Something most people would not imagine happening is under way in the women’s volleyball program at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. ADVERTISING Something most people would not imagine happening is under way in the women’s volleyball program at the
Something most people would not imagine happening is under way in the women’s volleyball program at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
You could say The Man is in town, but you could also refer to Carl McGown as the Guru, the Smartest Guy in the Room or maybe the Volleyball Whisperer.
Vulcans coach Tino Reyes puts the presence of the new “assistant coach” in simple terms.
“He is, in my estimation,” Reyes said last week between practices, “the foremost teacher of the sport of volleyball in the world.”
Reyes is far from alone in that belief, for obvious reasons.
McGown coached BYU to two national championships, has been on seven Olympic teams as a coach and also coached in seven world championships. His island roots go back to the 1960s when he coached, and then served as athletic director (1964-68) at BYU-Hawaii. He has been in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame since 2011, but that’s just the start.
McGown has represented a kind of Ultimate Word when it comes to teaching precision volleyball techniques that give his players a clear advantage, if they can follow his direction.
“To me, having Dr. McGown here, actually coaching these kids, is about the same as if this was basketball and John Wooden came over for the season to work with a Division II team,” said Debbie Dewey, a recently retired high school volleyball coach from Bend, Oregon, with an impressive track record of her own. “That’s how high his profile is.”
Dewey is a volunteer assistant, on campus for the Vulcans for the season, lured by her friendship with Reyes – one of her former players is on the UH-Hilo roster – but, at the end of the day, it’s probably fair to say she is here because McGown is here.
Reyes has known McGown for years, his son Jaylen played at BYU for McGown’s son, who succeeded dad as coach, and the two of them have spent many an hour in and around clinics and seminars dissecting the game and how it should best be taught.
“I have a lot of respect for Tino,” McGown said the other day when asked if he could explain why he’s helping coach a Division II program, “and you know, I’m an old guy who likes being in gyms, that’s the way it is when you love something like that, you want to stay involved.”
More than simply “involved,” Reyes has asked McGown to essentially run the program.
“He’s letting me write practices, instruct and teach,” McGown said, smiling. “At some point, I fully expect I’ll say something like, ‘I think this girl should be starting instead of that girl,’ or something and then we’ll see what happens.”
He was making a joke. They get along famously at Hilo already, with McGown teaching his precision details to gain an edge.
“You don’t have to be very smart to realize you have to pay attention to detail,” McGown said, “it’s about trying to attain perfection.”
He mentioned that his son coached BYU to a first place finish and a 21-3 record two years ago. Statistics revealed that the Cougars were able to score on 53 percent of their available points in conference matches that season, while eighth place Santa Barbara converted 51 percent of opportunities into points.
“That’s the difference,” he said, “it’s a very, very thin line, but perhaps we can help a bit.”
For as detailed as his teaching style is, McGown didn’t need to know much about UH-Hilo to offer his help.
“I knew it was DII, I knew they were in the wrong half of the league,” he said, “and I knew I had an opportunity extended to me to try to help out. That’s enough for me, I can’t imagine not being a gym, working with players.”
During an interview, I asked McGown if he could demonstrate a simple technical error made by most players. He stood up, bent over a bit, locked his forearms and slowly pantomimed the move to return a serve, palms up, fingers bent, forearms stiff.
“It’s the difference between that,” he said, “and this.”
I could not tell the difference, it was matter of degrees in the arm positioning.
“It takes time,” he said.
Information of a highly technical and indispensable variety is flooding into the heads of these UH-Hilo women on a daily basis in training sessions.
They will absolutely be a smarter team with a vastly improved sense of what it takes to win. How much intelligence can be compressed into winning ways when the season starts in two weeks?
That’s why they have volleyball seasons.
Contact Bart with comments, ideas at barttribuneherald@gmail.com.
