More Confidence Fuels Hilliard’s Volleyball Game : 49ers: Former Dana Hills player overcomes intimidation to lead second-ranked Cal State Long Beach to 24-3 record.

Brent Hilliard fidgets as he tells the story, the one that began three years ago when he was down and out at Dana Hills.

Hilliard stares at the wall, then at the ceiling. His knee bobs up and down in nervous anticipation.

He’s a little uncomfortable explaining why, after two seasons with the Dana Hills High School volleyball team, he was unsigned by the major colleges in 1988.

“I was a little intimidated about playing in college,” he said. “I get nervous when I try new things. I’m not one of those kids who is outgoing and ready to try anything. I wanted the ideal situation.”

After playing with a club team for a year at Humboldt State, Hilliard found his ideal situation at Cal State Long Beach.

Now a sophomore swing hitter, Hilliard has sparked the second-ranked 49ers to a 24-3 record while leading the nation in kills per game with a 7.74 average. He played on the U.S. National team’s reserve squad last summer and has Olympic aspirations.

Hilliard set an NCAA record for kills in a match last Friday with 53 in a five-game loss to USC.

Long Beach’s Ray Ratelle was one of the few coaches who showed interest in recruiting Hilliard out of high school. But he didn’t think Hilliard was ready to play at the college level. At least not then.

“I saw a lot of athletic ability in Brent,” Ratelle said, “but the thing that concerned me was his competitiveness. I didn’t know how competitive he was, and that’s usually a ‘dead no’ on a recruit.

“If someone comes at you and says ‘I want to play, no matter what it takes,’ that’s the kind of guy you want playing for you.”

Ratelle backed off on Hilliard. So did UC Irvine and George Mason (Va.), which also were interested.

Frustrated, Hilliard was ready give up volleyball and concentrate on academics. He enrolled the next fall at Humboldt State, a college of 6,000 students in Northern California, and studied political science.

His older brother, Brian, had already given up basketball and baseball and was studying wildlife management at Humboldt.

He joined Humboldt’s club team, competing with players six and eight years older.

“They were good players,” Hilliard said of his teammates. “I learned a lot from them.”

During a tournament at UC Santa Barbara, the Humboldt club team played against several college varsity teams. Hilliard played well.

“I began to realize that I could play at the college level,” he said.

Ratelle heard of Hilliard’s play at the Santa Barbara tournament. At the end of the season, he offered Hilliard a scholarship.

Hilliard cracked the 49ers’ starting lineup as a freshman last season. He averaged 6.17 kills and was named to Volleyball Monthly magazine’s national all-freshman team.

“For him to come in as a freshman and carry the load is remarkable,” Ratelle said. “He was getting 60 to 70 sets a game. He was doing it all.”

Hilliard hasn’t let up this season. He has the team’s six top single-game kill totals, ranging from Friday’s 53 against USC to 36 against Stanford in March.

In less than two seasons, Hilliard has moved into third place on the 49ers’ career kill list with 1,353. If he maintains his current pace, he should break Mark Kerins’ record of 1,700 (set from 1987-90) early next season.

But Hilliard, 6 feet 5 and 175 pounds, doesn’t think much about the records. He just keeps waiting for another ball to be set his direction.

“Brent looks so frail you don’t think he can swing at 70 balls a game,” Ratelle said.

“But he can.”

Hilliard is one of three Orange County players in the 49ers’ starting lineup, joining middle blockers Brett Winslow (University) and Alan Knipe (Marina). All three players started on the 49ers’ NCAA runner-up team last season.

Ratelle has made the 49ers national contenders year after year with what Hilliard calls “unknown players.”

“When the big players get recruited, they have a choice between Pepperdine, UCLA, USC and here,” Hilliard said. “If someone would have said to me, ‘You want to go to USC or Long Beach State?’ I would say, ‘Wait a minute, my parents told me about USC. That’s a great school.’ That’s how USC gets all the players.”

At Dana Hills, Hilliard was a two-year letter-winner in basketball and volleyball. As a senior, he was an all-Southern Section selection and was the South Coast League’s most valuable player.

He played little volleyball before his junior year, when Dolphin Coach Oz Simmons persuaded him to try out. Simmons, a former standout at USC, had seen Hilliard play during open gyms in the summer and liked his potential.

“Oz didn’t pressure me into playing, that’s for sure,” Hilliard said. “I was sort of uncomfortable when I first started playing. All my teammates had played longer than I did, and they knew what they were doing. But Oz helped me be a little more comfortable.”

Hilliard is still learning the sport. He is an All-American candidate, but Ratelle says he needs to work on his blocking.

“He has national team potential, there’s no question about that,” Ratelle said. “But he has to keep working on blocking and defense. He needs to keep improving.”

His weaknesses were exposed last summer, when he began training with the national team in San Diego.

“I got my butt kicked,” he said.

Still, his natural skills, hard hitting and a 36-inch vertical jump helped him earn a starting role, and a trip to the America’s Cup tournament in Argentina.

“When I first saw him practicing in San Diego at the start of last summer, he was a little intimidated,” Ratelle said. “But by the end of the summer, he was doing fine.”

Said Hilliard: “I know I can compete with guys at the national level. I hope I get considered for the 1992 Olympic team, but there are a lot of great players. But they might be training the younger players for 1996. I would hate to wait that long, but I will if I have to.”

The Olympics are a long way off for Hilliard. His concerns are the immediate future.

He is eagerly awaiting a rematch with USC on April 17, and the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. playoffs April 24-27 at UC Irvine. He’s hoping the 49ers can earn another trip to the NCAA Championships May 3-4 at the University of Hawaii.

“A lot of fans have come up to me and told me they’ve already bought their plane tickets to Hawaii,” Hilliard said. “I don’t plan on disappointing them.”

HILLIARD’S RECORDS

NCAA records No. Date Opponent Kills-match 53 April 5, 1990 USC Average kills-game 7.74 leads NCAA ------ School records No. Date Opponent Kills-single match 53 April 5, 1990 USC Total attempts-match 91 Feb. 1990 UC Santa Barbara Service aces-match 6 Feb. 1990 Stanford Kills-career (third) 1,353 ------ ------ Single-season kills 734 1990 ------