Seoul ’88 / Randy Harvey : Volleyball Coach to Retire After Games

It’s not that Marv Dunphy has had enough of coaching the world-champion U.S. men’s volleyball team. It’s that he has had too little time with his wife and three children.

So, as far as he was concerned, he made the only decision he could when he announced that he will resign after the Summer Olympics and return to Pepperdine, where he coached for six years before accepting the national team position in 1985.

“I didn’t cry when I made the decision, but I was overwhelmed by the emotion, to be leaving all of this,” said Dunphy, 40, last week by telephone from Washington, where the United States played the Soviet Union Sunday in the last match of a four-city tour.

“I know it was the right decision, but I also know that I’m giving up the greatest job that a volleyball coach could have.

“I can’t remember a night on this tour that my assistants and I finished watching videotapes and were in bed before 3 o’clock in the morning. But doing that work, sharing the information with the players, and then listening to the national anthem after a major tournament, that’s a great feeling. I feel like I’m part of a mission.

“But I’ve been making 10 or 11 trips a year. At 15 days each, that’s 150 days on the road. My wife and I want to see our youngest daughter grow up together. She’s just turned 2. When she was younger, there were times when I’d be gone for 15 days and come home and she’d shy away from me. She’s grown out of that now, but I don’t want to miss anything.”

Dunphy’s team had a successful tour winning all four matches against the Soviets, universally recognized as the No. 1 challenger to top-ranked United States.

But the United States has only a few days to savor the victories before beginning play Wednesday night at the Forum in the Stubbies USA Cup against the Soviet Union, France and Japan.

After losing last year to the United States in the prestigious Savvin Cup in the Soviet Union, the Soviets no doubt would like to prove themselves equally ungracious guests by winning a tournament here. But the Soviets’ record including a 3-1 loss Sunday in the last three years against Dunphy’s team was 9-23.

The Soviets had an ideal opportunity to improve their record in Springfield, Mass. Wednesday night, when Dunphy gave some of his starters a rest. Instead, the United States had its easiest match, winning, 15-7, 15-8, 15-12.

“For the Soviets, it was a no-win situation, their starters against our mixed lineup,” Dunphy said. “They did not play well.”

Dunphy, of course, realizes that none of this means a thing unless the United States also wins the gold medal in Seoul. But in the two most important tournaments since the 1984 Olympics--the 1985 World Cup and the 1986 World Championships--the United States won both with victories over the Soviets in the finals. Dunphy sounds like a man who would not bet against his team in Seoul.

“We have the ability to rise to a different level at certain times,” he said. “It’s a nice trait to have.”

ABC-TV did not invent gymnastics, but it certainly played a major role in the sport’s discovery by millions of Americans with the intensified coverage of Olga Korbut in 1972, Nadia Comaneci in 1976 and Mary Lou Retton in 1984.

The international volleyball federation (FIVB) has every reason to believe its sport will benefit similarly because of NBC-TV’s coverage in Seoul.

Recognizing the potential, FIVB President Ruben Acosta arranged for four of the five U.S. men’s preliminary matches and two of the three U.S. women’s preliminary matches to begin at 9:45 a.m. in Seoul. That is 7:45 p.m. on the East Coast and 4:45 p.m. on the West Coast.

“The U.S. men’s team should be one of the most appealing stories of the Olympics,” said Peter Diamond, NBC’s vice-president of Olympic programming. “Considering the results of the last four years, you wonder if anything could go wrong.”

Diamond said Karch Kiraly, the Santa Barbara native and former UCLA player who is considered to have no peer in the sport, could emerge as one of the Games’ most visible athletes. Diamond said he also expects 6-foot 5-inch middle blocker Steve Timmons, a Newport Beach native who played at USC, to make an impression.

“With that red hair and his crew cut, Timmons is made for the camera,” Diamond said. “He has real presence.”

NBC got a feel for the sport Thursday night, when it taped the U.S.-Soviet match in Philadelphia for Sunday’s SportsWorld .

“Those camera guys are the last of the American cowboys,” Dunphy said. “They like to get as close to the action as they can. But I don’t think they realized how fast the ball is going when these guys hit it. I noticed that as the match went on, the camera guys were finding places a little closer to the bench.”

Comment: An early vote for 1988 Sportsman of the Year goes to Mark Arrowood of Doylestown, Pa.

