Reid Winning All His Battles

Kevin Reid doesn’t look the part, but he could be the most versatile player on the UC Irvine men’s volleyball team.

At 6 feet 1 inch, he’s not the tallest Anteater. He doesn’t hit the ball the hardest, and he’s certainly not the quickest or the best leaper.

But Reid, a fifth-year senior, receives credit from Coach Charlie Brande and his staff for helping the Anteaters get as far as they have in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, considered the nation’s best volleyball conference.

He is used primarily as an outside hitter, but depending on the matchups, can also play middle blocker--as he did at Woodbridge High--or even fill in at libero, a back-row defensive position. Reid is also one of the team’s primary passers.

“He’s done whatever we’ve asked of him,” Brande said, “and he’s done all of it with no complaints.”

Said Travis Turner, an Anteater assistant coach who recruited Reid: “I think he could be one of the best setters in the conference. But we needed Kevin to pass and our starting setter [Cory Hinkle] was back, so there was no reason for him to set.

“He has a great understanding of the game.”

But it came relatively late.

“My dad’s from Scotland, so I learned about darts and soccer,” Reid said. “I played club soccer since the fifth grade, but I didn’t play volleyball until high school.”

George Kuntz, UC Irvine men’s soccer coach, recruited Reid out of high school, where he was a two-sport standout; however, he didn’t qualify academically.

So Reid attended Orange Coast College, where he said he decided to concentrate on volleyball after feeling burned out on soccer. He eventually earned another scholarship from Irvine--this time in volleyball--but encountered difficulties after enrolling.

“In my junior year, we lost our last 13 matches,” Reid said of his first season with the Anteaters. “[Brande] was riding me pretty hard. I didn’t think I would quit, but I was really down.

“And I was neglecting my schoolwork. In fact, I was almost booted out of school.”

Said Brande: “The ball was in Kevin’s court. We laid it all out for him, told him that he was going to be in my office two hours every day studying, things like that. He knew all of the rules and he could have gone one of two ways.

“This time, he followed the rules. He has matured tremendously, learning to apply himself. That’s the biggest growth he’s made and the one I’m most proud of.”

Reid said he is grateful nobody at Irvine gave up on him, on the court or in the classroom. Reid credits Brande, Turner, Jason Bilbruck, another assistant coach; Student Compliance Coordinator Keith Shackleford and his academic advisor, Kathy Messer, for helping him put his scholastic career back on track.

“I owe it all to them,” said Reid, a social sciences major. “After I redshirted one year, I came back with a whole new attitude.”

Reid has a 3.0 grade-point average over the last three quarters, and his volleyball career is also flourishing. But things didn’t start out that way.

“My first year at Irvine was one of the toughest things in my life,” Reid said. “I didn’t know what it was like to go hard, every time. The coaches here are tough, but I’ve learned from them.

“I understand now that when we go up against the UCLAs and the Pepperdines, because we’re obviously not as big and talented as them, we have to do the other things to give ourselves a chance. When our hitters, who are 6-feet, 6-1, are going against 6-7 guys, we have to play smarter.”

Some of Reid’s volleyball education came on the sidelines in 1998, when he was an assistant to Turner for the Balboa Bay Club team. That summer, the team won the boys’ 18s gold medal at the Junior Olympics.

“That experience changed my whole thinking about the game,” Reid said. “You are more mentally tired when you coach. Instead of worrying about just one guy, you’re thinking about where four or all six players should be and what they should be doing.

“I can see why our coaches get so frustrated sometimes. It gave me some insight and it made me realize the importance of being focused and going hard the whole time. That’s the biggest thing I got out of that.”

Said Turner: “In every area, he’s matured as a player . . . and a person.”