diego and continue our junior program in the summer months with the possibility of an additional Christmas competition for them. I plan to use two setters instead of one, which is different from American teams of the past. I expect us to be very strong at the net. We'll be relatively young compared to the other teams. We expect to be contenders for an Olympic medal in 1984."

The members of the team began gathering in late April with their first competition set for early June in Southern California against the Brazilian National Team. Like the women's team, the men have a busy summer full of travel and competition.

It looks as though both our men's and women's national volleyball teams have all the ingredients they need to pick up some medals in 1984. With a little luck on our side they could indeed be gold ones.

THE OLYMPIAN May 1981