Fitzgerald Proves to Be Good Fit at UCLA

Life wasn’t bad for Tom Fitzgerald. After losing his job as coach of Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew last year, he and his wife, Debi, returned to their native Tampa, Fla., area and found a house in suburban Clearwater just a field length away from the beach. Debi opened an antique and consignment store. Meanwhile, the coach got his real estate license and wasn’t chasing potential job openings.

“We were going to be fine,” Fitzgerald, 51, said. “We were going to be happy.”

Fitzgerald stayed close enough to the sport to monitor the latest soccer news. He read the stunning announcement of Todd Saldana’s forced resignation from UCLA in January. A former coach at the University of Tampa, he thought about returning to the college game.

UCLA never came up in his thought process, though. That changed when Associate Athletic Director Betsy Stephenson called. “In life, you never know what’s going to happen,” Fitzgerald said. “You’ve got to be ready for just about anything.”

Fitzgerald got the job in March over a group of finalists that included former U.S. national team coach Steve Sampson and current Loyola Marymount Coach Paul Krumpe. It was a surprise move that Fitzgerald still wonders about. At the time, Sampson said he was “very disappointed with their decision.”

“I thought I would be the underdog,” Fitzgerald said of competing against two UCLA alumni. “Steve had a tremendous reputation as a coach and a great resume. To be honest with you, I wasn’t sure I’d get the job.”

The transition has been seamless. The UCLA men won their first four games and are ranked third in this week’s National Soccer Coaches Assn. of America poll. On Sunday, the Bruins scored a 3-1 victory over recent nemesis San Diego, which had defeated them in each of the last two seasons.

Fitzgerald takes the easygoing approach. He observes more than he talks. At times, he jokes more than he instructs. Jorge Salcedo, the former UCLA star and Galaxy player who has been an assistant the last two years, said that approach worked immediately with the players.

“From one to 28, he makes the guys feel like they can run through walls for him,” Salcedo said. “It isn’t just the first six or seven top players on the team.... I think Tom creates an environment where everybody feels good about their personal game.”

Senior midfielder Ryan Futagaki said the Bruins quickly warmed to this outsider.

“At the end of spring, [Tom] told us the style he wanted us to play and then he let Jorge go ahead and coach us,” Futagaki said. “He wasn’t going to come in and just start taking command and saying this is his team.”

The transition was foremost on Fitzgerald’s mind. Saldana was successful at UCLA, going 60-21-5 in four years as both the men’s and women’s coach. He led the Bruin men to the NCAA semifinals in 1999. But the school decided it would not pick up his contract after learning that he had a degree from an unaccredited university.

Some didn’t agree with the athletic department’s decision. Many felt abandoned. Uneasy feelings reigned.

“I was a little concerned,” defender Scot Thompson said. “You don’t like having a coaching change going into your senior year.”

Salcedo said there were tough days after the announcement. “It was difficult,” he said. “Some of the guys had been with Todd for the last three years. In the end, when you’re no longer part of something and the group changes, you feel a certain sadness and disappointment.

“In saying that, though, things like that happen in life and you have to go on.”

Thompson said the positive atmosphere surrounding the Bruins these days comes from Fitzgerald and his decision to keep the coaching staff intact, from Salcedo to goalkeeper coach Peter van de Ven and volunteer coach Jose Lopez.

In turn, Fitzgerald wants to keep his team unified, something that Futagaki said hasn’t always been the case with other talented teams in previous years.

“We have competition at every position,” Fitzgerald said. “I want guys to be mad when they’re not playing because that motivates guys to train harder.

“I wasn’t really concerned about what happened in the past, and I told the guys that. All I care about is what we do from here on out.”

The only thing that could have made the beginning of his UCLA coaching career better would be finding another place by the beach.

“I drive by there every so often, though,” he said. “Boy, the real estate is high.”

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For the first time in almost 18 years, the USC women’s volleyball team is ranked No. 1 in the nation by the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. The Trojans (6-0), who sit atop both the AVCA and Volleyball magazine polls, were last ranked No. 1 by AVCA on Oct. 16, 1984.... UCLA moved up to 11th in the national women’s cross-country rankings. The Bruins, who will run today in Hawaii, finished second to Stanford at the Fullerton Invitational on Aug. 31.