Angela Rock Thrilled to Be Playing on U.S. Team : Framing a Life in Volleyball

Six years ago, Angela Rock snapped photographs of members of the U.S. Women’s Volleyball team as they stepped out of their van and walked into the Anaheim Convention Center for an exhibition match. Tonight, she’ll see the national team in Anaheim again. But she won’t be there to watch; she’ll be there to play against Japan at 7:30.

Rock, 23, was a junior at El Toro High School the first time she watched the U.S. team. After witnessing the intensity and skill of the team’s performance, Rock let it be known that world-class volleyball would be her athletic mecca.

“It got to be almost an obsession with me,” Rock said. “I used to talk about them all the time. I wanted to know what they did in practice, how they wore their uniforms, everything. I drove my friends crazy.”

Rock wasn’t always interested in volleyball, or any team sport. She had grown up in Buena Park, spending much of her time riding motorcycles and skateboards with boys on her block.

But in her junior year, her family moved to El Toro. In an effort to meet people, she considered trying out for a team sport.

“I was really stuck,” she said. “Back in Buena Park I always thought, ‘Play on a school team? No way.’ I wasn’t into it. But I had to meet people somehow.”

She went out for track, basketball, softball and volleyball, with varying levels of success.

“I was a spaz,” she said. “I couldn’t really control my body. I never played team sports, and I had a hard time getting started.”

Once she did, Rock became a pretty good athlete, especially in softball. She was named the Sea View League’s most valuable player as a junior. But Rock’s volleyball abilities were far from notable.

“I wasn’t very good--at all,” she said. “I never played (in games). But still, I thought I had potential. I always knew I was a good athlete. I was quick and strong, and I was really determined to get better.”

That summer and into her senior year, Rock practiced with the American National Volleyball Assn., a developmental program. She improved enough to earn a starting position with the Chargers.

Toward the end of the season, Rock heard that the women’s national team was practicing at nearby Coto de Casa and that U.S. team Coach Arlie Selinger had been allowing two top El Toro juniors--Tracy Clark and Leslie Devereaux--to join the evening practices. So Rock talked her way into to joining them.

“It was the greatest opportunity,” Rock said. “It was such condensed learning. I developed so much. Especially with my ball control. That’s probably the best part of my game now because of it.”

Her senior season, Rock was named All-CIF. Despite her size (she is 5-feet 8-inches), San Diego State offered her a full scholarship.

SDSU Coach Rudy Suwara was impressed with her strength and jumping ability. He said recently that Rock was the strongest player he has had at SDSU.

Rock played well in her first two years with the Aztecs, helping the team place third in NCAA Division I tournament both years. But in her junior year, Rock was placed in what she considered an ill-favored position--right hitter. Rock said she felt overshadowed by the senior players and became so unhappy that she threatened to quit the team.

“Basically I was being a brat,” she said. “I wasn’t getting the spotlight like some of the others. I was never happy and let everyone know it.”

After the team’s loss early in the playoffs eliminated them at the nationals, Rock received a call from Suwara.

“He told me I was cut,” she said. “That was it, just cut. I was in shock. But it really snapped me out of my phase. We ended up talking it all out, and suddenly I knew what I had to do. It was like now or never.”

Rock eventually rejoined the team. In her senior year, repositioned at left hitter and at outside hitter, she broke the school single-season kill record with 752 and tied another with 81 aces.

“The conflicts she and I had were basically caused because she was a little impatient and wanted to be the best right away,” Suwara said. “When she finally trusted me, she developed her back-hitting skills and ended up getting the 752 kills.”

As team captain, she led the Aztecs to a strong but somewhat disappointing ninth-place finish in the NCAA tournament, where she was named first-team All-American.

With national team tryouts scheduled in February, 1985, Rock left school in December, 1984, to concentrate on volleyball full time. (She says she still wants to earn her degree in psychology.) Two months and hundreds of gym hours later, Rock was chosen as one of the 13 women to play on the U.S.team.

“It’s an incredible honor, “ said Rock, who was the team’s MVP her first year. “When I think about the time I stood out taking pictures (of the U.S. team members) and now I’m one of them, I almost can’t believe it. It’s like I say, ‘Wow. This is my job.’ And there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing.”