A Lesson in Volleyball Sociology

Ken Stanley has expectations for his Pierce College volleyball team that go beyond its performance on the court.

“It’s more important that you’re a good person than it is to be a good athlete,” said Stanley, who was an assistant basketball coach at Pierce under Denny Crum in the 1960s.

“That’s putting it very simply, but we say that in a lot of different ways.”

The most important message Stanley had for his team before the season: Stick together.

“I told this team at the start of the year that I think one of the real keys is how well they get along with each other, “ Stanley said. “I think this team is very compatible. If you were to run a sociogram on them you wouldn’t find anybody in the center. Everybody would be about equal.

“It’s like they don’t have individual identity, and they’re very concerned about the success of the team. That’s extremely unusual for any team. I don’t even worry about interpersonal problems, because they just don’t exist.”

But there were some problems with the Pierce volleyball program a few years ago. It didn’t exist.

Stanley retired from coaching to pursue business interests in 1982 and Pierce eliminated volleyball. But Stanley returned in 1985 and the team was reinstated, finishing second to Long Beach City College in the Southern California championships.

Pierce won the South Coast Conference this season with a 10-0 record, winning 20 straight matches. The Brahmas are led by hitters Bob Samuelson, Erik Peters and setter Tony Rusen.

Pierce will meet the winner of the game between Golden West and Santa Barbara, which will be played Friday at 2:30 p.m. The winner faces the Brahmas for the Southern California Championship Saturday at Pierce at 7:30 p.m.

“I’ve gone back and I’ve really done a lot of study in educational psychology,” Stanley said. “I’m concerned and interested in how I can make my players better players and better teams. I think a lot of coaches don’t understand the psychology enough.”