FLOOR DUTY : This Time, Ctvrtlik Will Play, Not Just Watch, Volleyball

The supervisor told Bob Ctvrtlik to help with crowd control in the parking lot. Ctvrtlik, who needed to pound the pavement about as much as he needed to lose a vowel in his last name, said no. He didn’t get this job at the Long Beach Arena during the 1984 Olympics to work outside.

Inside, that’s where he wanted to be. Where the action was, where he could pick up some pointers watching the volleyball competition before going back to Pepperdine for his junior season.

Ctvrtlik (pronounced Stuh-VERT-lick) got his transfer inside. To floor level, no less, and to what he considered a premium assignment: Sticking close to the players to act as a barrier between the benches and the fans.

“I was awed by the whole situation,” he recalled. “No human being could stand in Long Beach Arena for that competition and not get goose bumps.”

So what does that say for his emotions come September, when he will be at the Seoul Olympics?

He’ll be on the floor again but this time as a member of the U.S. Olympic team. He’ll be a starter for the team favored to successfully defend its 1984 title.

“I have been on the team 3 1/2 years now and I’ve worked my butt off every minute,” Ctvrtlik said. “It’s been nothing of a fast climb by any means. . . . But every once in a while, I have to pinch myself to make sure it’s all true.”

It’s all true. All Ctvrtlik has done at age 24 is develop into one of the integral members of the No. 1 team in the world. At 6 feet 4 inches and 200 pounds, he’s a powerful outside hitter who has also drawn acclaim for his defense on receiving serves and at the net. So, on an American squad that has two of the highest-regarded players in the world, Karch Kiraly and Steve Timmons, Ctvrtlik has not-so-quietly been making his own impression.

“He has a lot of intangibles that make him a good player,” said Marv Dunphy, the U.S. Olympic coach and Ctvrtlik’s coach at Pepperdine. “His ability to focus on what is going on is tremendous. He can concentrate over long periods of time.”

It must have taken some kind of concentration to get Ctvrtlik, who will turn 25 next Friday, to this point.

At Long Beach Wilson High School, he was All-Moore League in basketball and tennis. He didn’t play volleyball until he went to college.

From Wilson, he went to Long Beach City College, Cal State Long Beach and, finally, to Pepperdine. After sitting out the 1984 season, he teamed with Troy Tanner and Steve Friedman, two other current members of the U.S. national team, to help Dunphy and the Waves to a 25-2 record and the 1985 National Collegiate Athletic Assn. title. Ctvrtlik was named All-American and the most valuable player of the postseason tournament.

“So he wasn’t magic overnight,” Dunphy pointed out.

That turned out to be his only season at Pepperdine. The national team came calling, and Ctvrtlik, who hadn’t even considered trying out a few years earlier, made it. A reserve at first, he got his chance to start later in 1986 when Dave Saunders injured his back, He hasn’t given up the spot since.

Most recently, he played a prominent role as the United States won the Stubbies USA Cup at the Forum for the fifth time in as many tries.

Eighty-two kills, including 36 in the stirring five-game victory last Sunday over the Soviet Union, the world’s No. 2 team, for the title, put him second in the four-team tournament behind Timmons. Five aces tied him with Herve Mazzon of France for tops in that category. Thirty-five digs tied him with Alain Fabiani of France for fourth.

Ctvrtlik sees himself playing the rags-to-riches role--the former usher made good--but teammates and his coach disagree. He was never exactly in the rags state, they say, just the parking lot.

“I’m completely blessed,” Ctvrtlik said. “There is no doubt in my mind. I’ve worked hard and set some goals and then let them happen. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”