Former U.S. Volleyball Coach Has the Netherlands in Contention : Success Not Question, Where He’ll Go Next Is

Looking ahead to the 1992 Summer Olympics, which they were bidding to have in their country, sports officials in the Netherlands in 1986 hired Arie Selinger, the former U.S. women’s volleyball coach, to coach their men’s team.

They figured that even Selinger, considered a miracle worker with down-and-out teams, such as the U.S. women, would need six years to lead the Dutch to international respectability in time for the Opening Ceremony in Amsterdam.

Since then, the Dutch have learned that the 1992 Summer Olympics will be held not in Amsterdam but in Barcelona, Spain. They also have learned not to underestimate Selinger.

Their men’s volleyball team is four years ahead of schedule, having qualified for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

The Dutch played volleyball in the Olympics once before. They were included in an invitational field for the first Olympic volleyball tournament in 1964. Of eight teams, they finished eighth. This time, they earned a berth, winning a qualification tournament last month in Amsterdam.

Selinger, 51, is a Polish-born U.S. citizen who was raised in Israel. But the Dutch claim him as their own.

While the volleyball team has had unprecedented success, the country’s most popular soccer team, Ajax, has been a disappointment. Fans at soccer matches have begun a new chant: “Arie to Ajax!”

“In a small country, it’s very easy for people to identify themselves with a successful program or athletes,” Selinger said. “It’s gotten to the point that if I walk in Amsterdam, I would say 80% of the people know my name and approach me. Every place I go they know me because it’s a small country.”

Yet, Selinger said, he wants to come home to the United States.

He returned to Orange County last week for the first time in almost a year. He was there to conduct a clinic, but also to see his wife, Aia, who lives in Laguna Niguel and manages their sports marketing business, and his daughter, Ayelet, who attends UCLA.

“This is my home,” Selinger said. “In every other aspect, the situation in Holland is better. There is less politics involved. There is more coordination and communication between sponsors and the federation. Our success is creating so many things there.

“That’s attractive to me, to stay there until I complete this whole process. There are many pluses to staying in Holland. But if something does happen, and I have to make a decision, I’ll come back home.”

Al Monaco, executive director of the United States Volleyball Assn. (USVBA), said that discussion of Selinger’s return is premature. Neither U.S. Olympic coach, Marv Dunphy of the men nor Terry Liskevych of the women, has announced whether he will return after this year, although there has been speculation that Dunphy, whose team is the gold medal favorite, will resign.

Selinger said he would prefer to coach the men.

Monaco did not dismiss the possibility and that may be significant, considering Selinger’s strained relationship in the past with the USVBA.

Monaco pointed out that he would not be involved in the decision, since his own resignation will become effective after the Summer Olympics, but he said he believes Selinger would be considered if there is an opening.

Selinger was extremely successful as the U.S. women’s coach for 10 years, turning a program that was virtually non-existent in 1974 into one of the best in the world less than six years later. Had it not been for the boycott, the U.S. women might have won the gold medal in 1980 in Moscow. They finished second to China four years later in Los Angeles. But the USVBA did not renew Selinger’s contract after the 1984 Olympics.

“He was a difficult guy to work with, but he was always fighting for his players and his program,” Monaco said. “That’s where our fights occurred, when we tried to balance Arie’s needs with the association’s.

“But I have only the fondest memories of the years Arie and I struggled together. I can’t think of any overwhelming negatives to offset all the positives. Through the passage of time, any wounds I had have been healed.”

As for the USVBA’s decision not to renew Selinger’s contract, Monaco said: “I’m not sure it was anti-Arie. It’s not a lifetime job. It was a decision to let some fresh air in.”

It also was a decision to return perspective to the women’s program.

Some USVBA officials believed that Selinger was so obsessed with winning that he did not allow his players to have lives off the volleyball court. They sometimes worked out eight hours a day, six days a week, leaving little time for jobs, school or social lives.

Monaco said he prefers Liskevych’s system. His players work out seven hours a day, five days a week, but many of them also are involved in the Olympic Job Opportunities Program.

“We want our volleyball program to reflect the American style of life,” Monaco said. “We want our players to have well-rounded lives, college educations, job opportunities, international travel and social lives.”

At the same time, Monaco said, he and other USVBA officials might have misunderstood Selinger’s motivation.

“Going into 1980, he was fighting to catch up with the rest of the world,” Monaco said. “After 1980, the team was physically beaten down. He might have had no choice but to train them so well because they weren’t at their physical peaks. He may be less driven in a different situation.”

Selinger said he was not as driven as his players.

“It got to the point where the team demanded heavy interest in the program,” he said. “When I was slacking off a little, they would say, ‘Hey, Coach, get in shape.’ People think that I ruled this team with an iron hand, but I didn’t. They were very serious about what they were doing, totally committed. But it didn’t come from me. It came from themselves.

“I don’t feel any remorse. I don’t need to apologize for anything I’ve done, and I don’t feel anybody on the team feels they need to apologize to anybody. All of them are doing extremely well today. History will judge us whichever way.”

Liskevych was Selinger’s assistant with the national team in 1975, but they had a falling-out and now seldom speak to one another. Selinger said he did not want to fan the flames by discussing their differences.

“For the two or three years I’ve lived in Holland, I don’t bother with this thing,” he said. “I don’t care about it anymore. There’s a certain amount of frustration about what’s happening here with the (U.S.) women’s team because they’re not generating the interest and enthusiasm of the public the way it was, but that has nothing to do with the way they play. I understand the team is playing well and has had some success.”

Even though Selinger asked the USVBA in 1984 to renew his contract for one or two years to ease the transition to a new coach, he said he understood when his request was denied.

“I don’t say I’m an angel,” he said. “I’ve made mistakes, sure. When you put a program together, when you pioneer it, you make mistakes. Trial and error time. I’m the first to admit it.

“Maybe the time was better for me, anyway. It was the natural time to stop, and I could start planning my future.”

That did not include coaching volleyball until October, 1985, when his son, Avital, a setter for the Brother-Martinez club in Amsterdam, asked his father to coach the team. Selinger accepted, coached the team to third place in the European Cup in February, 1986, and signed a contract five months later to coach the national team.

In three seasons, his Brother-Martinez team is undefeated against other clubs from the Netherlands. He has an advantage because 11 of the national team’s 14 players are from Brother-Martinez. Avital, who was born in Israel and became a citizen of the Netherlands when he married a Dutch woman, is the second-team setter on the national team.

At 5 feet 7 inches, Avital, 29, is the shortest player on the world’s tallest team. The shortest starter is 6-6, the tallest 6-11.

“The Dutch are not as competitive or as athletic as the Americans,” Selinger said. “You have to develop that. But they are extremely intelligent and extremely cool under pressure.”

He said he would be satisfied if his team finished between fifth and eighth in Seoul.

“Mostly, I’m happy about having my son with me. Now, there are two Selingers in the Olympics. It’s the best present I could ever give my son. He always dreamed about being in the Olympics. Now it’s a reality.”

But Selinger already is looking ahead to the 1992 Summer Olympics.

“That’s my target,” he said. “Which team, I don’t know.

“I’m happy with what I’m doing in Holland, no question about it. But the bottom line is that, if I have a choice between the two places, I’ll come back and do what I started 15 years ago in the USA.”