RETURN ENGAGEMENT : After Successful Stint With U. S. Volleyball Team, Dunphy Again Comes Home to Coach Pepperdine

After 3 years of nearly uninterrupted travel, jet lag, world-wide attention and dozens of volleyball wins, Marv Dunphy finally appears ready to step off the roller coaster.

Dunphy, 41, is content to be back home at Pepperdine for his third stint in 12 years as men’s volleyball coach.

The first time Dunphy left was after the school’s first national championship in 1978. He wanted to pursue a doctorate in physical education at Brigham Young and was unsure whether his career lay in education or coaching.

Eventually, he chose coaching and returned to Pepperdine in 1982. This time he lasted 3 years before jumping to the U. S. national team. He joked that he wasn’t sure that he’d have a job to come back to after leaving a second time.

This time, however, he says he is staying.

“It wasn’t a difficult decision,” Dunphy said. “The Olympic position was a good job, but Pepperdine is a great job, too.”

Under Dunphy’s leadership, the national team established itself as the world’s best. With the gold medal in Seoul, the U. S. completed an amazing run that included wins over the Soviet Union in the title matches of the 1985 World Cup and 1986 World Championships.

The United States also won the gold at the 1987 Pan Am Games. In fact, the only major tournament the team did not win under Dunphy was the 1986 Goodwill Games.

“Marv picked up right where Doug Beal left off in terms of keeping the excellence in the program,” team member Karch Kiraly said. “He had a stabilizing influence on us. We play emotionally and sometimes needed to be reigned in.”

When Dunphy accepted the national-team position in 1985, after leading the Waves to their second national championship, Pepperdine granted him a leave of absence, assuring him his old job whenever he wanted it. But when the national team began to win, pressure mounted for Dunphy to stay on after the Olympics.

Moreover, Dunphy’s successor at Pepperdine, Rod Wilde, led the Waves to a national crown in his first season in Malibu, adding to speculation that Dunphy might stay with the national team.

But Dunphy insists that he always planned to come back to Malibu, to his office with the million-dollar view of the Pacific Ocean.

“When I took the (national team) job, it was based on my returning to Pepperdine after the Olympics,” said Dunphy, whose ties run deep at Pepperdine. Dunphy grew up in Topanga, not far from the Pepperdine campus, and played for the Waves before taking over as coach.

“Along the way, the people in the (U.S. Volleyball Assn.) were talking to me about considering to stay on,” he said. “It was a great job. It’s the best position you can have in our sport . . . but when you sign up for a trip that (will keep you) away from home for 21 days, that’s rough on your family life.”

The extensive travel and time spent away from wife Su and their 3 children was the primary factor in Dunphy’s decision to return to Pepperdine. But he wanted to go out a winner, which means he had to beat the Soviets one last time.

The gold-medal showdown with the Soviets in Seoul was expected, even though the teams had never met in an Olympic final. The Soviets took the gold in 1980 when the United States boycotted, and the U. S. turned the tables 4 years later in Los Angeles when the Soviets stayed home.

But Dunphy was confident.

“We had a couple of injuries going in, but I always had a lot of confidence,” Dunphy said. “I felt particularly good about our chances. We were the most competitive volleyball team ever and probably one of the most competitive sporting teams--period.”

Just hours after the gold-medal match, Dunphy declined to attend the closing ceremonies. He stayed in his hotel room writing letters of thanks to to his staff.

“The points and the games fade over time,” Dunphy said. “The people tend to last. I’ll remember the people and the satisfaction of having done a job well.”

Now Dunphy, who lives in Newbury Park, has the uphill task of trying to turn his alma mater back into a national champion after a 14-13 1988 campaign.

Leading the Waves, who are 9-2 and ranked No. 4 in the nation, are returning starters Geoff Hart and Randy Bergstedt. Hart, a sophomore, was a second-team All-Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. pick last season when he led the Waves with 479 kills. Bergstedt, a freshman walk-on in 1986, had 475 kills last year.

“We just have guys that have not had a lot of playing time,” said Dunphy. “We have a setter that has set one ball in collegiate volleyball . . . but I guarantee that we’re the kind of team that will get better.”

Dunphy says that he is content to stay at Pepperdine and finish the house he is building on a 4-acre lot in Decker Canyon.

The roller coaster ride is over, but the memories of the games and the people remain.

“I wonder a bit if I’ll ever see some of those people again,” he said. “There’s a certain--not sadness--but it’s like, hey, things change. That part of Marv Dunphy is behind me now. I’m here.”

This time, he says, to stay.