For Keba Phipps, 17, It’s an Education on Volleyball Team : She’s Very Young and Very Good

Keba Phipps intends to become the volleyball version of Cheryl Miller--the world’s best and most exciting player in her sport.

And that may be her most modest goal.

Phipps, 17, also hopes to appear in a future swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated en route to becoming an international fashion model, and then design expensive outfits for women jet-setters.

“I want to do so much it gives me brain damage,” said Phipps, a 6-foot 3-inch Los Angeles native who last November became the youngest and most promising member of the U.S. women’s volleyball team, which is based in San Diego.

Phipps and her teammates will play their first home match of the year at 7:30 tonight against world champion China in Peterson Gym at San Diego State. China defeated the United States to win the gold medal in the 1984 Olympics.

She joined the team last fall after deciding that she didn’t want to attend college. She persuaded Coach Terry Liskevych, who was skeptical, that she was willing to adhere to his standards--athletic, academic and personal.

It wasn’t easy. She had adjustment problems brought on by homesickness, pressure from coaches, teasing by teammates and a feeling of being 17-going-on-23.

“I want to stay young as long as I can,” she said, admitting that she has grown used to having friends who are five and 10 years older, all of whom have been to college.

“I really don’t have any friends my own age in San Diego--not one,” said Phipps, who attended Artesia High School before leaving her Lakewood home and moving in with a foster family in Chula Vista. She is finishing work on a high school degree as a part-time student.

“I mean, I can’t go to some local high school and say, ‘Hi! Would you like to be my friend?’ ”

After several months of adjusting, Phipps has grown more comfortable with her situation.

“It’s not easy to fit in with people who are five or six years older and more mature,” teammate Michelle Boyette said. “There’s a lot bigger difference in 17 and 22 than, say, 25 and 30, but it’s been easier for all of us because Keba is so outgoing and vivacious.

“Don’t let her fool you. She is a very street-wise young lady. She knows what is happening in the world. She has experienced a lot for a 17-year-old. And she definitely has the ability to become a great volleyball player.”

There isn’t much doubt about her athletic talent.

Although Liskevych is trying to lessen the pressure on Phipps by downplaying his expectations, she is convinced that she will become the world’s foremost player.

“I know I can be the best in the world,” she said matter-of-factly. “I really don’t think about having any pressure on me. I know what I can do and what I can be.”

That confidence is partly attributable to nearly five years of guidance from a former coach, Mollie Kavanagh of the Tiger Volleyball Club in Los Angeles.

“When she matures physically, it’s hard to tell what she will be able to do,” Kavanagh said. “Keba is such a great athlete, she probably could be the world record-holder in the high jump if she wanted. I always loved seeing her up there in the heavens.”

Said Liskevych: “She does have the innate talent to be as dominant a net player as we have had. She is brilliant at times, but she is not consistent yet. It’s going to take time, but I think by the Olympics she can be a very good player. I know I’m going to keep tightening the vise.”

Coach and pupil are still testing one another but seem to have a mutual respect. She doesn’t want to work as hard as he wants to push her, but she realizes that it’s for her own good.

“All I have right now is potential,” said Phipps, borrowing a phrase she must have heard 100 times from Liskevych.

She knows that means little right now.

Liskevych was apprehensive about accepting Phipps into the U.S. volleyball program last year.

“I had concerns about where she would live and how she would adjust,” he said. “I don’t regret my decision to take her, but it’s been refreshing to know my original view of not including high school players was a good one.

“Keba’s a real good kid. We’ve had to be tough on her, but we’ve also spent more time with her on the outside issues in her life than any other players on the team. Only now, after several months with us, is she realizing the inner drive it takes.”

That notion is incomplete and misleading, according to Kavanagh, Phipps’ biggest backer.

“Keba was totally prepared, and going to San Diego was just a natural progression for her,” Kavanagh said. “I think it was harder for San Diego to realize how unusual and gifted she is than for Keba to adjust to being there.

“Their practices are no harder than ours (3 1/2 hours), just a little more frequent. We cracked the whip on her too. I just don’t think they had any idea how much knowledge of volleyball she has. Heck, we were like a minor league team playing the Dodgers because we played college teams in open competition along with our regular schedule.”

Phipps gives Kavanagh all the credit for developing her talents, and even Liskevych referred to the Tiger coach as “the unsung heroine” in the Keba Phipps story.

“Mollie always told me what I could become, but I never really took her seriously when I was just 13,” Phipps said. “I mean, I used to trip over the lines on the floor when I was just starting. I’d look at some 17-year-old and think she was just awesome. . . . Mollie taught me so much. There’s no way I’d be here without her.

“She pushed me hard, but in a way I liked. It was still fun. It was not fun when I first got to San Diego, but it’s getting funner now. Of course, at this level, you’re really not here to have fun.”

