Coach Gets the Job Done His Way, Like It or Not

We all remember a teacher who drove us nuts.

The math instructor who saw life as a never-ending quadratic equation; the English professor who reveled in the proper use of a semicolon; the biology teacher who gave you so much lab work you had nightmares about freshly dissected frogs pounding down your door late at night, seeking revenge.

These were the teachers you loved to hate. They were demanding, ruthless. They handed out homework as if it were leftover Halloween candy.

But strangely enough, you came to respect them. Maybe it took a year or two or 10, but you started to appreciate their efforts, came to realize they were only doing what they had to do to expand your mind. Because--let’s face it--who’d ponder a parabola without a push?

This, of course, applies not only to academics but athletics. And the Laguna Beach High School girls’ volleyball team is a case in point.

The Artists have a new coach this year. His name is Michael Soylular. He coached the Laguna Beach boys to a league title last spring in his first season as a high school coach.

Not that Soylular’s new to coaching. He had 11 years of college coaching experience before coming to Laguna Beach. He coached at Arkansas Little Rock for five years and went 124-25. He was also an assistant at Wichita State, Cal Poly Pomona and Virginia.

In addition, Soylular, 34, a native of Istanbul, Turkey, played professional volleyball in Europe for four years, was coached by a master, three-time Bulgarian Olympian Kosta Chopov, and has a master’s degree in sports administration.

So can Soylular cut it as a high school coach or what?

Depends on whom you ask. Some see Soylular as a business-like professional, intent on doing everything he can to prepare his players. Others say he is rigid and distant and, because of that, tough to understand.

But let the Artists paint the picture.

Assistant coach Bill Christiansen says Soylular is the No. 1 reason Laguna Beach has had its best volleyball season in nearly a decade. Christiansen, the team’s head coach for one year (1987), credits Soylular for leading the Artists to the Orange County Championships, the Southern Section 5-A title and the top seeding in this week’s Southern California regional playoffs. (With a 3-0 victory over Bakersfield Tuesday night, Laguna Beach improved to 23-2).

Scott Terry, a lower-level coach, says Soylular can be extremely firm in his coaching beliefs, but he’s also very fair. And those are important qualities when dealing with teen-age girls, especially those whose egos have been cultivated over years of club competition.

But some of the players don’t see Soylular as the key. In fact, a few give him no credit at all. They say their success was the result of a strong team bond, one developed after hours of talks, after weeks of conflicts. They say Soylular was responsible for their unity: they didn’t feel close to him, so they became closer to each other.

They say Soylular inspired many mutinous thoughts.

How so?

--By asking the players to accept his strategies.

--By asking them to focus.

--By kicking them out of the gym when they wouldn’t.

--By refusing to cave in to the wants and wishes of pampered players.

--By asking them not to chew gum or wear watches during practice.

“I still don’t think the girls figured me out,” Soylular says. “They’re like, ‘Is he nice? Is he crazy? Is he nuts? What is he?’ ”

What Soylular is, off the court at least, is a soft-spoken, charming man who is deadly serious about coaching volleyball. He admits there were player revolts this season--starting setter Shauna Shapiro nearly quit the team--and he says he wonders if he’s too stern sometimes.

But he won’t change, he says. Coaching is not a popularity contest, and he doesn’t care whether he gets any credit for the Artists’ success. He just does everything he can to better his team--his way. He has his principles. He has integrity. He has an intensely competitive nature.

He also has a dry sense of humor, a desire to open his own restaurant (Michael’s Bistro, he’d call it) and a flair for making cherries jubilee (something he mastered as a waiter on a cruise ship).

But this is a side of him he sees no reason to reveal--at least not to his players.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know if the girls care for me or what,” he says. “I care for them, for their welfare. And I want them to be happy. It was so exciting to win CIF. I mean, it was great, they were thrilled. . . .

“But I feel there has to be a gap. There has to be that distance between the coach and the player. Maybe in a year or so they’ll appreciate me. Or maybe never.”

Or maybe now. The sooner the better.