Beach-Bred Spiker Is a Tidal Force : Volleyball: Ex-Mira Costa star David Swatik led UCLA’s late-season surge. Now, at 18, he will compete in his second U.S. Olympic Festival.

For David Swatik, the key to volleyball success has been simple.

Life is a beach.

For five years, Swatik has spent his summer days walking a few blocks from his home in Manhattan Beach to Marine Avenue to meet friends. They might stop at Sloopy’s first, but basically they spend their hours playing pick-up two-man volleyball on one of the 11 sand courts, a place for players who are serious about spikes.

“It’s the main spot to play,” said Swatik, a sophomore-to-be at UCLA. “It would be different if I just took a couple of friends and went straight down (on any stretch of sand) and played out here. It would be hard to get much better. But when you are watching all these players who are really good, you can learn from them and play with them. It brings your whole level up, I think.”

This beachy-keen upbringing has been a focal point in Swatik’s development. The UCLA swing-hitter is competing in his second U.S. Olympic Festival as a member of the West team.

Swatik, 18, also played in the 1989 Festival as a sophomore in high school. He was 16, making him the youngest men’s volleyball player to make a Festival team, a distinction he still holds.

Since then his fortune has rolled like the tide. From a high of being a much-recruited high school All-American to a low of being a struggling freshman at UCLA, ready to redshirt. Then, at the end of the year, back to a high of keying an end-of-the-season run that almost took the Bruins to a national championship.

For it all, the 6-foot-4 Mira Costa High alumnus was one of two Bruins named to Volleyball Monthly’s first-team freshmen All-American squad, his first collegiate honor to go with a slew of prep awards. Swatik was the 1990 CIF 4-A Division player of the year, a member of the 4-A championship team and a two-time Ocean League MVP. He teamed with Ross Pier to win the 1990 high school beach state championship, qualified for a AAA beach tournament rating and was named to Volleyball Monthly’s “Fab 50” list.

“Beach guys like David Swatik, Sinjin Smith and Karch Kiraly, when they start at the college level, have the skills where they could be better than guys who are three years older and more experienced,” said Al Scates, who has coached all three players--as well as 13 national championship teams--in his 29 years as the UCLA volleyball coach.

“David is just so far ahead on basic hitting skills,” Scates said. “He’s a natural at digging. His quickness and natural athleticism. . . . He has learned how to head a hitter and get to the spot quick enough to respond. He moves his feet tremendously well and all of that gets back to playing on the beach.

“Once you get a beach player off the sand and onto a hardwood floor, they just explode off the wood. It is possible to improve more by playing at the beach than in these summer festivals. . . . Still, this means that he was better than 150 of the other players at the tryouts.”

Five members of the UCLA volleyball team are in the Festival. But originally, Swatik was looking to make a higher-level squad. In May he tried out for a spot on the World University Games team. He was cut and then was among 150 participants competing for 48 sports in the Festival during a two-day tryout. He survived and made the West team roster.

Making the West squad meant that Swatik had to cancel plans to try to qualify for professional tournaments in Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach. College players are allowed to compete in such tournaments provided they do not play with a pro player and do not get paid.

Swatik is excited about the Festival, although his memories from the 1989 event, when he played for the North squad, are not the most pleasant.

“I remember I really did not get accepted because I was so young,” Swatik said. “I do not know. I think that maybe people were jealous. . . . I do not want to say (guys were) jealous, but . . . I don’t know. I think they may have held a grudge at the beginning.”

The North team finished third in the four-team competition. Still, Swatik said the experience gave him confidence that helped him lead Mira Costa to an undefeated season and the 4-A title.

“Playing against older guys and playing well definitely helped my confidence,” Swatik said. “It really got me ready for my senior year.”

Mike Cook, Swatik’s coach at Mira Costa, noticed the change.

“In the CIF title game in 1989 against Corona Del Mar, Dave did not play really strong and did not do well,” said Cook, whose teams were 43-1 during Swatik’s junior and senior seasons. “It was a big game and a big crowd, and all of that can get to you.

“But after going to the (1989) Festival, the big crowds did not bother him and he had been through any big-game situation you could ask. In the title game, he was awesome. Just an unstoppable force.”

In the 1990 title game, a three-game sweep of Torrance, Swatik had 15 kills, eight blocks and seven digs, and also served for 10 of his team’s 45 points, including a jump serve on match point that caused Scates, watching in the stands, to take notice.

“He was a man among children in that game,” said Cook, who knows of four Mira Costa alumni playing in this year’s Festival. “He just played above everyone else.”

However, when Swatik got to college, everyone was playing at a high level. Scates named sophomore Aleksander Babic as his starter to open the season. For a time, Swatik and Scates thought it might be best for the freshman to redshirt.

“I actually asked to redshirt at the beginning of the year,” Swatik said. “But by the time I had decided that was what I wanted to do, it was too late and I had already played in a match. . . . I asked because for a while I was not playing as well as I thought I could, and I was not used to the new system. . . . But I decided to stick things out, and I’m glad, because in the long run things are fine. But for a while, I really wished I would have redshirted.”

Said Scates: “I really thought we should redshirt (Swatik). But we leave that decision up to the players, and before we made a concrete decision, he had played in a game and then we could not. I remember that David did not want to redshirt.”

Through the early part of the year Swatik was a spot player. In the third game of the season, a four-set victory over Cal State Northridge, Swatik played in one set and converted only two of six kill chances, almost a footnote to the actual match.

“At the beginning of the year, Aleksander was just better,” Scates said. “Things depended on how fast Dave developed. I think his most marked improvement came with his passing. In high school, kids are not asked to pass over half the court, and that’s something you have to do in college.

“I think it was just a matter of him gaining confidence in himself.”

When Swatik did find his place, he made a big impact. According to Scates and Cook, Swatik’s play toward the end of the season helped UCLA make its run. The Bruins won eight of their last 10 games before losing a five-set match to Cal State Long Beach in the national championships qualifying match.

“He turned around their year,” Cook said. “UCLA was ordinary in the first half of the season. Then he starts playing well and all of a sudden they are winning big games.

“A lot of that can be attributed to Dave Swatik. He was responsible for UCLA’s getting that close to winning it all.”

Scates agreed.

“He improved tremendously from the start of the season,” he said. “In every match he was getting better. In the finals against Long Beach State he played tremendously well.”

Against the 49ers, Swatik not only started and played in every game, but led both teams with 17 digs. He also converted 16 of 33 kill attempts.

“I got my confidence back at the end of the year,” Swatik said. “From the UCLA Classic on, I started playing the way I should, playing consistently. It was just because I had more confidence, and I’d like to keep that up. My goal is to play on the National Team or the professional beach tour when I’m done with school.”

Interestingly enough, maybe the best preparation Swatik could get would be in the sand off Marine Avenue.

“Everyone just says, ‘I’m going to come down to Marine Avenue and play,’ ” Cook said. “It has become a good area for pro players. Really, its a mecca for them. . . . You go down and play two-man, tab a court, and just keep on playing.”

According to Cook, the combination of Swatik’s physical talent, college experience and beach savvy will add up to a professional career.

“I would even say you could count and depend on Dave making the professional circuit,” Cook said. “He anticipates other players’ actions so well, I have no doubt he’ll be a big-money guy.”