Volleyball Gives Fortune Thrills and Drills

So you want to be a member of the U.S. national volleyball team? Figure you’ll travel to exotic cities and see the world? Maybe even go for the gold a third consecutive time in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona?

Scott Fortune of Laguna Beach says the life of a world-class volleyball player is a lot of work.

For the past four years, Fortune has spent four hours a day working out with the national team in San Diego. A typical workout includes running or lifting for an hour and then three hours of Coach Fred Sturm’s drills.

And those sightseeing trips included a five-match series against the Canadian national team in Pennsylvania and a 10-day tour of Cuba that got off to a rousing start when it took two days just to get there.

When Fortune finally got a weekend break, the team went to a candy factory in Waco, Tex., to meet a sponsor.

“It was our first weekend off in three weeks, so no one was real excited about going to Waco,” Fortune said. “We flew through a lightning storm and a tornado watch to get there.”

Fortune’s reward for the weekend trip was Halloween candy for life, but he laughed and said the promotion tour “is all part of the job.”

These days, volleyball has become a full-time job for Fortune. He will begin play in World League Volleyball on Friday (against Japan at the UC Irvine Bren Center) and continue Saturday when the U.S. plays Japan again at 7:30 p.m. at the Sports Arena.

The league is scheduled for 10 weeks and features $2 million in prize money. The U.S. team will play home and away matches against the four countries. Fortune’s frequent-flier mileage card figures to fill in a hurry.

“We (play) in the Soviet Union one week (in June), then go to Italy the second week, come home for a week and then go to Japan and South Korea,” Fortune said. “We didn’t play well last year in the league because we didn’t have much size or experience. But we can’t use that as an excuse this year.”

Fortune, 25, will return to Cuba in July for the Pan American Games and will compete in zone competition in Canada in August. He thinks the nucleus of the 1992 U.S. Olympic team will be formed following the trip to Canada.

“The pro beach tour will end in September and I think Karch (Kiraly) and Steve (Timmons) will be coming back,” Fortune said. “Right now, our team isn’t very strong. We have three players under 6-foot. We’ve had players and coaches coming and going. There hasn’t been a lot of consistency to the team since the 1988 Olympics.”

Fortune is the only holdover on the national team from the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, where the United States won its second consecutive gold medal. Fortune was the first reserve on the team and had the distinction of getting the winning shot in the gold-medal match against the Soviet Union.

“I was lucky enough to get the winning hit in the Olympics, but I still have a lot of goals to accomplish,” Fortune said. “There was never any doubt that I was coming back after ’88. I felt like I contributed at Seoul, but now I want to be a major force.”

Fortune returned to Stanford to get his degree in economics after the ’88 Olympics and rejoined the national team in San Diego. He has a part-time job working as a financial service representative for a bank and plans to join the pro beach circuit after the ’92 Olympics.

“It’s funny, but I’ve gone from the youngest guy on the team in 1988 to the most experienced player,” he said. “I still enjoy playing volleyball, but it’s different since I’ve been playing with the national team for four years.”

Despite his success, Fortune said he can’t wait to join the pro beach circuit. He plans to play professionally in Italy after the ’92 Olympics and then join the Association of Volleyball Players tour in 1993.

“I really look forward to playing on the beach,” he said. “I’ve been exposed to the beach game most of my life. That’s where I learned how to play.”