Evolution of a Team

Jennifer Holmes Arizona Daily Wildcat Freshman outside hitter Scott Arneson bumps the ball over the net to the Air Force Saturday at Bear Down Gym. The No. 1-ranked team travels to Maryland to take part in the men's club volleyball national championships.

But their hopes were not always this high. There was a time when the team had little organization and no hopes for competing with top teams. To current team members, this was not so long ago.

Junior Nick Thompson can remember what it was like when he first joined the team.

"When I first got here the team was very disorganized," he said. "Compared to this year there has been a complete turnaround."

Five years ago, when the club team was formed, the coaches were unsure how to go about running a top quality men's volleyball program. Life was made even more difficult for the club team because it is subject to different rules and regulations than Division I sports.

Unable to offer any scholarships, the university makes available only $3,000 that is to be used for the national tournament. This forces teams to have fund-raisers to make available the funds they need to travel and to play road games, which are necessary to maintain a competitive schedule.

Early versions of the men's team scraped and scrounged to find money. It is a situation familiar to most club teams at the UA. The club would do just about anything to get together the money to run a successful team. Without the funds to travel to various tournaments across the U.S., the Wildcats could not gain the recognition it needed to play better competition and rise up through the rankings.

Then assistant coach Skip Greenberg discovered a financial edge that he hopes will lead to UA volleyball dominance for years to come. Through family contacts, Greenberg was able to convince some large corporations like Sony to make tax-deductible donations to the team. This not only gave the team its needed funds, but also allowed the team to begin such programs as financial aid and giving stipends to players for rent.

"I can remember when I first got here the team pretty much left you to yourself," Thompson said. "Now they really look after you financially and academically."

Greenberg even found himself having to defend the team against criticism on the part of other club teams.

"We have been accused of buying a championship, but I make all of my money knowledge available to any other team that asks," Greenberg said.

Team members can only hope to improve on the last two years' success. Last year, the team finished in fifth place in the tournament, their best finish ever, losing to the eventual national champion Graceland (Iowa) College.

The previous year the Wildcats lost in the Sweet 16 to Florida. Past teams failed to advance that far.

In his first year as head coach, Steve Carlat has taken this team to new levels and the Wildcats are now poised for a national championship.

Carlat, Utah State men's head coach from 1985-1991 and assistant to the UA women's team since February 1992, brings new attitude to the team.

It is this very attitude that the team hopes will bring them a championship.

"Last year after we lost in the Elite Eight and watched the finals from the sidelines, our players were saying 'we can play with this team,' but didn't have the full confidence," Greenberg said. "This year, now we go out there with full knowledge that we can play with anyone."

Carlat runs his practices on the feeling that as long as he keeps challenging his players, they will be able to come away with victories.

"Player-wise, I feel we have so much talent that as long as we are prepared for a struggle, we can really play with anyone," he said.

After the loss in the Elite Eight, they were ranked No. 4 in the preseason, and talk began of a national championship. This season the Wildcats have maintained the No. 1 ranking for eight straight weeks, going undefeated against club teams. They also had a victory against last year's Division I champion UCLA.

"The feeling here is not we can win, but we will win," Greenberg said.