Weaver Has the 49ers Just Short of Perfect

Many volleyball teams would have been happy with a 24-victory season and an NCAA tournament run to the regional semifinals.

Long Beach State wasn’t last season and among those disappointed was All-American middle blocker Cheryl Weaver.

The 49ers’ five-game loss to Hawaii last December served as a spur for a program used to being at the top in college volleyball.

“The day after we got knocked out in the semifinals, everyone focused on this season,” Weaver said. “We knew we had the ability and the experience. We needed to come back and win it.”

A year’s worth of single-minded focus and a season with the nation’s top all-around player has worked wonders for the 49ers, who begin Thursday night’s NCAA national semifinal against Arizona undefeated and top ranked.

Defending national champion Nebraska and Stanford comprise the rest of the final four that will compete at San Diego State’s Cox Arena.

Long Beach (32-0) is flirting with history.

Two more victories will make the 49ers the third team to complete an undefeated season. Long Beach did it in 1998, then Nebraska did it last year.

Weaver has been the central figure in the 49ers’ amazing season. The 6-foot-2 senior is one of the leading candidates for national player of the year, thanks to an equal ability to dig out an opponent’s kill attempt from the back row and being a force up front either offensively or defensively.

In a program that has turned out six NCAA players of the year, Weaver is among the 49er career leaders in kills, hitting percentage, solo blocks and assisted blocks.

This season, she has a team-best .444 hitting percentage with 4.58 kills a game and 1.16 blocks.

She is expected to earn her third consecutive first-team All-American selection, which would make her only the second player in school history to do that.

Brian Gimmillaro, the 49ers’ 17th-year coach, said Weaver’s ability as a defensive player sets her apart.

Citing the combination of back-row play and offensive prowess, he compared her to former 49er and current U.S. national team player Danielle Scott and former Pacific All-American and Olympian Elaina Oden.

“Her skill level there is extraordinary,” Gimmillaro said. “She is so good in the back row, as well as the front.

“There are some players who are dominating offensively but aren’t quite as strong on the back row. I can only think of those three who are equally good at both.”

Gimmillaro recalled the first time he saw Weaver play.

“She was in the ninth grade and it was in a tournament,” he said. “I just looked at her and thought that she could be our type of player. I saw how she interacted with her team.

“She was a very good athlete but wasn’t very skilled. Yet she was a good kid, a good student who seemed pretty serious about volleyball.”

Sheila Weaver, Cheryl’s mother, could see a passion for the game developing.

Sheila, who has been a high school and club coach around Washington, D.C., the last 20 years, coached Cheryl at Sidwell Friends Prep School.

“She played a lot of sports growing up and she picked up volleyball pretty easily,” Sheila Weaver said. “Since I was a coach, she was always in the gym and she would see the older girls playing. I think that’s where it started.”

Weaver eventually won four letters each in volleyball and basketball, and two in track. She was named to Volleyball magazine’s Fab 50 list and was largely considered the top player in the nation in 1997 with many colleges on her shopping list.

When it was time to decide, the schools that remained were Long Beach State and Florida.

Sheila Weaver said Cheryl noticed how Scott and Tara Cross-Battle, two African American national team players, had developed greatly under Gimmillaro’s tutelage.

“We had talked about what to look for in a college and the main thing was to find the right place, where you could develop as a player and feel comfortable,” Sheila said. “Brian had a history of developing players and helping them reach their potential. Some of them also being African American also helped.

“It really has been the best fit for her.”

Gimmillaro said finding minority players in a sport that remains largely white is a source of pride.

“We’re certainly very lucky to have had great ones come through our program,” he said. “It is just a matter of providing an opportunity and getting exposure.

“We’ve got kids from everywhere and from every background. We’ve got kids that are 5-feet-3 and 6-7. I like kids that have great character and pride. I’m drawn to kids like that whatever color they are.”

Those who know Weaver say her love for the game runs deep. That love was tested last season when injuries to key players and lineup changes led to an off season, by Long Beach standards.

Gimmillaro said his star player often shouldered the responsibility for the team’s successes and failures.

After reaching the 1999 semifinals, she had hoped to play for the 2000 title last season before family and friends in Richmond, Va., a two-hour drive from Washington.

“It was a rough season,” Weaver said. “We weren’t winning. We had all these injuries. It was affecting me off the court too. But I think it let me know how much I enjoy the sport. I need to be around it to feel complete.”

Once her college career ends, Weaver will turn toward becoming a part of the U.S. national team. “That’s been one of my dreams since I was little,” she said.

Gimmillaro believes Weaver will be an ideal candidate.

“If the timing is right, if her health is right and she has dedicated the time, she can become an integral part of the team,” he said. “I can certainly see her starting with Danielle on the national team one day.”

That, though, is in her future. A chance at putting the 49ers beside the Misty May-led 1998 undefeated squad is squarely in the present.

“It’s not so much that we’re trying to do something that [few] others have done,” Weaver said. “We’re just trying to win the title. If it means going undefeated, so be it.

“At this point, we have to go undefeated.”