Long Beach’s Hilliard Answers Call and the 49ers Are No.1 Because of It : Volleyball: Senior teammates persuade him to leave the U.S. national team to return to campus.

A restless Brent Hilliard threw the covers off of his 6-foot-5 frame, climbed out of bed one morning last December and made the most critical decision of his young volleyball career. Ending weeks of indecision, he telephoned Cal State Long Beach Coach Ray Ratelle.

“Coach,” Hilliard, 22, remembers saying simply, “I’m coming back.”

The announcement surprised a lot of volleyball experts. By quitting the men’s national team, the most valuable player at last year’s NCAA final four was jeopardizing an opportunity to play for the United States in the Barcelona Olympics, a dream he cherished.

But with Hilliard, a junior All-American hitter, Long Beach became an instant favorite to defend the national title it won last year with a 3-1 victory over USC.

Hilliard, who didn’t begin playing volleyball until his junior year at Dana Point’s Dana Hills High, is the best collegiate player in the nation. He set an NCAA record of 821 kills last year, ranks second in NCAA history in kills for a career and is second in the nation in kills this season, percentage points behind Stanford hitter Dave Goss.

“Without him, we could have been a contender,” 49er middle blocker Alan Knipe said. “But with him, we felt we’d be the best in the nation.”

Hilliard opened the season January 17 with 42 kills during a 3-1 victory over UCLA. He has led the 49ers in kills 23 times, including a season-high 46 against Cal State Northridge last Friday. Two weeks ago, he turned in perhaps his finest match of the season, getting 30 kills in leading the visiting 49ers to the WIVA Wilson Division title over No. 2 Stanford, 3-1.

But until he awoke that day last December, even Hilliard couldn’t tell you if he would be around to amass those statistics.

“It was a very late decision, a very huge decision,” he said. “It was the most difficult decision I have made in my life.”

Invited to train with the national team’s B squad during the summer of 1990 after an outstanding freshman year at Long Beach, Hilliard broke into the starting rotation on the A squad last September as an outside hitter when former USC All-American Bryan Ivie was moved to middle blocker. Hilliard went on to lead the team in assists as the United States won 11 of its final 12 matches.

Hilliard did not return to Long Beach for fall classes, choosing to take advantage of a little-known NCAA educational leave policy that allowed him to continue training in San Diego without losing collegiate eligibility.

As registration time for the spring semester approached, however, Hilliard’s parents, Mary Louise and William, advised their son to make up his mind. They told him that they would live with whatever decision he made, but hoped that he would return to school to earn a degree in international studies.

Hilliard’s heart leaned toward playing volleyball another season with his collegiate buddies and getting on with his education. But his head was with the national team. He let the decision hang for months.

In early December, after a meeting with national team Coach Fred Sturm, Hilliard was about to announce that he was staying with the team when he got a phone call from 49er hitter Patrick Sullivan and Knipe.

Said Sullivan: “I told him that this was my senior year, that he had good friends here (in Long Beach) and that I felt like I was getting cheated, not getting to play with a good player and a good friend in my senior year.

“He got upset with me about that. . . . I got the impression he was staying with the national team.”

Knipe, however, said he and Sullivan told Hilliard what they had to.

“A lot of people let it go unsaid to him for a long time because we wanted him to make the decision by himself. Well, we took that approach too long.”

Then came that chilly morning shortly thereafter when something clicked in Hilliard’s head.

“I have no regrets whatsoever,” he said. “I woke up one morning and called Ray. I told him I felt obligated to come back to Long Beach.”

That Hilliard was even in a position to make a choice between a college scholarship and playing for the national team is astounding to many. In 1984-85, as a sophomore at Dana Hills, he quit basketball and his first love, baseball, because he was “burned out” on sports.

He had second thoughts as a junior and started on the Dana Hills basketball team. He played volleyball for the first time, but rode the bench.

“He was really young and raw as a volleyball player,” Dana Hills Coach Oz Simmons said. “But he was a neat kid all the way around. He would do everything you asked of him.”

As a senior in 1987, Hilliard was voted All-Southern Section in volleyball, but received little interest from four-year schools.

A frustrated Hilliard did not want his parents to pay for his schooling, so he chose not to play volleyball and went to Humboldt State where an older brother, Brian, attended.

“I wanted to gain my independence,” he said. “I wanted to get away from home. I’m sure every 18-year-old wants to do that.”

At Humboldt State, Hilliard joined a volleyball club and shopped around for a collegiate scholarship. He thought he had landed one at George Mason in Fairfax, Va., but a visit there turned him off.

“I walked to their volleyball practice with six feet of snow on the ground,” he said. “I was not used to that environment.”

In January of 1989, while playing in a club tournament at UC Santa Barbara, Hilliard caught Ratelle’s eye.

“I saw a kid that had a lot of physical talent, a lot of athletic ability and a good right arm,” Ratelle said. “But I thought no way in the world would he end up as good as he has become.”

Nevertheless, when Ratelle heard through the grapevine that Hilliard had approached UC Irvine about transferring there, he called Hilliard and offered him a full scholarship.

Hilliard’s progress in the game has been phenomenal.

Sturm said: “What catches my eye about him is that he is relatively young, new to the sport, yet he has come such a long way.”

Sturm said Hilliard will be given a fair shot later this spring at winning back his spot on the national team, currently held by veteran Bob Samuelson. But it won’t be easy.

“He’s going to get a tryout,” Sturm said. “Just like everyone else, he’ll be battling for a position.”

As for a shot at making the Olympic team, Hilliard said he would be disappointed if he failed.

“But I’m young,” he said. “There’s always 1996.”

And, of course, his senior season next year with the 49ers.