She really doesn’t believe that, of course. She wants to have fun, as long as it doesn’t interfer with her other goals.

Probably the most unpleasant part of her life is the necessity to finish her high school education, at the insistence of both Liskevych and Kavanagh.

She is taking a course of independent study at Palomar High School in Chula Vista. Her studies include English, algebra, physical science and consumer education. She hopes to be done by summer.

“We want her to graduate,” Liskevych said. “Now she sees the light at the end of the tunnel. When she first got here, she didn’t even see the tunnel.”

Kavanagh is just as adamant about Phipps graduating.

“She’s never been one to bring home the books and do a lot of study,” Kavanagh said. “What I want is for Keba not to close herself off from any options in her future. If she wants to attend college someday, I want her to have that option.”

Phipps said that she recently was thumbing through a reference book in the library when she came across the derivation of her African name, Prikeba , which she said means ancient queen.

Kavanagh was skeptical.

“I think I heard Keba telling someone about her name last summer,” she said, laughing. “She is capable of telling you a story at times.”

Phipps can sound plaintive and lost when describing her transition to life in San Diego. A few minutes later, she can sound sophisticated and worldly when discussing high fashion. Then she can grow coy and playful when contemplating romance.

“This has been a totally new life style for me,” Phipps said. “I can’t do what other 17-year-olds can. Sometimes I want to wake up and be just a normal person like other kids.

“I have to be careful of everything I do and say, because I know somebody is always watching me. If I go to a party, I have to be careful of who I’m with, because I am representing the United States now, and I have to go about things in an orderly way.”

Phipps seems to have had no problems organizing her days. Beginning with a breakfast of toast and banana at 6:30 a.m., she is off on a schedule that includes four hours of practice and weight lifting, followed by school, homework and TV at night.

Her approach to her social life isn’t that much different from other 17-year-olds’. She is quick to list her favorite eligible bachelors--Michael Jordan, Mark Gastineau and Magic Johnson.

Tall men are rivaled in her esteem by fashionable clothes, which she yearns to buy, model and design.

“I like high fashion, voguish things, elegant things,” Phipps said. “I love the boutiques in Beverly Hills, but it depresses me to go in ‘cause everything is so expensive. I see something and I want it sooooo bad, but then I look and it’s $5,000, and I’ll leave the store crying.”

She reads fashion magazines such as Elle, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, and her favorite designers are Anne Klein and Liz Claiborne.

If she decides to pursue a modeling career after the Olympics, it’s likely she would move to Europe.

“In this country, they want blond, blue-eyed girls,” Phipps said. “They’re not into tall black women like me. But in Europe, they really dig on women like Grace Jones.”

Phipps looked fashionable enough while she sat for an interview. She was wearing silver hoop earrings, a red headband and a matching sweater.

Liskevych indicated an interest in furthering her modeling career.

“I’d like to help her get a portfolio shot, but that won’t occur until after she finishes high school and gets squared away on understanding our program,” he said. “I’ve told her she has to finish her classes first of all.

“I have cracked down harder on Keba because we made a commitment to her and her parents. As I told you, we really didn’t want to do this (take her into the program), but now that she is with us, I want to make sure it works.

“I am a great believer in education, but I made an exception for Keba because she said she wasn’t interested in college. Who was I to say she had to go? I certainly don’t want to give a signal to other 17-year-olds with myopic vision, like all the high school boys dribbling a basketball and dreaming of the NBA. I care about the whole person . . . but I can’t judge if a person needs a college degree to contribute to USA Volleyball.”

Her ability to contribute is no longer questioned. Phipps, after a period of teasing and taunting, seems to be proving her worth.

“It’s hard, because she has to prove herself everyday,” Boyette said. “You see flashes of brilliance, but then there are moments when you feel she’s being lazy. I think she is coming to terms with her role, which is to be a dominant player. She’s learning.”

Kavanagh feared that Phipps might encounter resentment from older, more established players in San Diego but said that Phipps has reported nothing beyond some teasing in that regard.

“I have found that people in general take pokes at her and try to find fault with her,” Kavanagh said.

“We were at a tournament in Chicago once, and during our game several coaches came over to watch Keba. There was a moment when she was in the back row and not doing much, when a guy said, ‘She’s really lazy.’ I told the guy, ‘Look, I ask her to get me 15 points a game, and I don’t care how she does on the back row. I have no problem if we win 15-2 or 15-5.’ ”

Kavanagh recalled a day when Phipps was 14 and failed to show up for a game. It turned out that she was baby-sitting as a favor for an aunt.

“Her aunt didn’t seem to understand how good a volleyball player Keba was,” Kavanagh said. “Couldn’t you get another player?’ she asked me. And I told her, ‘Yes, I could. But I can’t get another Keba.’ ”