Family Tradition : Barcelona-Bound Sisters Make Papa Proud

Abe Oden was a heck of a tough volleyball player in his day. He had to be. He was a Marine.

Oden played for his squadron in the 1960s and early ‘70s, scrimmaging other teams in Southern California and when the unit served in Vietnam.

He was a 6-foot-3 left-side hitter, and his kill spikes were one-way tickets--straight down.

“Those matches were very competitive,” Oden recalled. “And we almost always won.”

But Oden quit playing in 1973, and retired from the Marines in 1978. His daughter, Kim, remembers him throwing out three boxes of trophies a few years ago.

“He never much cared for them,” she said. “He had them for everything--volleyball, football, softball, golf. He was a great athlete.”

Just don’t ask Abe about it. After all, his playing days are over, gosh darnit.

“Talk about my daughters,” he said. “This is their day in the sun. I’ve had mine.”

Abe is going to the Olympics this summer to catch that day in the sun. So is his wife, Gwen, daughter Bev and son Mike.

They will be on a plane Saturday to Barcelona, Spain, ready to cheer on Kim and her sister, Elaina, the starting middle blockers for the U.S. Olympic team.

Travel is nothing new to the Oden family. Abe and Gwen have logged thousands of miles on California freeways the past 15 years to watch their daughters play.

First, it was Kim’s club and Irvine High School matches, and later to Palo Alto to watch her at Stanford.

Then came Elaina, and the long drives to Stockton to watch her in the NCAA finals with Pacific.

A few years later was Bev, and more trips to Palo Alto for more Stanford matches.

They’ve been regulars at U.S. national team matches in San Diego since 1987, when Kim joined the squad full time. They watched her play in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

The trip to Barcelona will be twice as nice with Elaina playing. They just wish Bev were playing, too.

There were mixed emotions around the Oden house on June 25, the day the Olympic volleyball rosters were announced.

Abe and Gwen were proud of Kim, who, to the surprise of no one, made her second Olympic team.

They were happy for Elaina, who made the team for the first time. Her bid in 1988 was cut short by a knee injury.

And they felt bad for Bev, who was among the last players cut from the 12-person roster.

Her sisters were upset, too.

“Logically, I can understand the coaches and why they made the decision,” Kim said. “Only 12 people can go, that’s it. But emotionally, it’s hard because I wanted all three of us there.”

Bev handled the news better than Kim and Elaina did. The sisters were attempting to become the first sibling trio to play on the same U.S. Olympic team.

“The day the team was announced, we went to a barbecue at a friend’s house,” Kim said. “Bev was outside laughing and having a good time. She was relieved it was all over. Elaina and I sat inside on the couch and sulked.”

Elaina and Kim understood Bev’s disappointment. Especially Elaina, who knows what it’s like to just miss the Olympics.

After leading Pacific to NCAA titles as a freshman and sophomore, she joined the national team in 1986. She became a force almost immediately, playing in the Goodwill Games and the world championships.

Although she was one of the younger players on the team, she figured to easily make the cut for the Olympics. But a knee injury in 1987 kept her out of the Games, and it cost her a shot at a third NCAA title at Pacific.

Elaina remembered her failure, reminding Bev that she has another season of eligibility remaining at Stanford. The 1996 Olympics were only four years away.

“I was a little disappointed that Bev didn’t make it,” Elaina said. “It was hard for the family, real hard. But it’s a business at this level, and we have to keep it that way.”

Kim maintained a similar attitude in 1987, when Elaina was injured.

“That was the hardest thing Elaina ever went through,” Kim said. “She’s such a competitor, and going to the Olympics was so important to her, that the injury was devastating.”

Kim was named captain of the national team in 1987 and has been ever since. But her Olympic career, like her college career, has been a mixture of success and failure.

She was the leading hitter at the Olympics, but the United States finished seventh out of eight teams. She hit an outstanding .733, but came home without a medal.

She was an All-American at Stanford from 1982-85 and was the NCAA player of the year as a junior and senior. She was later honored as collegiate volleyball’s player of the decade.

The Cardinal was 100-30 with her in the lineup but never won an NCAA title.

“Kim never won,” said Charlie Brande, who coached the sisters in his club program. “She was always second in club and in college, and the Olympic team was down when she was there in 1988.

“I think Kim is a fabulous player and a role model. But the difference between her and Elaina is winning.

“Everything Elaina has ever done, she has won at it. We won four national club titles with her.

“Karch Kiraly has that. He’s never going to let you beat him at anything, whether you’re pitching pennies or playing in the Olympics. Elaina is the same way.”

Abe and Gwen tried not to push volleyball on their four children.

In fact, Abe never gave it much thought until a Marine Corps picnic in 1977, when one of his military buddies saw Kim, a tall, skinny 13-year-old, and suggested that she try playing club ball.

Kim, now 28, was the first of the children to try anything. First to go to school, first to participate in sports.

“I hated volleyball at first,” Kim said. “I had been sitting around the house, and that’s not kosher in the Marine mentality. So dad put me in the car and took me to the club. We fought all the way there.”

After Kim came Elaina (now 25), and Bev (21).

Mike, who’s 23, was a center on Irvine’s basketball team, but didn’t play volleyball until two years ago, when he began attending classes at Christ College Irvine.

