DAVID HARDEN/Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona volleyball coach David Rubio will coach against his brother Keith when the Oregon Ducks come to Tucson tomorrow.

Volleyball coach Dave Rubio faces brother's UO team

Arizona volleyball is a family program ÷ and it all starts at the top with head coach Dave Rubio.

Tomorrow, Rubio's resurgent Wildcats host the Oregon Ducks, whose assistant coach, Keith Rubio, is Dave's brother. Rubio's mother is also coming to Tucson for the match.

Volleyball in the Rubio family started when Dave and Keith's father introduced them to the sport. Dave was 8 and Keith was 10.

"It goes back a ways," Dave said. "Father introduced us to volleyball back when volleyball was nonexistent. Then we were fortunate enough to go to a high school that had boys' volleyball."

Keith joined the Ducks as the recruiting coordinator last year after leading Boise State's recruiting team. He has extensive coaching experience at the club level.

"I was proud that he was assisting at Oregon and happy for him," Dave said.

If hiring the older Rubio turns out as well for Oregon as Dave's hire has for Arizona, the Ducks have it made. In the last four years, Dave has led Arizona to four Sweet

Sixteens, three Elite Eights and a Final Four. The Wildcats have won 12 tournament matches under Dave ÷ two more than their previous 14 tourney appearances combined.

Associate head coach Rita Johnson, who played three years under Dave, during which the UA went to its first two Sweet Sixteen appearances, recalled how he changed the mentality of the program ÷ all the way down to updating its uniforms.

"We were awful," said Johnson, with an emphasis on awful. "We were bad. We weren't disciplined. We were constantly losing. He stepped in here first thing and said, ÎYou guys are going to win.' He went out and made us feel we were important, and then he spent a lot of time and invested a lot of energy into making us better."

In Dave's first season at the UA, Arizona went 10-17, 4-14 in the Pacific -10 conference ÷ an immediate improvement from its 0-18 Pac-10 record in 1991. In 1993, the Wildcats went 20-11, finished a school-high fourth in the Pac-10 and made it to the Sweet Sixteen. Dave was the American Volleyball Coaches Association West Region Coach of the Year.

Dave left for Tucson from Cal State-Bakersfield after making that program one of the winningest in Division II volleyball. In his five seasons there, Dave coached seven All-Americans, led Bakersfield to three consecutive top-five finishes and won the 1989 national championship. He was the ASICS Tiger Coach of the Year in 1989.

Dave said his high school coach, who he also played for in college, was his greatest volleyball influence.

"By far, Walt Ker, my high school coach, (is the) person I still look to for help," he said.

After junior college, Dave was an all-conference and all-state volleyball selection at Cal State-Northridge. He returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach for Northridge's men's team in 1983, and went on to coach the women's team in 1985, which won a national championship.

Dave has recruited well. He had the top-ranked freshman class in 2002. This year's UA freshmen are ranked 12th in the nation.

In his time with the Wildcats, Dave has found a few diamonds in the rough, such as Marisa DaLee. DaLee was a lightly recruited walk-on who became a two-time AVCA All-Region player, was named All-Pac-10 three times and hit a school- and NCAA-leading .437 her senior year.

Senior setter Kelly Griffin-Halfaker transferred to Arizona during the off-season because of Dave's fantastic record.

"He's a really good coach," Griffin-Halfaker said. "He sees things that I've never thought about before, and volleyball's so simple to him that when he explains it, it's kind of like, ÎHow did I never think of that before?' He's very, very smart, volleyball-wise."

Johnson, who played at the UA from 1991 to 1994, has noticed a kinder, gentler Dave in recent years.

"He's a lot more balanced," she said. "Before, it was just volleyball and he would appear (as though) he didn't have compassion or understanding, as you would like.

"Now, he's completely on the other side ÷ perhaps a little soft now ÷ but I just give him a hard time. He's fine," Johnson said, laughing.

The Arizona volleyball family is growing. Dave and his wife Amanda ÷ who is the sister of former Wildcat middle blocker Erin Sebb ÷ had a daughter, Olivia, in January.