IT’S BECOME A SMASH : Volleyball’s Laid-Back Reputation Has Been Spiked Recently With Addition of a Different Breed of Participant and Coach

High school volleyball has come a long way from its humble beginnings, when its image was one of players with long, sun-bleached hair wandering in off the beach and kicking the sand off their toes before lacing up the sneakers and taking the court.

Hair styles are shorter now, for starters. Real athletes play volleyball, and they aren’t ashamed to admit it. And what was once considered something of a bastion for beach bums has evolved into a legitimate varsity sport, complete with coaches who have more than a passing knowledge of the game’s intricacies.

It wasn’t that way back in 1973, when boys’ volleyball first became a CIF-sanctioned sport. Albert Gasparian, the men’s and women’s volleyball coach at Golden West College, was a senior at Huntington Beach High School then.

“It was kind of a ‘coach yourself’ type of thing,” Gasparian recalled. “We were lucky if we got the gym every day for practice. There was no way we got in there before basketball season ended. We used to practice on the asphalt, and we were lucky if we had eight volleyballs.”

Coaches still have to wait their turn for the gym today, but what goes on once they get inside is a sharp contrast from prep volleyball’s formative years. The game, Gasparian said, has become much more sophisticated, much more competitive.

“Those guys do things now as high school sophomores that I hadn’t even heard of until my third year of coaching,” Gasparian said.

“The two big areas it has improved in are, No. 1, there are more real good athletes out there and, No. 2, they’re getting better coaching. In the past five years, boys’ high school coaching has improved dramatically. The young guys who have finished school and have come back to coach and teach have made a big difference.”

Tom Pestolesi is one such coach. Pestolesi went to Cal State Long Beach before transferring to the University of Hawaii, where he was a two-time All-American. He replaced Mike Pomeroy as the boys’ coach at Estancia last year, and took the Eagles to the Southern Section championship, where they lost to Mira Costa. This year, Pestolesi is serving as the president of the Orange County Boys’ Volleyball Coaches Assn.

“We’re getting better coaches,” he said. “When I started playing (in the mid-seventies), it seemed like the coaches were mostly guys who had played the beach game. Now, you’re seeing more coaches with college and national-level experience . . . guys who really know the indoor game.”

Bob Yoder, in his fourth year as the men’s coach at USC, played his high school volleyball at San Clemente High School, graduating in 1974.

“That was our first year as a varsity sport,” he said. “The type of game we played was so simple compared to what they’re doing now.”

Of course, coaching is always easier when you have more talented athletes to work with. Laguna Beach High School Coach Bill Ashen has had his share. His Artist teams won Southern Section titles in 1981, ’82 and ’83. Ashen began his playing career as a walk-on at Cal State Long Beach in 1972.

“I was a 6-foot-4 middle blocker,” he said. “I’d be lucky to be a back-row specialist now. Nowadays, at 6-4 you have to have wings. I think that’s a direct result of the high school guys playing at a higher level.”

The image of the sport also has taken a turn for the better. It’s OK to play volleyball now. Really.

“They had 50 freshmen come out for volleyball at Edison this year,” Gasparian said. “Before, that was unheard of.

“There’s a greater acceptance by parents to let their kids play volleyball. There was a time when parents thought volleyball players were just a bunch of beach bums. Now, they’re seeing how many volleyball players are getting college scholarships.”

Coaches at both the high school and college levels say that the success of the U.S. teams in the 1984 Olympics can’t help but trickle down. The U. S. men won the gold medal, the women won the silver.

“It’s definitely had an impact in terms of awareness,” Yoder said. “Now, everybody knows how the game is played. In the past, you kind of had to tell people.”

Said Ashen: “I think the Olympics really had an impact on the kids. They’re actually talking about role models now. You hear them mentioning names like Karch (Kiraly), (Steve) Timmons, Flo (Hyman) and Rita (Crockett).”