UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : Love Draws Connolly to Assistant Coach’s Position

A day late, maybe, but here’s a Valentine’s Day story:

Merja Connolly has her volleyball jersey retired at UCLA, plays some pro volleyball in Italy for a few years and then gets the job as women’s coach at Cornell. The Big Red made the National Invitational Volleyball Championship Tournament--volleyball’s version of the NIT--in 1992, her rookie year, and the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history last season.

A woman on the move, sure, but whatever happened to upwardly mobile? Connolly is leaving Cornell . . . to become an assistant at UC Irvine.

So what’s love got to do with it?

Connolly grew up in Southern California and she’s excited about returning home. But she’s really looking forward to returning to the arms of her fiance, Corona del Mar attorney Scott Hanssler.

“I couldn’t imagine I’d love coaching this much and I couldn’t imagine I’d come to love a university this much, but life is too short to feel emptiness,” Connolly said.

“Scott and I have fallen madly in love and I’m not the type of person who needs security so much that they’re afraid to let go of a good thing. It just came down to what’s more important?”

Cornell’s loss figures to be Irvine’s gain. Connolly’s ability as a player and coach and her famous lineage ought to open a few recruiting doors. Her father, Harold (Hal) Connolly, was a gold medalist in the hammer throw during the 1956 Olympics and her mother, Olga Fikotova, won a gold medal for Czechoslovakia in the discus the same year.

Olga Connolly went on to compete in four more Olympics for the United States and was the U.S. flag bearer in Munich in 1972.

Merje (the name is Finnish; she was born in Finland) was captain of the Bruins’ 1984 national championship team and captain of the 1985 U.S. World University Games team. Her chance at making the 1988 Olympic team ended with a heel injury, but she returned to Italy and played two more years.

She says those “bloodlines” have helped her as both a player and a coach.

“Both of my parents, and my father’s new wife, are coaches and I think I learned some very important aspects of coaching from them,” she said. “I think it’s a coach’s job to clear the path so an athlete has to worry only about performing. That goes beyond preparing them physically and mentally to making sure every detail is taken care of.

“I also think I’ve learned by growing up around athletes that you have to deal with them as individuals. We all stress the team aspect, of course, but different people have different needs and respond to different motivations.”

The Big Red responded to Connolly with a 36-21 overall record and two consecutive Ivy League championships. But she isn’t looking back, now.

“I’m compromising freedom, yes, and salary,” she said, laughing, “but I’m also going to work in a conference with the best athletes and the best coaches in the nation. Mike (Puritz, Irvine head coach) and I have known each other since he recruited me out of Culver City High. I’ll have no problem being his assistant and I’m looking forward to a new challenge and a new learning experience.”

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Viva la difference: Asked the difference between the Anteaters who lost seven in a row and the Anteaters who routed Nevada Reno, 99-70, Saturday, Coach Rod Baker said, “guys were just challenged.”

“We didn’t do one thing differently from a technical standpoint,” he said. “We didn’t put in one new thing.”

If it was strictly a matter of effort, why didn’t he challenge the guys earlier?

“I guess I didn’t ask for it in the right way,” he said, “Better yet, I didn’t demand it in the right way.”

Baker held a team meeting Friday, during which he evaluated each player individually. He also reviewed his own performance and was more intense, more animated and more emotional Saturday than he has been all season. The Anteaters seemed to follow Baker’s lead, diving for loose balls and rebounding with reckless abandon.

“Everybody needed to take it up a notch, including me,” Baker said. “I needed to take it up a notch, too. We all had to go like it really meant something.”

Anteater Notes

Is there any such thing as a bad time for momentum? Saturday, Irvine turned in its finest all-around performance since a Dec. 29 upset of Iowa, but now the Anteaters depart on a two-game trip to Las Cruces, N.M., and Las Vegas. New Mexico State and Nevada Las Vegas are a combined 21-2 at home this season . . . Former Irvine All-American water polo player Chris Duplanty, after posing with Sports Illustrated models for the annual swimsuit issue: “It’s the real thing. This isn’t done by funny-shaped lenses. These women are absolutely stunning. I couldn’t sleep for a week.”