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About Me

Every once in a while, you will see or do something that you never thought about before, and you will find you instantly like it. That is what happened to me in 1988 when my daughter made the junior varsity volleyball team at Fairbanks High School. As a dutiful father, I went to her first match. Nothing for me in sports has ever been the same.

I have been a sports fan for as long as I know. My first sport was baseball. In 1954 my father took me to my first baseball game, where I saw the Cleveland Indians clinch the pennant. It would be 40 years until the Tribe would do that again.

For over 30 years I followed baseball, football and basketball. Baseball was always my favorite. I grew up in Ohio, but my team was the Baltimore Orioles. I moved to Maryland in the late 60s, and I saw lots of Orioles games.

I got married, and we moved back to Ohio. When our kids were old enough I coached Tiny Tots and Little League Baseball. That was great fun. But our Little Leaguers moved on to other things. And on a late summer evening in 1988 I was introduced to volleyball.

People have asked me how you can go from baseball to volleyball. Actually the sports have similarities in features that I like. One thing I really enjoy about baseball is that, as Yogi Berra said, “The game ain’t over ‘til its over”. That is the certainly the case in volleyball.

One of the wildest examples I’ve seen of this was a Div III Regional final in 1992 between Otsego and Rockford Parkway. After 45 points Otsego was at match point. Otsego won the match on the 89th point. That translates into a 15-8, 14-16, 19-17 score, with Otsego ahead in Game Two 14-8. I recall the third game as being totally frenetic, with momentum shifts and long volleys. The following weekend Otsego won the State.  

Another thing I like about baseball is that it is a game of precision. The strategy is, as the legendary hitter Wee Willie Keeler put it, “Hit ‘em where they ain’t”. That strategy definitely applies to volleyball where you have to fake defenders, get around blockers and find holes.

In my work I have often had to travel out of state, but wherever I’ve gone I’ve always gotten into the local volleyball. Last fall I was working in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Once there, I learned that I had missed by one year getting to see Oganna Nnamani. She had graduated from University High and gone to Stanford. There she teamed up with Olympic star Logan Tom to lead the Cardinal to the NCAA title. Nnamani is 6’-1” and she can touch 10’-7”. 

I did see Nnamani’s sister Njideka, as well as setter Anne Butts who established a new Illinois record for career assists. The last I heard, Butts was headed to Ohio to play for Kent State.

So as you can see, I am hooked on volleyball, and have been for a long time. I like to know as much as possible about who is doing what. That, and a desire to learn more about web development, has led me to start this website.