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Friends & Foes : Emotional Coaches’ Confrontation Spikes Volleyball Playoff Meeting Between Northridge and Bakersfield

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

The call itself wasn’t unusual, but the conversation was. On one end of the line was Walt Ker, Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball coach. On the other was a Ker protege, Dave Rubio, coach of the Cal State Bakersfield women’s volleyball team.

“Hi, Dave, how was practice?” Ker said. Pause . “Fine,” Rubio replied. “How was yours?” Pause . “Fine,” Ker said. Pause . “Well, you ready? . . .”

And so it went, a meager three words per sentence. Brief, but far from concise.

Two, sometimes three times a week over a number of years, Ker and Rubio have called each other to discuss volleyball. Never had their dialogue been so strained.

“I hung up the phone, looked at it, and thought, ‘That was real weird,’ ” Rubio said.

But that’s how it goes when friends become foes, if only for a single--albeit vital--volleyball match.

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At 7:30 tonight in the Bakersfield gym, Rubio’s Roadrunners will play host to Ker’s Lady Matadors in a National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division II tournament game. The winner advances to the quarterfinals of the West regional; the loser starts recruiting for next season.

Said Ker: “I think the reality of it is (that) we both wish we were playing somebody else.”

Talk about the luck of the draw.

Rubio will be coaching against his alma mater and a team guided by one of his best friends. And should Bakersfield survive, the Roadrunners likely will face West Texas State, coached by Kim Hudson--Rubio’s girlfriend.

“Dave and her have been conducting a long-distance romance for the last year and a half,” Ker said. “They try to keep a low profile, from a professional standpoint, but it adds one more interesting kink into the scenario.”

One man’s “kink” is another man’s crisis. If Bakersfield loses to Northridge, setting up a CSUN-West Texas match, Rubio will be only slightly less torn.

Rubio played for Ker for two seasons while attending Granada Hills High and for two more at Northridge. He was an usher at Ker’s wedding and Ker played a key role in his securing the Bakersfield job two years ago.

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But then there is Kim Hudson.

“Dave’s heart might be on one side, but his mind would probably be on the other,” Ker said.

And with good reason. For the past 14 years, Rubio has been well-acquainted with the Northridge program. At the same time he was coaching at Granada Hills, Ker was playing for Northridge. Rubio and several teammates religiously attended Matador games.

After graduating from high school, Rubio attended Pierce College but continued to attend CSUN practices. After playing two seasons at Pierce, Rubio signed to play for the Matadors. After a redshirt year, he played two seasons as a setter.

The other setter in the Matador lineup was Rob Wortmann, Rubio’s assistant at Bakersfield.

After completing his eligibility at CSUN in 1981, Wortmann became an assistant coach. He was on Ker’s staff for three seasons, took a year off, returned for another season in 1985, then took another year off before coaching at Pierce in 1987. He is in his first season at Bakersfield.

“Rob helped me grow as a coach more than any other person,” Ker said. “He’s extremely intelligent and after a year or two of coaching with me, after he started to feel his oats and develop confidence about giving input, he started challenging me. It was, ‘Why this? Why that?’ That was neat. I’m sure he’s added a lot to Dave’s program in that regard.”

Certainly something has sparked a major turnaround in the Bakersfield program. In 1987, the season before Rubio took over, the Roadrunners went 0 for the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. season.

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This season Bakersfield, ranked 11th in the nation, is 17-15.

Ker might easily discern just how it was that Bakersfield turned the tide.

“The reason we were able to climb the ladder so quick is that we emulated a lot of what Walt did at Northridge and put it into practice this year,” said Rubio, whose resume includes four seasons as girls’ coach at Westlake High.

Northridge, 26-10, and ranked fourth, has won 13 of its past 14 matches and has qualified for the national championship tournament 11 consecutive seasons.

Bakersfield and Northridge have split their four matches this season, but CSUN has won the past two.

“Philosophically, we’re very similar in our approach to the game,” Ker said of the coaching match-up. “I sincerely doubt if there will be any major surprises in terms of strategy that has a significant impact on the match. It’s going to come down to which team executes better.

“In the last two matches (against Bakersfield), we have executed well and we’ve won. That’s indicative of the second half of our season. We’re just playing better volleyball.”

Before one of those matches, Ker sat on the Bakersfield bench and read a passage from a book to his friends. Tonight, he probably will keep his distance.

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“It’s different. It’s postseason. It’s what we spend the entire season preparing for and it’s the reason I coach, to play in the national championships,” Ker said.

“I’m sure we will still sit down and talk, but it won’t be as comfortable. We both understand that, and I think we both understand our conversation on the phone. The last thing I said to him was, ‘Have a good week,’ and I meant it. I want them to practice well and play well against us.

“I also want us to win. But I want Dave to look back and say, ‘My team played real well and we lost to a better team.’ For me, that’s the ideal scenario.”

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