UCSD Feels Snub When Aztecs Send Subs to Volleyball Games

Digger Graybill stops short of taking a shot at the integrity of his old college coach. But Graybill, who played volleyball at San Diego State and now coaches UC San Diego’s men, talks like a man who feels he’s been slighted, if not slapped in the face, by his former mentor, Jack Henn.

Twice during UCSD’s recently concluded season, Henn sent a junior varsity squad to face the 20th-ranked Tritons. And both times the Tritons, who finished 7-10, lost to the No. 3 Aztecs.

The two defeats are of little consequence to UCSD, Graybill said, but that Henn gave his big boys the night off without warning UCSD apparently created a rift between these longtime associates and raised some technical questions.

“I assumed we had a varsity match,” Graybill said, “but as far as I could tell, there was maybe one player out there who had seen some varsity time. That’s their choice. That’s their prerogative.”

But perhaps that wasn’t fair to the Tritons and the nearly 300 UCSD fans who turned out for their team’s season finale March 12. In a 7:30 p.m. match at Triton Gym, SDSU’s scrubs dropped the first game, 6-15, then won, 15-9, 15-13, 15-9.

But what disturbs Graybill is the idea SDSU would show no regard for the natural rivalry between these two universities, not to mention the question of whether either match will count toward the teams’ NCAA records. Graybill wants to know if SDSU reported them as NCAA matches.

The status of these matches is also crucial to Lawrence Werner and Brent Couture, two UCSD players who are nationally ranked in individual statistical categories. Werner is 12th in average blocks per game (1.75) and Couture is 12th in average digs per game (2.29).

“We’ve got two people in the national stats and we’re a top-20 team,” Graybill said. “We’re all in this together. There’s only about 50 men’s volleyball teams in the nation. We’re trying to maintain some respect. If we have problems, then we need to talk about them. It’s like a marriage. You have to work them out. But we haven’t heard a thing from them.”

Henn said he’s not counting the two victories against UCSD in the Aztecs’ 13-3 record.

“Our program is made up of 24 to 25 players, and we have to determine what’s going to be our varsity and our scout team,” Henn said. “We have to set up two schedules for each one. I didn’t schedule Digger’s team for the varsity; one, because I thought they would be a little down; and two, some things happened with our varsity players (at UCSD last year).”

Translated, the fans at Triton Gym got a little too abusive.

“That’s always been our biggest and most exciting match for our fans,” Graybill said. “They’re very enthusiastic collegiate fans. They’re real bright, knowledgeable volleyball fans. Every time we play a top team, even though it’s (David) and Goliath, they come out because they know we play tough. Just about every time we play SDSU we go four or five games.”

Nater on rebounding: Christian Heritage men’s basketball Coach Swen Nater, who played on championship teams for UCLA and the Los Angeles Lakers, has produced the first video known to be devoted solely to rebounding. The one-hour video, which has been marketed to high school and college coaches throughout the country, has been a hit so far. Some of the programs endorsing Nater’s teachings so far are North Carolina, Duke and, not surprisingly, UCLA.

“It’s doing real well,” Nater said of the video’s sales. “I didn’t know what to expect. A lot of Division I schools are using it. (Business is) growing. I’ve got some real good feedback.

“It’s strictly on how to get your players to rebound. It’s the only one that I know of. There’s a lot of them on how to play offense and defense, but none on just rebounding. Most coaches devote five hours of teaching rebounding each season.”

Nater’s video, which features Bill Walton and A.C. Green, focuses on defensive rebounding. Soon he will be producing a video on offensive rebounding techniques.