Spiking the American Dream : Colombian Volleyball Star Nets Professional Career in Her Adopted Homeland

It wasn’t too long ago that Nubia Patricia Orozco, now a resident of El Segundo, was a homesick 16-year-old from Colombia who was unknown in West Coast volleyball circles.

After graduation in 1980, Orozco--a volleyball legend in her own country--was sent to the United States for six months to learn English.

She stayed with a family friend in Santa Fe Springs and played volleyball for a local club team.

Off the court she might have been homesick, but on it she was right at home. She was quick, enthusiastic and aggressive enough to catch the attention of top-notch coaches from USC, Hawaii, Oregon and UCLA.

A Colombian junior national team MVP, she made a quick impression in the United States.

“I remember when I first saw her at a Christmas tournament,” said UCLA women’s volleyball Coach Andy Banachowski, who has led his teams to four national championships. “I was looking down in the Sports Arena and I saw this girl move incredibly well. What really caught my attention is that I didn’t know who she was because I know all the kids in the area with talent.”

Banachowski, whose teams have finished nationally in the top four over the last 14 years, knew right away that he wanted her to be part of his program.

“When Andy came up to me,” Orozco said, “I couldn’t even understand him. I was even named all-tournament and didn’t even know what that meant.”

Amazing what several years and a successful athletic career at UCLA can do.

“She’s a lot more confident in America than she was when she got here,” said Jeanne Beauprey-Reeves, a former Olympic volleyball player, who was Orozco’s teammate at UCLA, in Europe and now plays with her on the professional team, the Los Angeles Starlites.

“When she came here she was already awesome, but there’s more confidence now. Her first year in college, she was much younger than most freshman and she couldn’t understand us because she didn’t speak the language.”

Now Orozco knows well what honors such as “all-tournament” and “all-American” mean. She also knows what it’s like to play on a national champion team and has become somewhat Americanized.

After marrying Mike Dodd, a four-time world champion beach volleyball player who was on the U. S. national team, even her name has lost its Latin touch. Now it’s short and simple, Patty Dodd although she sometimes uses her maiden name.

Mike Dodd is also a five-time Manhattan Beach Tournament winner and a U. S. Beach Volleyball Assn. MVP, who played professionally in Europe for four years.

The two met in 1985 while playing in Italy. Orozco played there for seven months in Europe’s top league.

She wasn’t satisfied because she was played out of position. But the trip wasn’t a total loss. She learned how to speak and cook Italian and got engaged.

“I’m purely an outside hitter,” she said, “and they had me in the middle because the girl who played middle got hurt. I mean, I’m only 5-8, but for some reason they always think foreigners can do it all.”

Before playing in Europe, the 24-year old was an all-American and all-national championship tournament player at UCLA.

She engraved her name in the Bruin record book for single-season kills (627), single-match kills (33) and single-match digs (30). She was also one of UCLA’s top single-season spiking leaders (403) in 1983, her senior year.

“At first, I didn’t think it was possible for me to play in the United States,” Orozco said. “I thought ‘They’re going to be so good there.’

“But playing at UCLA is the best thing I’ve ever done. If I had stayed in Columbia, I would have been stuck. Not to show off, but at 16 I was one of their best players.”

This is Orozco’s second year as a member of the Los Angeles Starlites, one of six teams that competes in women’s Major League Volleyball for a three-month season.

“The best thing about Patty,” said Los Angeles Coach Albert Gasparian, who also heads the men’s and women’s volleyball programs at Golden West College, “is that she doesn’t have any weaknesses. On top of that, this is a peak period for her. She’s definitely at her prime.”

The Starlites, who play home games at Loyola Marymount University’s Gersten Pavilion, won the league championship title last year with a 19-3 record.

It was the league’s first year and the Starlites, with former Olympians like Rita Crockett-Royster, Debbie Green-Vargas and Beauprey-Reeves, defeated the San Jose Golddiggers for the title.

“It’s such a great opportunity,” Orozco said, “to be on a team with players of that caliber. It’s great playing when everyone is so good.”

But last season had its down side, she said, in the lack of fan support. The Starlites played home games at Cal State Long Beach and usually drew poor crowds.

“It really was depressing,” Orozco said. “We had good matches, but there was hardly anyone there to watch them.”

Beauprey-Reeves says support on the road was great, but home games were embarrassing.

“It got to be a joke,” she said. “At half time, we’d stand there and actually count the people in the stands.”

Crowds seem to have increased, though. For this season’s opener at Loyola on Feb. 21, attendance was 749. The Starlites defeated the Arizona Blaze in four games after Orozco served an ace for the match. The team is now 5-0.

Orozco also plays on the beach circuit from June to September.

Last year she won the Hermosa Beach Open with Starlite teammate Dale Hall and placed second in Chicago. In 1986, she placed second in the World Championships at Pismo Beach with Brazilian national team member Jackie Silva. Despite the hours she spends training and adjusting from sand to a hard surface, volleyball isn’t Orozco’s only job.

To make ends meet, she’s also a second-grade teacher at Worthington Elementary School in Inglewood.

“I bring a lot of work home, and I just save all my sick days for when I have to travel with the team,” she said.