“I tried to get him to play volleyball when he was younger,” Abe said, “but I couldn’t. I think he was a little intimidated because his older sisters played it.”

The sisters played for Brande’s Orange County Volleyball teams, one of the most successful clubs in the nation, mainly because of Brande’s intense, demanding practices that sometimes leave his players in tears.

“Half the time, you just want to cry,” Elaina said. “He is all over you. If he sees you are slipping, then he’s really all over you.

“It’s hard at 16 to have someone on you like that. It was worse playing in Orange County Volleyball than on the national team.”

But, as most of Brande’s former players will tell you, Elaina later understood why the coach was so tough on her.

“I would never have been the (NCAA) player of the year if he hadn’t done it,” she said. “I never would have had a shot at the 1988 Olympic team.

“He always told us, ‘If you can get through me, you can get through anything. There’s nothing more demanding now than that was.”

Kim barely survived her first tryout. She showed up wearing cutoff jeans to practice, hardly the duds for the indoor game.

“There were 50 girls there,” she said. “And there I was. I wasn’t dressed like everybody else. I was tall, lanky and I stood out. I was black. Everyone else was white.

“I wanted to look good out there, so, when it came time to hit during drills, I tried to hit it as hard as I could.”

Big mistake. Big embarrassment.

“All I felt was air when I swung,” Kim said. “Then I felt the net. Then the ball came down and bonked me on the head.

“The whole place stopped, all three courts. I just grabbed the ball, ran back, and got in line for the next drill.”

The Oden sisters are among the few black athletes in Orange County who have excelled at volleyball, along with Laguna Beach’s Dain Blanton, Sunny Hills’ Marissa Hatchett and former Southern California Christian player Tara Cross-Battle, also a member of the Olympic team.

Kim said she would like to see more minorities play volleyball. She hopes the sport will someday reach the inner cities, creating opportunities for youngsters just as basketball has.

“People can always get a basketball and go shoot in the inner city, even in a bad neighborhood,” she said. “But with volleyball, you need a ball, net and five other people to play. That’s not always available.”

Volleyball has long been a sport dominated by upper-middle class kids from beach cities who can afford to pay fees, sometimes in the thousands of dollars, to train with the top club teams.

“My family had a hard time paying the club dues with three kids playing,” she said. “It’s expensive, and I feel fortunate that we were able to play.

“There aren’t many opportunities like that with kids in the inner cities. I saw a few (inner-city) teams at the AAU junior nationals, but I would like to see more.”

Brande has known the Oden family almost 14 years, watching the sisters grow from teen-agers into young women.

Kim is a rail-thin 6 feet 3. Elaina is 6-1, stocky with broad shoulders. Bev, 6-2, is nicknamed “Paws” for her long fingers that dwarf the ball.

Kim is outgoing and personable. Elaina, once shy and quiet, has opened up in recent years. Bev talks a mile a minute, but is quiet around people she doesn’t know.

“Kim could be a state senator someday, the way she can charm you with that outgoing personality,” Brande said. “I can remember when Elaina wouldn’t say a word on a bus trip (to a club match). But she’s more open now. I guess being the best blocker in world, that can sort of open your eyes.

“And people are always saying Bev is shy. But once you get to know her, you can’t get her to shut up.”

At Irvine High, Kim led the Vaqueros to the 1981 Southern Section 4-A title and was named the county and section’s player of the year.

Elaina was a freshman on the 1981 Irvine team, and was the section’s player of the year after leading Irvine to the 4-A title in 1984. Bev sparked Irvine to section and State championships in 1987 and ’88.

Besides volleyball, Elaina lettered in basketball, softball and soccer, as well as winning the State shotput championship as a senior.

But volleyball was always the dominant sport in the family. Between the high school and club seasons, the Odens played year-round.

It’s late April, and the Odens are back in Irvine, playing in an exhibition match between the United States and China at the Bren Center.

The crowd of 3,111 is cheering wildly, but for whom?

Huge flags were waving, but not the stars and stripes. Chants of “China, China” smothered shouts of “USA, USA.”

China had the home-court advantage--in the Odens’ hometown.

“This was nothing,” Elaina said after the match. “We’ve had crowds bigger than this in the first two matches (at Fairfax, Va., and West Point, N.Y.) cheering against us.”

But not everyone was cheering against them.

Abe, Gwen and Mike led a small, but boisterous, entourage sitting along the baseline. Mike waved his leather jacket in the air after U.S. rallies. Abe shook his fist. Gwen shouted until she was nearly hoarse.

“People couldn’t believe that was Mike doing that,” Kim said. “He’s usually so quiet. People were saying, ‘Was that really your brother?’ ”

Brande hasn’t coached an Oden in more than three years. But, sometimes, he will look up in the stands before a high school or club match and see a familiar face.

It’s Abe.

“He’s a No. 1 fan,” Brande said. “He’ll show up at a match at Stanford, then at Pacific. He’ll sit up there and watch by himself, minding his own business.

“He comes to high school games to watch some of Bev’s former teammates play. None of his kids are playing, but he still comes to watch.”

And he’ll be watching in Barcelona, too. Only this time, his kids will be playing.