After watching Dan Jansen fall twice during the Winter Olympics, the first time on the same day that his sister, Jane, died of leukemia, Arrowood, 30, sent the speedskater one of the gold medals he won in the 1981 Pennsylvania Special Olympics along with this letter:

“Dear Dan--I watched you on TV. I’m sorry that you fell 2 times. I am in Special Olympics. I won a gold medal at the Pa. State Summer Olympics right after my Dad died seven years ago . . . “Before we start the games we have a saying that goes like this. ‘Let me win but if I can’t win let me be brave in this attempt.’ . . . I want to share one of my gold medals with you because I don’t like to see you not get one. Try again in four more years.”

That’s why they’re called Special Olympians.

Olympic Notes

A public relations assistant at the Forum captured the interest of the Inglewood police, the FBI and the State Department with his promotion of this week’s men’s volleyball tournament, the USA Cup. The assistant sent one letter to newspapers that said, “Warning! International killer about to be set loose in L.A.,” and another that said, “Warning Update. International killer sets sights on Soviets, French and Japanese in Los Angeles area.” He presumably was referring to the U.S. team that will face the Soviets, French and Japanese teams in the Forum. The FBI and State Department wanted to press charges but that Sgt. Rich Little of the Inglewood police persuaded them to let it pass.

Olympic freestyle wrestling champion Mark Schultz will defend his title in the 180 1/2-pound division at Seoul, but his brother, Dave, who won 160-pound title at Los Angeles, lost in the final of the U.S. trials Saturday at Pensacola, Fla. Another 1984 gold medal winner who lost in the final was Randy Lewis in the 136 1/2-pound division. . . . The international boxing federation still wants to schedule two matches simultaneously in separate rings during the Olympics despite protests from television networks worldwide, including NBC. The problem for NBC is that the host broadcaster will cover only one of the rings, meaning that the network might have to arrange for its own coverage if a U.S. boxer is fighting in the other ring. The problem for the federation is that it has almost 600 entries and might not finish all preliminary matches by using only one ring. Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee supports the networks, but the issue has not been resolved.

Pat Butcher of the London Times recently spent nine days with Morocco’s Said Aouita and said he has been training to run the 800 meters and the 1,500 meters at Seoul. Aouita won the 5,000 meters four years ago at Los Angeles. . . . After playing three games in Finland, the U.S. Select Team, which, for the most part, includes men’s basketball players still hoping for invitations to the training camp at Georgetown University next month, meets the French national team Tuesday at Paris, the Austrian All-Stars Thursday at Vienna and the Spanish national team Saturday at Bilbao, Spain. . . . Jeff Grayer, previously an Iowa State forward, played his way off the Select Team at a recent mini-camp. Coach John Thompson liked Grayer so much that Grayer was invited to join 17 other players who already have earned invitations to the training camp, which begins July 17.

Australia has formulated plans to evacuate its athletes from Seoul during the Games if necessary. Canadian Olympic Assn. officials said they are considering similar action. Mike Moran, United States Olympic Committee spokesman, said the United States has no such plans and criticized the Australians for making theirs public. “It’s an overreaction,” he told The Washington Post. “Why pour gasoline on a spark?” . . . Werner Gunthor of Switzerland, world-champion shotputter, has a back injury and will not compete until August. He’s more fortunate than John Brenner, the one-time UCLA weightman who finished third in last year’s World Championships. He’s out for the year with a knee injury. . . . West German track and field officials changed their minds and allowed Wolfgang Schmidt to compete in the discus and the shotput Sunday and today at Dusseldorf in their first-ever dual meet against East Germany. The West Germans initially were concerned about offending East Germany. Schmidt, the one-time world record-holder in the discus, emigrated from East Germany last year. But the East Germans voiced no objection. “There is no important issue for us named Wolfgang Schmidt,” said Heinz Kadow, an official of East Germany’s track and field federation.

Has the Eagle landed? East German newspapers reported last week that the international ski federation (FIS) is considering a rule that would require all but the world’s top 50 ski jumpers to pass a distance test before they could compete in international competitions. “An Eddie Edwards Law is being worked on at the FIS which will bar clowns from the ski jumps because through them sport is only brought into discredit,” the sports newspaper Deutsches Sportecho said. . . . Greg Louganis continues to be bothered by a wrist injury, but he is scheduled to dive in next weekend’s HTH meet in Annapolis. . . . The 1988 women’s downhill champion, Marina Kiehl of West Germany, has retired. . . . U.S. Greco-Roman wrestling team, chosen Saturday, will train with Soviet wrestlers, July 4-17, in Latvia. The U.S. coach, Pavel Katsen, was born in Latvia. He became a U.S. citizen in 1984.