No Blocking It Out

A presence is missing from the UC Irvine men’s volleyball team this season. Yet, a reminder is there.

All Josh Richardson has to do is look at his uniform to see his father’s initials. But that isn’t necessary to remember the man.

“He’s always in my mind,” said Richardson, a senior middle blocker. “He was such a big part of my life and a big part of volleyball for me.”

Rick Richardson died in November of a ruptured aorta at age 54. It was stunning to his son and those who knew him. Rick was athletic and vibrant, and he attended nearly every Irvine game last season.

Josh Richardson plays a game his dad had enjoyed for recreation and as a spectator.

“He got me into my first game,” Josh said. “I was 15 and it was a rec league where you had to be 16. But he finagled it so I could play.

“It’s still really tough. But I know my dad would want me to go out there and play as hard as I could. He is even more of an inspiration for me [now].”

How much he meant to the Anteaters is evident by the fact that each player will wear Rick Richardson’s initials on his uniform.

“Before Josh even came to UCI,” Coach Charlie Brande said, “this guy in an aloha shirt came up to me, with a big smile, and said, ‘My son is coming to play for you next year and I’m going to be at every match.’ He was really impressive. Josh is the same way. He’s an awesome kid.”

So much so that Brande arranges Friday and Saturday practices around Richardson’s work schedule. Richardson is a waiter at a Newport Beach restaurant and, as Brande said, “I don’t want him to miss the big tip nights.”

Such is the effect Richardson has on teammates and coaches, which is why he was named team captain this season.

“His type of leadership is essential for a volleyball team,” Brande said. “When we scrimmage in practice, the team he is on plays better. Then we’ll switch him to the other team, and that team will play better. Even his sense of humor is competitive. When you’re joking with him, he always has to one-up you.”

Opponents, typically 6 feet 8 or taller, soon learn about the competitive drive of Richardson, who claims to be 6-4.

“He’s 6-4 . . . on a good day . . . wearing lifts,” assistant coach Jason Bilbruck said.

Yet . . .

“With his speed, by the time those big dopey guys get their hands up, Josh has already hit the ball,” Bilbruck said.

It isn’t quite that easy.

“I rely on quickness,” Richardson said. “I know I’m not big enough to get the huge block like those 6-9 guys do. I just try to get a touch of the ball and let the defense do the rest.”

Richardson always seems to downplay his abilities. Even now, as a fifth-year senior, he still has that pinch-me-I-must-be-dreaming feeling. He says he never saw a future in volleyball.

“I have always been surprised,” Richardson said. “I guess it’s because I knew that, at 6-4, I was too small to play middle blocker [in college]. I never learned to play another position and I never thought a coach would want someone so small.”

He was wrong, and his father knew it.

Rick Richardson, a ceramics teacher at a continuation school in Placentia, had a passion for volleyball. Still, he never insisted his son play.

In fact, Josh Richardson was on the sailing team as a freshman at Newport Harbor High. The two had moved from Corona the year before and Josh was looking to fit in.

“We came from an area that had never heard of volleyball,” Josh said. “I met a guy who was on the sailing team and I decided to try it. It wasn’t very fun. Volleyball was at the same time, so the next year, I tried that. I could definitely tell my dad was happy.”

Richardson was a standout player on a talented Newport Harbor team and was later a two-time All-Orange Empire Conference selection at Orange Coast College.

Still, he didn’t completely believe in his abilities.

“The coach at OCC contacted me and wanted me to come out for the team, but I wondered if I could make it,” Richardson said. “I never thought I was good enough to play Division I. [Irvine assistant coach] Travis Turner kept coming to my games and talking to me. That got me really excited . . . that there was someone out there who really wanted me to play for their team.”

Richardson helped the Anteaters finish with their best record, 14-11, last year. They even qualified for the conference tournament for the first time. This season begins tonight when they open the Wyndham West Coast Challenge at UCI against Pacific.

Richardson’s volleyball career was going so well and then it wasn’t. Last summer, his father had heart troubles and spent time in the hospital. He seemed to be on the mend when he suddenly died in November.

Irvine players wore aloha shirts to the funeral. Many of Rick Richardson’s students were there too. Some spoke about what Richardson had meant to them.

Said Josh Richardson: “I realized how much he touched their lives.”

Almost as much as he touched his son’s.

“My dad gave me the basics in this game and then handed me over to my coaches,” Richardson said. “He was my biggest fan. He was always there for me.”

And still is. On his jersey and in his mind.

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College Volleyball

What: Wyndham West Coast Challenge

When: Tonight and Saturday

Where: UC Irvine’s Crawford Hall

Tickets: All-sessions pass, adults $12; youths, students and seniors $8; UCI students and children under 5 free. Single session, adults $5, youths, students and seniors $3.

Schedule: Friday, Pacific vs. UC Irvine, 5 p.m.; Long Beach State vs. UCLA, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, UC Irvine vs. Long Beach State, 9 a.m.; UCLA vs. Pacific, 11:30 a.m.; Long Beach State vs. Pacific, 5 p.m.; UC Irvine vs. UCLA, 7:30 p.m.