USA Profile.Qxd
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USA TEAM PROFILE - Men’s The U.S. Men’s national Volleyball team is looking to regain some of the shine that it had when it won three straight Olympic medals in Los Angeles (gold in 1984), Seoul, South Korea (gold in 1988) and Barcelona, Spain (bronze in 1992).To get to that point, however, Hall of Fame head coach Doug Beal needs more consistency from a relatively young team that went 19-17 in 2002 and fin- ished ninth at the World Championships in Argentina. At that tournament the men won their first four matches, including a come-from-behind five-set thriller over eventual world champion Brazil, and was in a perfect position to reach the quarterfinals. But a crushing five-set loss to Greece and a four-game setback to Serbia and Montenegro in the final match of the second round ended the sea- son for Team USA. The men, ranked No. 13 in the world to start this new year, showed glimpses of its potential to return to the upper echelon of the Volleyball world last season, posting wins over three of the top four teams in the world (No. 2 Brazil, No. 3 Serbia and Montenegro and No. 4 Italy). But losses to teams like No. 20 Bulgaria, No. 20 Canada and No. 19 Czech Republic revealed the dark side of the team’s potential. Young talent like Brook Billings, Clay Stanley, Jim Polster, Adam Naeve, Dave McKienzie, Reid Priddy and Chris Seiffert all emerged as possible players that Beal can depend on this coming season. It’s just a matter of how much their maturity and skill levels have developed since the end of last season. Beal is also hopeful that 2000 Olympians like Kevin Barnett, Tom Hoff, George Roumain and Andy Witt can recover from a variety of injuries they have suffered in the past two years to return to the squad and make an impact along with his younger players. “With the maturity and growth of guys like Stanley and Naeve and Priddy and Polster and Billings and McKienzie—and with the return of a Hoff, a Barnett, a Witt, a Roumain, a (Brandon) Taliaferro—we could be a force, I think,” said Beal. “Obviously I am hoping we can get every one of those guys in the gym. Realistically, however, I doubt all of those players will be healthy or available. We have a lot of (people) that may not play, but if one or two of them do with the group we had last summer, we can be a substantially different, a substan- tially stronger, a substantially better team.” Recent records: NORCECA Men's Championship in Mexico (September) finished first USA beat Canada 3-1 (20-25, 25-18, 25-22, 25-21). USA beat Mexico 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 29-27) World Cup record USA beat Guatemala 3-0 (25-15, 25-21, 25-13) 1999 - fourth USA defeated Panama 3-0 (25-12, 25-11, 25-14) 1995 - fourth 1991 - third 1989 - fourth 1985 - first 1977 - 10th Team Roster 1 Ball Lloy , 5 Sullivan Erik, 7 Suxho Donald, 8 Priddy William, 9 Millar Ryan, 10 Salmon Riley, 11 Billings Brook, 12 Hoff Thomas, 13 Stanley Clayton, 15 Gardner Gabriel, 17 Polster James, 18 Naeve Adam..