He Learns About Needles, Knows About Spikes

Bill Stetson could just as well be spending his time at the beach, refining his volleyball skills. Instead he is spending it in a micro-vascular lab repairing a rat’s blood vessels.

“I was sharpening my surgical skills with a surgeon from Yugoslavia,” he said.

Stetson, a setter on Team Paul Mitchell of the Budweiser four-man beach volleyball tour, is in the fifth year of residency as an orthopedic surgeon at USC Medical Center. Lab time is a bonus.

Stetson usually works 36-hour shifts in the hospital’s emergency room, where teen-agers with bullet wounds are late-night regulars and 10-hour sessions in the operating room are commonplace.

Playing volleyball is a big treat for the former Torrance High graduate and USC All-American.

Stetson acknowledged it would be nice to spend weekends at home instead of on the road playing volleyball, but the change in atmosphere does him good.

“It’s therapeutic to get away to the beach,” Stetson said. “They’re totally different worlds. This is a far cry from Manhattan Beach. I work with the indigent population. Those beggars you see on the street, those are my patients.

“One day I’m playing on TV in front of 5,000 people and a kid will ask for my autograph between games, and the next day I’m in (the emergency room) taking care of some kid who got shot.”

This weekend, Stetson, 33, will compete in a $35,000 tournament in Hermosa Beach. The five-team event begins at 10 a.m. Saturday on courts next to the pier. The final is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Stetson stays in shape by running and training with weights. The lack of practice hasn’t made a difference in Stetson’s play, according to teammate Steve Rottman.

“His game is still fine,” said Rottman, an outside hitter who was a teammate of Stetson’s at USC. “He’s an experienced setter and a very consistent player so he still sets real well. That’s not to say that if he played more he wouldn’t be a little bit sharper.”

Even on weekends, when volleyball is supposed to take priority, Stetson finds time to devote to his profession.

“Last week he was reading a medical journal while everyone was relaxing under an umbrella, having a beer,” Rottman said.

Because of his work schedule, Stetson tries to use free time productively. Colleagues warned him long ago that medicine and volleyball don’t mix.

“People in medicine said I would never be able to do both,” Stetson said. “I can do both, but it’s a real challenge. Slowly I’ve cut down my volleyball.”

Stetson, who was a 1978 All-Southern Section setter at Torrance, also played basketball.

He competed on the U.S. junior national volleyball team before playing at USC, where he was named an All-American as a senior in 1982.

Between two breaks at USC Medical School, Stetson played in a German indoor pro league. He also spent three summers competing on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals two-man beach tour.

Stetson also led a Torrance-based indoor team to five consecutive United States Volleyball Assn. championships. He was named a USVBA All-American and most valuable player.